Islam
The third and youngest member of the family of Abrahamic religions, Islam (‘submission to the will of God’) dates back to 622 AD, when its originator, the Prophet Muhammad (571–632 AD) migrated from his native city of Mecca . (in Arabia), where he did not get the support he wanted in Medina. In the latter city he founded the first-Islamic state. He accommodated resident Jews and Christians in it, as they too were considered to be in possession of divinely revealed books of knowledge and, therefore, entitled to protection.
The basic tenets of religious belief and practice among Muslims (the ‘presenters’) are clear and universally binding. They must accept the oneness of God and the status of the Quran as the word of God. Furthermore, they must believe in the angels and messengers of God (of whom Muhammad was the most perfect and therefore the last); and on the last day, when God will judge the actions of one and all, and send the pious to heaven and the sinners to hell (see Rahman 1979).
In addition, every true Muslim must recite the creed (kalma, ‘world’), which affirms the oneness of God and the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood; perform daily prayer (namaz) at the appointed time; observe the annual month of day-long fasting (roza) to burn away sins, give alms (zakat); And, if circumstances allow it, go on a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) to stay there on Idul-Adha. (The day is generally believed to commemorate Ibrahim (Abraham)’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God’s command). It is noteworthy that for the destruction of disbelief among Indian Muslims and for the propagation of Islam
Waging war (jihad) is not included in the obligations of Muslims, as is done in many Muslim countries.
However, Islam is more than the foregoing and other similar fundamental principles.
Everywhere it contains much that is local and pre-Islamic, whether in the Arabian heartlands or in distant places such as India. Students of Islam have commented on this internal tension due to its character as a world religion that does not accept any variation (for example, daily prayers are said everywhere in Arabic) and its regional, country-specific nature. or with national characteristics, for example, the worship of saints and relics, which is common in India.
It is widely believed among South Asian Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad himself wanted to bring the people of India into the universal Islamic community (ummah). Since Arab traders already had contact with India’s western seaboard since pre-Islamic days (the Mappilas of Kerala were born of mixed marriages of Arab men and Malayali women), they may have been the first bearers of the new faith to the subcontinent. Islam arrived here as a political force in 712 CE, when Sindh was conquered and incorporated by the Umayyad Caliphate. With the new rulers came their advisors on matters related to the Muslim sacred law, the Shari’a (see Ahmad 1964; Mujib 1967).
The number of immigrants was naturally not large, and they were strangers who knew neither the culture, language and religion of Sindh (both Buddhism and Hinduism were present) nor the prevailing system of governance. Native support was necessary under these circumstances, but this in turn led to a conciliatory attitude towards the Indians, w
Which included assurances that there would be few restrictions on non-Islamic religions overall. However, in the context of strict Islamic orthodoxy, these religious can only be said to be ignorant (jahlat, wrong belief). The long-term consequences of this initial compromise made for reasons of state were twofold: first, it laid the foundation for a multi-religious polity in which Islam and Indian religions co-existed, much to the chagrin of the custodians of orthodoxy. , Second, it sowed the seeds of an Indian Islam, which incorporated Indian cultural traits and forms of social organization (particularly caste).
By the time of the major invasions of political Islam into India with the invasions of King Mahmud of Ghazni in the early years of the eleventh century, two types of religious specialists became prominent. These were the Ulema (doctors of Sharia or sacred law) and the Sufis, (mystics seeking direct religious experience). The ulama urged the kings to uphold Shari’ah and be vigilant on behalf of their religion rather than being tolerant of other misguided religions. One such outstanding medieval scholar, Zia India-Din Barani (c. 1280-1360 AD) was of the opinion that Muslim kings could not become a refuge for Islam until they completely destroyed disbelief, polytheism and idolatry. Would have done If the king could not actually destroy the unbelievers (for they are many), he should certainly deprive them of authority and honor, he advised. However, such extremist views never became common among the ulema or those ascending in ruling circles. The ulama actually split into two categories: while some of them confined themselves to their special duties and remained aloof from statecraft, others opted for a closer relationship with the kings. The latter supported the actions of rulers even when these were based on statecraft rather than true faith as interpreted by the ulama.
Islam spread to all corners of India, less through occasional coercion and violence from the kings, and more through the generally peaceful efforts of the Ulema and Sufis. Other factors also contributed (directly or indirectly) to this phenomenon, in areas of mass conversion, particularly in eastern Bengal (or what is today Bangladesh) and the Kashmir Valley. It is notable, however, that at the time of Partition in 1947, after 800 years of Muslim rule, no more than a quarter of all India’s people (400 million) were Muslims. In the Gangetic Valley, where Muslims overwhelmingly supported the demand for Pakistan, fewer than two out of every ten Indians accepted Islam.
When Islam reached India, it was already marked by divisions of various kinds. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself predicted that there would be more sects (farqah) in Islam than the Children of Israel, but they would all be sent to hell by God. Those who follow his words and deeds and his close companions are the ones who will be saved (Naziyyah). They came to be called Sunni (Sunnat, the customary way of life) or traditionalists or traditionalists, and account for a large number of Indian Muslims. Their opponents are the Shias (‘followers’), who came into existence after Muhammad’s death as partisans of Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, whom they regarded as the legitimate successor (caliph) and leader (imam). However, it was not Ali, but Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, who was chosen, resulting in a Sunni-Shia split that still leads to violence in both India and Pakistan today.
Apart from the Shias it is the Sufis who are ostracized by the traditionalists. By claiming Ali as one of the founders of Sufism (Tasawwuf)
f A relationship has been sought to be established. According to another view, the Arabic philosophy derived from the teachings of al-Ghazali (1058–1111 AD) was absorbed into Islam as a mystical theology, but it traces back to Sufism in the late fifth century of Islam. Is.
Some scholars, including the famous early medieval historian al-Biruni (973–1048 AD), found parallels between some of the core ideas of Sufism and the Brahmanical philosophy of yoga, or magical system. In fact, it has been suggested that Abu Yazid Taifur (d.874) of Iran, who was a key figure in the development of Sufism, may have learned the principles of Brahmanical and Buddhist mysticism from Abu Ali of Sindh, who himself converted to Sindh. Islam. Be that as it may, two general observations can be made. First, a large number of Indian elements are recognizable in Sufism in India, but only some of these are pure borrowings, others being adaptations of classical Islamic Sufi thought to the Indian cultural milieu. Second, Sunni orthodoxy has always drawn attention to both Shias and Sufis (see Rizvi 1978, 1982). Four major worldwide Sufi schools—namely Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suhrawardi—are present in India. In addition, there are many local or
Descendants of Fakirs and Dervishes: While some of them are seriously devout; Devotion to higher spiritual goals, among others, which is often given to a variety of excesses, including drug abuse, is highly questionable. In the former, it probably refers to the Rishi order of the Kashmir Valley (see Khan 1994).
Islam was brought to Kashmir, it is generally believed, by the Kubrawi Sufi Sayyid Ali Hamdani in the late fourteenth century, but his efforts seem to have been limited to a small group of new converts in the city of Srinagar, including the Sultan . It was Sheikh Nuruddin (1379-1442 AD), the founder of the Risha school, who took this new faith to the masses. His success is due not only to his affable nature and peaceful methods of preaching, but also to his familiarity with and adaptation to the ideas and practices of the prevailing Brahmanical religions (Kashmir Shaivism). His choice of the name Rishi (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘seer’) for his order is a revelation in itself. He adopted vegetarianism for himself and his followers out of compassion for animals thus ending the universal Muslim practice of animal sacrifice.
While some historians have written about two types of Sufism in Kashmir, immigrant and native, or classical and folk, others have denied the existence of this dichotomy, pointing out that Sufis of the Suhrawardi order and even The Kubravais befriended and praised the sages. According to the latter, the rishis’ very rootedness in the old religious traditions of Kashmir, combined with their exposure to the ideas of classical Sufism, made them ideal agents of Islamization of the Kashmir masses. It is notable that Nuruddin claimed the authority of Islam as the de facto founder of his order, establishing himself at least conceptually in Sharia, the ‘highway’ of Islam.
It is not the Sufis alone who have contributed to the culture of religious diversity in Indian Islam. The reputedly more strict ulama have done the same. Thus, at the end of the nineteenth century these three groups of doctors of the sacred law of Islam differed from each other by major issues (such as matters of faith and law) as well as smaller ones (including the nuances of everyday life). led communal movements. The most influential of these were the ulema of a famous seminary called Darul Uloom in Deoband (founded in 1867) in northern India. Their educational program was also based on a traditional curriculum and was opposed to the innovations and accommodations of Western science that characterized the efforts of the modernists at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (founded in 1874) at Aligarh.
Apart from the Deobandi, two other major reformist groups were
The Ahl-i-Hadith (‘people of tradition’) and the ulama of Bareilly, known as Barelvis, were opposed to the other two groups. Their disputes invoked one or the other of the four recognized schools of Islamic law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali), but the Hanafi school has always been the dominant one in India.
Finally, mention should be made of the Ahmadiyya sect, which was formally declared heretical and therefore a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan in 1974. Its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839–1908), was born in Qadian, a village in northern Punjab. , Not trained as a Sufi, he was a law clerk by profession. He also claimed to be the recipient of divine revelation and therefore the Messiah (Mabdi) promised to Muslims. Although Ahmad did not dispute the Islamic belief in closure of prophecy with Muhammad, he insisted that he belonged to a line of secondary prophets. Inspired and influenced by the work of Christian missionaries and the activities of the Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj movement, he organized his response along similar lines and gathered considerable followers. A sect called Ahmadiyya, or Qadiani, is recognized as Muslim in India, but it is actually
Surviving on tolerance.
At the end of the lesson we will argue that religion in India is an ideology of pluralism. The state has no religion. But it respects all the religions of the country on an equal footing. The state has no ill will towards all these religions. Tolerance is the guiding spirit of the Indian nation-states and is called secularism. Hinduism tolerates by incorporating Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In fact, for example, marriages in Jainism and Sikhism are parts of the wider Hindu religion. Nation building has been developed in India by adopting such a policy towards other religions.