| Awaken Bharata |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| SUFIS AND MILITANCE | |
| Jehangir
gave up his father Akbar's tolerance and became intolerant during
his later years, which brought him Sirhindi's praise. Sirhindi's
followers supported the tyrant Aurangzeb, whom they regarded as a
Sufi saint, though Aurangzeb at times opposed them as well. "To
the Mujaddid's khalifas (followers), however, Emperor Aurangzeb
epitomized all the virtues of kingship." The Naqshbandi Sufis
had intimate relations with Aurangzeb.
Shaikh Muhammed Ma'sum believed that "Aurangzeb had been secretly blessed with a special mystical grace granted only to the prophet Mohammed." Aurangzeb was initiated into the Naqshbandi order, taking its guidance and following its practices. Aurangzeb, with his blatant destruction of Hindu temples, murder of Hindu and Sikh gurus, and genocide of Hindus, represents to Hindus the very opposite of Sufi tolerance. Yet clearly he had many Sufis on his side and was himself a Sufi of a certain type. Sirhindi believed that "Islam and Hinduism were the antithesis of each other and therefore could not coexist. He argued that in fact the Muslims had been divinely commissioned to be enemies of the infidels and treat them harshly." He wrote many criticisms of Hindu practices. For example, he told Saiyid Hussain Manikpure, that "although yogis, Brahmins and Greek philosophers performed hard ascetic exercises, perdition and ruin were their only rewards." He wanted "the chiselled and unchisselled idols (of the Hindus) to be insulted in very possible way." |
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