Akbar took the throne in 1556. While, in keeping with the Timurid–Mughal tradition, his tenure had its fair share of violence and zealotry, something interesting happened toward the later decades of his life. Akbar is best known for his policy of communal syncretism codified as Ṣulḥ-i-kul or the policy of universal peace. First came the abolition of jizya, in his twelfth regnal year, then the ibadat khana or “prayer hall” for multidiciplinary religious discourse about a decade later. The exercise culminated in the formal launch of the famous Din-i Ilahi or “Religion of God” creed in his twenty-sixth regnal year. But none of this happened in a vacuum. While much can be said about his continued Islamist zealotry that ran parallel to his reforms, it’s a subject for another day. These reforms came with an objective—to make Akbar a de facto caliph of Indian Islam, to help consolidate his hold on the vast, unwieldy subcontinent.
Akbar’s tenure encompassed a pivotal moment of great eschatological import in Islamic history, the first, and so far the only, Islamic millennium; AH 1000 roughly coincided with 1591 AD. And the emperor saw it as a divine omen, for it fell within his reign. Eager to make the most of it, he had embarked upon the journey toward his elevation to spiritual despotism decades in advance. The Infallibility Decree of 1579 making him the supreme arbiter in all religious matters of Islam was the first major expression of this ambition. Of course, these measures did not go unnoticed and unopposed. Many Islamic jurists and theologians criticized his reforms as tyrannical and heretical. Among them was a young leader of the Naqshbandi Sufi order named Ahmad al-Faruqi al-Sirhindi, Ahmad Sirhindi for short.
Born in Punjab just four years before the abolition of jizya, Sirhindi grew up in the thick of Akbar’s reforms. He was only fifteen when the Infallibility Decree came out. To talk Sirhindi, it’s crucial to talk Sufism. The ideology is closely associated with mysticism and syncretism in popular narratives. Often glossing over its adequately prominent militant aspect. Sufism is as much about mysticism as it is about puritanism, and puritanism directly inspires religious triumphalism. A more detailed discussion of Sufi militancy is outside the jurisdiction of this article. Just as religions have sects, Sufism has orders or tariqa, each floated by and named after a distinguished saint. Sirhindi was already trained in the orders of Chishti, Qadiri, and Suhrawardi before his interface with a fourth that would go on to define the rest of his life—Naqshbandi.
Babur being a renowned example, foreign Naqshbandi initiates had been in India for nearly a century then. But it was only toward the later years of Akbar’s reign that the order formally entered the subcontinent with an Uzbek khwaja named Baqi Billah Berang. This was the dawn of the new Hijri millennium and a period of great doctrinal disruption in India. Not just Muslims turning away from the Qurʾanic hardline, but also Hindus experimenting with mysticism through the new-wave Bhakti Movement and a whole other creed splintering off in Punjab in response to the Islamic expansionism. With the emperor himself toying with polytheism and syncretism, Islamic thought leaders felt an immediate threat to their relevance and Naqshbandi came as a welcome solution.
Sirhindi joined the order in the year 1600 and quickly emerged as the most prominent figure at the seminary. When Berang passed away three years later, the mantel expectedly passed to Sirhindi, now entrusted with the responsibility to herd the flock back to its Islamic fundaments. He was up against the single most powerful man on the subcontinent, Akbar. The task wasn’t going to be easy by any means.
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