PAKISTAN AFFAIRS VI

SHEIKH AHMED SIRHINDI
SOCIAL NCONDITIONS OF INDIA:

The social conditions of Muslims in India were constricting. The enforcement of Den-e-Ellahi badly affected the Muslim fundamentalism and their spirit towards Islam.
Politically, Akbar’s concept f sovereignty such as Din-e-Ellahi made all attack on Islamic concept of sovereignty of Allah and the practice of prostration to the emperor demoralized the Islamic concept of the supremacy of God.
Spiritually and ideologically, the Muslims were discomfited and scattered. The result of these was: i. Muslim society was ridden with un-Islamic practice and trends. Under the Hindus in influence a firm and widespread belief in karamat (miracle of Saints) had developed in the society which misguided the people.
ii. In Sufism May means of developing magical and supernatural power, alien to Islam, had been developed. The mystics and Sufis of those days openly denied the authenticity of shariah. They even proudly manifested their indifference towards the Sunnah.
iii. Ulemas and theologians ceased to refer to the Quran and hadith in their commentaries and considered jurisprudence as the only religious knowledge.
iv. Akbar promoted Hinduism by marring Hindus ladies and by giving High pests to rajputs and Hindus in his court.

SHEIKH AHMED RIVIVAL EFFORTS:

i. He sent a number of his disciples in all directions to preach true Islam. He asked them to emphasize on Ittiba-e-Sunnah and the commandments of shariah in their sermons and preaching. The work was vigorously pursued in India and neighboring countries.
ii. He also began correspondence with the prominent scholars of all Muslim countries in his tellers, he emphasized and explained the religious doctrine and put great stress on the ittiba-e-sunnah.
iii. Sheikh Ahmed was greatly opposed to the concept of atheism and openly denounced un-Islamic practices. He emphasized on the concept of tauheed.
iv. He exposed the fallacy of din-e-ellahi and came out to curb the influence of its satanic creed.
v. He declared that the mysticism without shariah was misleading and denounced those ulema who had questioned the authenticity of shariah.
vi. He labored diligently to settle the differences between the scholars and the mystics. vii. He initiated the leading nobles near the emperor into his discipleship and through them exerted and influences to bring about the change in the life of the court. He was able to enlist abdul rahim khan-e-khanan, khan-e-Azam Mirza Aziz and mufti Sardar jahan.
viii. In the time of Jahangir, sheik Ahmed was successful to a greater extent to extract a solemn undertaking from the Muslims that they would not obey any orders repugnant to Islam.
ix. He persuaded Muslims to adopt simple habits in the light of Islam and sunnah. He revealed the importance of Namaz and fasting.

WAHDAT-UL-WAJOOD AND WAHDAT-UL-SHAHUD:

The philosophy of wahdatul wajood was presented by some Sufi’s and Akbar’s era.
They believed that there was no living difference between the man and his creator God and both, individual and God is not separated by each other. They also advocated that every particle of the universe represented the presence of God and. Therefore the worship of God’s creatures
amounted to worship of God.
Sheikh Ahmed openly negated this philosophy and declared it as ultra vies to the principles of Islam. He presented his philosophy of wahdat-ul-shahud which meant that the creator and creatures were two different and separate entities.

SHEIKH AHMED IMPRISONED:

Sheikh Ahmed raised voice against the practice of prostration in the court of Jahangir.
He was imprisoned in the fort of Gwalior but remained confident. After one year, Jahangir feeling resentful released him and honored him, to be his religious advisor. The auspicious rank helped him to mould emperor’s life according to shariah. This provided him an opportunity to preach his views.

SHEIKH AHMED AND TWO NATION THEORY:

In order to popularize Islam, a number of Muslim reformers adopted a liberal point of view in their preaching. They however were successful to attract a large number of people towards Islam but at the same time this liberal strategy gave rise to the concept of joint nationalism.
This trend proved injurious to the separate and distinct national image of the Muslims. Sheikh Ahmed put an end to this concept and negated the philosophy of wahadul-wajood. He labored to keep alive the national and the religious identity of the Muslims. He was a staunch advocate of Muslims separatism and adopted very stern attitude toward Hindus. He wanted
jizia to be re imposed on Hindus and demanded the destruction of Hindu temples.

MUJADDID’S INFLUENCE ON THE HISTORY OF MUSLIM INDIA:

Sheikh Ahmed, the most forceful and original thinker produced by Muslim India before the days of shah waliullah and iqbal, occupies a high place not only in mulsim india but in the entire muslim world. He was the first man who could be called as a profounder of Muslim nationalism in the sub-continent.
He was a staunch advocate of separateness of Muslim ummah. The swing of balance from metro dory of Akbar to the orthodoxy of Aurangzeb was, in considerable measures due to the influence and teachings of mujaddids Alf sani. The re-imposition of jizya on Hindu subject during the reign of Aurangzeb was a far-reaching result of his work.

CONCLUSION:

The movement of mujaddid restored shariah and Islam, became the symbol of unity. His revival movement opened new avenues towards pan-Islamism. Sheikh Ahmed according to iqbal “a call back to prophet-hood” became the pioneer of religious nationalism. It was under the influence of this movement that the future movements of reforms and revival came to
be represented by shah waliullah and syed Ahmed shakeel which ultimately made their headway to the destination of Pakistan movement.
i. Muslim society was ridden with un-Islamic practice and trends. Under the Hindus in influence a firm and widespread belief in karamat (miracle of Saints) had developed in the society which misguided the people.
ii. In Sufism May means of developing magical and supernatural power, alien to Islam, had been developed. The mystics and Sufis of those days openly denied the authenticity of shariah. They even proudly manifested their indifference towards the Sunnah.
iii. Ulemas and theologians ceased to refer to the Quran and hadith in their commentaries and considered jurisprudence as the only religious knowledge.
iv. Akbar promoted Hinduism by marring Hindus ladies and by giving High pests to rajputs and Hindus in his court.

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