The Deobandi `Ulama' of Jami`at al-`Ulum al-Islamiyya located in the largest city of Pakistan, Karachi, began publishing an Urdu, monthly journal by the name of Bayyinat in 1962 for the expressed purpose of refuting the views and arguments of their opponents, and hence as a vehicle for asserting their religious identity and authority. The case of Bayyinat provides us with an opportunity to study an important and hitherto little considered phenomenon in Islamic modernity, namely, the intervention by the `ulama' to assert traditional claims to religious authority through the modern medium of print journalism in the context of the post-colonial nation state of Pakistan. The present work seeks to examine how the journal was utilized by the `ulama' in constructing their religious authority and to engage in the refutation of the two most prominent twentieth century personalities, Fazlur Rahman and Sayyid Abu'l `Ala Mawdudi.

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