In this ground-breaking study, sherali tareen offers the most comprehensive account of the longest running dispute in modern Islam: the barelvi–deobandi polemic. The barely and deobandi groups are two normative orientations with beginnings in colonial South Asia two hundred years ago, yet their differences haunt the religious sensibilities of South Asian Muslims today. Tareen challenges those who see intra-muslim contest through the prism of liberal-secular binaries like legal/mystical, moderate/extremist, and reformist/traditionalist. He argues that the barelvi–deobandi polemic was animated by “competing political theologies” – contrasting visions of the normative relationship between divine sovereignty, prophetic charisma, and the practice of everyday life. Based on a close reading of unexplored print and manuscript sources in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, his book intervenes in Islamic studies, South Asian studies, and political theology. “... Beautifully written in a language accessible for students and colleagues... If you can only read three books on Islam in South Asia, defending mu?ammad in modernity needs to be one of them.” margrit pernau, Max Planck Institute “no book offers a richer, more illuminating guide to the origins and the complex theological relationship of the barely and the deobandi orientations... [A] remarkably accessible study...” Muhammad Qasim zaman, Princeton.