Between Creator and the Uncreated

Abstract

This article explores the theological and polemical responses of the nineteenth-century Indian Muslim scholar Muḥammad Qāsim Nānautavī (d. 1980) to the emerging Hindu reformist movement Arya Samaj. Through a close reading of his treatise Javāb-i Turkī ba Turkī (A Fitting Reply), this article analyses how Nānautavī critiqued Arya Samaj's conception of monotheism and highlights what he argued to be its underlying polytheistic inconsistencies. The article situates this polemic within the broader context of interreligious debates in colonial India, highlighting the intellectual dynamics between Islamic and Hindu reformist thought. It further advances the scholarly understanding of Islamic theology, historical discourse, and polemical engagement in the late nineteenth century.