Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi

INTRODUCTION
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, commonly known as 'Mujaddid-i-Alf-i-Thani', holds

a very special and significant position. He played an important role in
disseminating the ideology and practices of the Naqshbandi silsilah in this
country. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born in 971 A.H./1563-4 A.D
at Sirhind, a small town located two hundred kilometers northwest of Delhi.
The head of a Sufi lodge as well as a competent religious scholar, he was
initiated into three Sufi lineages: the Chishtiyya, the Qadiriyya, and the
Suhrawardiyya. The turning point of his life came with a meeting with
Muhammad Baqi billah (d. 1603), a Central Asian Naqshbandi shaykh.
Khawaja Baqi Billah appointed Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi,his
vice-regent (Khalifa), and sent him to Sirhind. ShaikhAhmad Sirhindi earnd
more renown than any of the other disciples so far as the
propagation and establishment of the Naqshbandi Order in India
was concerned. He was a religious scholar and taught his students
not only the Quran, hadith, and fiqh, but also books of tasawwuf. He
followed the teachings of the Prophet and wrote letters.Thus, he
developed an interest in the Naqshbandi order. Soon after the
death of Khwaja Baqi Billah, Shaikh Ahmad was acknowledged by the
Khwaja’s followers as the head of the Naqshbandi order.
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1563 – 1624) emerged as the most
important mystic of the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal period.
Ahmad Sirhindi becomes or is made an important part of history leading up

to the partition. Though as we will see, his life and writings remain
controversial, largely due to loss in translations.
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi was a very powerful orator and a
great administrator of religious affairs and therefore using
his abilities of influencing people. He formulated his own
theory of Sufism. According to him, all the Mughal rulers should devote
their energies to revive the Muslim Law in its purest form and in the
process, they should remove all the
impurities and innovations incorporated by the
Ulema, other Sufi Shaikhs and even other Muslim leaders. He
believed that the Mughal state should change its policies in accordance
with Sunni faith. He openly criticized various other Sufis, the Ulema
and the policies of Emperor Akbar for being un-Islamic in nature.
It is generally believed in Pakistan that the movement for Muslim
self-awakening and identity was started by Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624),
who fought against emperor Akbar's religious idea Din-Illahi movement and
is thus considered "for contemporary official Pakistani historians" to be the
founder of the Two-nation theory, and was particularly intensified under
the Muslim reformer Shah Waliullah (1703-1762).
RELIGIOUS IDEAS
Sirhindi has labeled this age as “ the age of the Islamic poverty". The
establishment of “Din-e-ilahi” was wrapped by the enmity against Islam
on the intended name of enlightenment and moderation. Last years of
Akbar’s era were historically significant in the life of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi.
Ahmad Sirhindi took up the challenge against Akbar’s ‘made-up Divine
Religion (Din-iIlahi) head on calling it an ‘Enemy of the Faith of Islam’ (Mani
-i-daulat-i-islam). His struggle against Akbar was by no means violent. In
this he was joined by his predecessor Badauni. What Sirhindi did was to
recruit Muslims to his school of Naqshbandi Sufi order, enable and
encourage them to practice Orthodox Islam, i.e.Sunni Islam, lived by the
Prophet and his companions. He initiated the movement of reformation by
urging Ulamas, Sufis, and Nobilities to practice Islam is true senses. He
was of the faith if these three groups would practice shariah, thoughts like
deen iillahi will never arise. After 1580’s, Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi wrote
letters to the top nobles to seek support for the fact that the Muslim
religious practices should not be abolished. He has written 534 letters
and some of them are quite long. He believed that the measures
which were highly critical of the Muslim practices were
introduced by Akbar around this time. According to Aziz
Ahmad, Sirhindi had a lot of concerns.
 He aimed to restore the prestige of Prophet in the
Indian Islam which he believed was weakened by the
mahdi of Jaunpur’s glorified Alfi movement.
 There was an element of mystical egoism in his own utterances which
disturbed the spiritual elites of Muslim India. He claimed to have
reached the spiritual stage of Abu Bakr who was the
first caliph of Islam and the fountainhead according to the
Naqshbandi order.
 He was successful in asserting his position as the renovator of Islam.
He believed that Akbar had corrupted the
religion and regarded himself as the one who was renewing it.
 According to Muzaffar Alam, some of Sirhindi’s letters stressed on the
differences between the Hindus and the
Muslims and expressed outright hostility towards the Hindus.
He did not stop here but also approached to other intellectuals of society to
invigorate them for protection of Prophet (Pbuh)’s religion.
Sheikh ahmand sirhindi and Shah waliullah were religious thinkers who
proved that the great Ibn-al Arabi’s (1165-1240), Unity of Existence
(Wahdat al-Wujud,), a Sufi term introduced by him, suggesting that the
universe is not separate from God, it is part of God instead was only half
correct. The distinction between Ibn al-Arabi’s Unity of Existence and
Sirhindi’s Unity of Witnessing (Wahdat ash-shuhud, oneness of appearance)
is that Sirhindi claims that the Universe is from God, not the Universe is
god. Since the basis of ‘sulehkul’ was Ibn al-Arabi’s wahdat al-wujud, he
opposed Arabi as a wayof opposing Akbar’s policy of ‘sulehkul’. He
becamethe propagator of this new philosophy known as
wahdat al-shuhud as it opposed Arabi.
Dr. R.P. Tripathi describes Shaikh Ahmad (Sirhindi) as “the leader” of the
Muslim revivalist movement against Akbar and speaks of the great
influence of this movement over Jahangir’s policies. Prof Habib writes
about Shah Waliullah as a “revolutionary”and that “he was a proponent of
‘social security’ and wanted to revive the political institutions of the country
in the light of its glorious past.” In the political sphere, Ahmad Sirhindi is
said to have defied monarchy & Shah Waliullah is presented as a great
‘political thinker’ possessing almost the viewpoint of a ‘modern socialist’.
Sirhindi had no patience with those who might suggest an identity between
the beliefs of the Bhakti Movement & Muslim/ Sufi mysticism. He wrote a
condemning letter to the Hindu poet, Hardai Ram, condemning “the
extreme stupidity of believing Ram & Rahman to be the same.”
He goes on to say that “the real purpose of taking ‘jiziya’ is to humiliate

them. the harm of being in the company of a heretic exceeds that of being
in the company of an infidel; and the Shias are the worst heretics.
After Akbar, Jahangir rose to the power and Sirhindi did not look back but
worked tirelessly. Prime minister of the Emperor Jahangir, Asif Khan
motivated former to cease Sirhindi, whose influence was extending to Iran,
Turkey, Badhakshan etc. He provoked Jahangir to imprison Sirhandi but it
was not easy because of Sirhandi’s great influence. However; Sirhindi was
ordered to present himself in court and was asked to prostrate, which he
refused by saying, ‘This head is meant to bow before Almighty and not
before worldly rulers’. Refusal to prostration (sajdah) served as a pretext
for the King to incarcerate Sirhindi in Gwalior fort for 2 years. Even inside
the prison walls, he carried out reformative activities. Many non-Muslim
prisoners accepted Islam and others underwent a spiritual transformation
under the guidance of Sirhindi. In jahangir nama it is mentioned that Shaikh
had repented, which shows that he was not dissatisfied with his conduct.
While the Naqshbandi writers say that king had apologised to the sheikh
had promised to abolish sijidah, reconstruction of mosques taht were
destroyed, permission for cow slaughter, appoitement of qazias. Also, no
action was taken in accordance with the demands of the Sheikh as
enunciated above.
POLITICAL IDEAS
Since Sheikh Ahmad was opposed to the doctrine of Wahdat al-wujud, it

resulted in separatist politics too. The ruler, according to him should rule as
per Qur’an and Sunnah ignoring Indian realities. It was negation of Akbar’s
inclusive policy. Rule according to Qur’an and sunnah could be valid in
Muslim majority countries but not in countries like India where Muslims
were a small minority. Unlike, the Sufi preachers, Sheikh ahmad laid great
stress on the importance of the propogation of the shariat by the state. In a
letter khan-I-azam he says ‘sages have said that the Shara is always under
the sword, and the triumph of the shara depends on the kings. His ideas
differ from the sufis as he considers the propogators of shara superior to
sufis and believes the propogation of shara is possible mainly with the
backing of the king(state) that is why he himself maintains friendship with
the nobles of realm.
Sheikh belives that it is the duty of nobles and ulemas to restore the glory
of Islam. Also, the ignorance on the part of the kings was because of the
vicious ulama who were resopnsilbe for misleading the king and thats the
reason he cautioned his friends among nobles that they should allow only
such ulema who r religious. The main mission of sirhindi life was to
establish the surpremacy of the shara in the muslim state. Shariat ha dto be
interpreted according to the book and sunnat. He pledes appointment of
qazis so shariat must be properly enforced. On the other hand he condmes
all the state institutions in contravention of the shara, he evene refused to
vist Delhi during the season of Navroz. Sirhindi wanted to translate his
reliogious hatred into realm of politics. He considers stae ruled by muslims
as a muslim state where no infidel could be tolerated. He wanted
imposition of jizya as an emblem of subjuctaion to non muslims.
CONCLUSION------
It should be noted that sirhindi brought major changes in the development

of islam in the indian subcontinent. He is said to have reversed the
heretical trends of the period of Akbar. In letters written to officials of
mughal court he demanded a deceive role for Islam in the state. It is
noteworthy that in 17th c polemical literature sirhindi does not have an
image of an orthodox reformer, but an extravagant Sufi suffering from
illusions of grandeur and highly disrespectful of the prophet.
Jahangir and Shahjahan too understood Indian reality which was much
more complex and more or less followed the policy of integration than
separation.

Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi

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Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi

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INTRODUCTION

Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, commonly known as 'Mujaddid-i-Alf-i-Thani', holds

Ahmad Sirhindi becomes or is made an important part of history leading up

He goes on to say that “the real purpose of taking ‘jiziya’ is to humiliate

Since Sheikh Ahmad was opposed to the doctrine of Wahdat al-wujud, it

It should be noted that sirhindi brought major changes in the development

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