The Indus River Valley Civilizations
The Indus Valley Civilization existed through its early years of 3300-1300 BCE, and its mature period of 2600-1900 BCE. The area of this civilization extended along the Indus River from what today is northeast Afghanistan, into Pakistan and northwest India. The Indus Civilization was the most widespread of the three early civilizations of the ancient world, along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were thought to be the two great cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, emerging around 2600 BCE along the Indus River Valley in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Their discovery and excavation in the 19th and 20th centuries provided important archaeological data aboutancient cultures.
Mehrgarh is the site of the earliest known agrarian settlements in the South Asian subcontinent and lies to the west of the Indus River.[1] Dubbed the Mehrgarh culture, this Neolithic settlement is now considered to be a precursor to the Indus Valley civilisation. The ancient people that settled at Mehrgarh were nomads and preferred cattle-herding over hunting. They soon developed agricultural technologies that let them cultivate crops like wheat, barley and cotton. The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilizations of the region comprising North Africa, West Asia and South Asia, and of the three, the most widespread, its sites spanning an area stretching from northeast Afghanistan, through much of Pakistan, and into western and northwestern India. It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial, mostly monsoon-fed, rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the seasonal Ghaggar - Hakra river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The civilisation's cities were noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin).[4] The large cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000 individualsand the civilisation itself during its florescence may have contained between one and five million individuals. Gradual drying of the region's soil during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial spur for the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its population eastward.
In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, an "Iron Age" is recognized as succeeding the Late Harappan (Cemetery H) culture.[1] The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of present-day northern India are the Painted Grey Ware culture(1200 to 600 BC) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BC). This corresponds to the transition of the janapadas or principalities of the Vedic period to the sixteen Mahajanapadas or region-states of the early historic period, culminating in the emergence of the Maurya Empire towards the end of the period.
Gandhara was the name given to the land and its associated civilization that existed in what is now northern Pakistan and Afghanistan from the mid 1st millenium BCE to the beginning of the 2nd millenium CE and consisted of multiple dynasties which ruled over the same area but which were linked by their adoption of Buddhism as a religion for the most part and also of the Indo-Greek artistic tradition as its cultural identity.
Islam in India and Muslim’s Rule
Islam is the second-largest religion in India, with 14.2% of the country's population or approx. 200 million people identifying as adherents of Islam (2018 estimate). It makes India the country with the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries. The majority of Indian Muslims belong to the Sunni sect of Islam, while the Shia form a sizeable minority. The Cheraman Juma Mosque in Methala, Kerala and Barwada mosque in Ghogha, Gujarat are thought to be the first mosques in India, built before 623 CE by Arab merchants. Following an expedition by the governor of Bahrain to Bharuch in the 7th century CE, immigrant Arab and Persian trading communities from South Arabia and the Persian Gulf began settling in coastal Gujarat. Ismaili Shia Islam was introduced to Gujarat in the second half of the 11th century, when Fatimid Imam Al-Mustansir Billah sent missionaries to Gujarat in 467 AH/1073 CE. Islam mainly arrived in North India and Bengal in the 12th century via the Turkic conquests and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage, with the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire having ruled most of India and theBengal Sultanate and Deccan sultanates having played major economic and political roles. The peak of the Islamic rule in India was marked under the sharia reign of emperor Aurangzeb, the world's largest economy, upon the compilation and establishment of the Fatawa Alamgiri. The introduction of further Islamic policies by Mysore King Tipu Sultan contributed to the South Indian culture. Over the centuries, there has been significant integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures across India and Muslims have played a notable role in economics, politics, and culture of India. Muhammad bi Qasim was conquest Sindh in 712 A.D. al walid ibn abdul malik. The king of Ceylon (present day Srilanka) dispatched a ship to the governor of Iraq ; Hajjaj bin Yousaf . The ship was attacked by the pirates as it passed the mouth of Indus. The were seized by the pirates and the Arab merchants were detained. Hijjaj bin Yousaf asked Raja Dahir, to set the captives free and take action against the pirates. Raja Dahir bluntly replied that he had no control over the pirates. Hijjaj Bin Yousaf the decided to retaliate.
First two expeditions sent by Hijjaj against Dahir failed. He then commissioned his son in law Imdad ud Din Muhammad Bin Qasim, who at that time was at Fars (Iran), was reinforced 6000 men from Syria and other places.Muslim intrusion from the north-west
By the 10th century, many new principalities were conquered and ruled by the Turks who had been initially brought into the Arab Armies as slave soldiers. The Turks were central Asian people who after their conversion to Islam in the 8th and 9th century led the next wave of Islamic conquests.Ghaznavid-Density:Ghaznavid dynasty receives its name from the city of Ghazni in modern Afghanistan. Alaptagin one of the most enterprising of Turkish officers was the founder of Ghazni. After the death of Alaptagin in 977 A.D his son in law Subuktugin ascended the throneofGhazni.Subuktugin: He deserve the footnote in the history for being the first Muslim to move across the Khyber pass into the sub-continent. After his victory, subuktugin did not established a foothold across the Khyber pass and returned to Ghazni. After Mahmud of Ghazni the next invader in India was MuhammadGhori. He belonged to the Ghorid dynasty which replaced the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan. After the death of Mahmood Ghaznovi, he was the first Turkish who invaded India; after a long period of 150 years. Delhi Sultanate
The period from the death of Muhammad Ghuri in 1206 till the advent of Mughals in the Sub-continent in 1526 is known in history as a period Delhi sultanate
Five Dynasty ruled on sub continent
(S.K.T.S.L). Slave or Mamulak Dynasty (1206-1290). Khilji dynasty (1290-1320). Taghlak Dynasty(1320-1412). Sayyed Density (1414-1451). Lodhi Dynasty ( 1451-1526)
Mughal’s Rule in India
The Mughal (or Mogul) Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the 16th and 17th centuries. t consolidated Islam in South Asia, and spread Muslim (and particularly Persian) arts and culture as well as the faith. The Mughals were Muslims who ruled a country with a large Hindu majority. However for much of their empire they allowed Hindus to reach senior government or military positions. The Mughals brought many changes to India: Centralised government that brought together many smaller kingdoms. Delegated government with respect for human rights. Persian art and culture.Persian language mixed with Arabic and Hindi to create Urdu. Periods of great religious tolerance. A style of architecture (e.g. the Taj Mahal).A system of education that took account of pupils' needs and culture. Muslims in India: There had been Muslims in India long before the Mughals. The first Muslims arrived in the 8th century. Babur: Babur the first Mughal Emperor, was a descendent of Genghis Khan and Tamerlaine. Babur succeeded his father as ruler of the state of Farghana in Turkestan when he was only 12, although he was swiftly deposed by older relatives. Akbar: The third Emperor, Abu Akbar, is regarded as one of the great rulers of all time, regardless of country. Akbar succeeded to the throne at 13, and started to recapture the remaining territory lost from Babur's empire. By the time of his death in 1605 he ruled over most of north, central, and western India. Jahangir: Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, readopted Islam as the state religion and continued the policy of religious toleration. His court included large numbers of Indian Hindus, Persian Shi'a and Sufis and members of local heterodox Islamic sects. Jahan: The architectural achievements of the Mughals peaked between 1592 and 1666, during the reign of Jahangir's successor Jahan. Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal marks the apex of the Mughal Empire; it symbolises stability, power and confidence. Aurangzeb: Jahan's son Aurangzeb was the last great Mughal Emperor. History's verdict on Aurangzeb largely depends on who's writing it; Muslim or Hindu. Aurangzeb ruled for nearly 50 years. He came to the throne after imprisoning his father and having his older brother killed. He was a strong leader, whose conquests expanded the Mughal Empire to its greatest size.
Causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire:
1. Wars of Succession:
The Mughals did not follow any law of succession like the law of primogeniture. Consequently, each time a ruler died, a war of succession between the brothers for the throne started. This weakened the Mughal Empire, especially after Aurangzeb. The nobles, by siding with one contender or the other, increased their own power.
2. Aurangzeb’s Policies:
Aurangzeb failed to realise that the vast Mughal Empire depended on the willing support of the people. He lost the support of the Rajputs who had contributed greatly to the strength of the Empire. They had acted as pillars of support, but Aurangzeb’s policy turned them to bitter foes. The wars with the Sikhs, the Marathas, the Jats and the Rajputs had drained the resources of the Mughal Empire.
3. Weak Successors of Aurangzeb:
The successors of Aurangzeb were weak and became victims of the intrigues and conspiracies of the faction-ridden nobles. They were inefficient generals and incapable of suppressing revolts. The absence of a strong ruler, an efficient bureaucracy and a capable army had made the Mughal Empire weak.
4. Empty Treasury:
Shah Jahan’s zeal for construction had depleted the treasury. Aurangzeb’s long wars in the south had further drained the exchequer.
5. Invasions:
Foreign invasions sapped the remaining strength of the Mughals and hastened the process of disintegration. The invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali resulted in further drainage of wealth. These invasions shook the very stability of the empire.
6. Size of the Empire and Challenge from Regional Powers:
The Mughal Empire had become too large to be controlled by any ruler from one centre i.e. Delhi. The Great Mughals were efficient and exercised control over ministers and army, but the later Mughals were poor administrators. As a result, the distant provinces became independent. The rise of independent states led to the disintegration of the Mughal Empire.
Impact of Islam on Hindu Society
Impact on Religious Field: What was the impact of Islam in the religious field is a matter of great controversy. Charles Eliot for the first time in his book ‘Hinduism and Buddhism’ propounded the thesis that Ramanuj and Shankra were greatly influenced by Islam. This view is supported by another prominent scholar Dr. Tara Chand who holds that the concept of the unity of God was a gift of Islam to India. He says that the great Shankaracharya, who flourished during the later years of the eighth and early years of the ninth Century A. D. was so much influenced by the Islamic theology as to have borrowed the theory of unity of God from his contact with Muslims. It is true that the upper class Hindus both in the north and in the South extended a very generous treatment to the Muslims and gave- them complete freedom to convert people to their religion. The Hindu leaders, reformers and preachers openly advocated that Hinduism and Islam were two paths leading to the same destination. They condemned the priestly rituals in both the religions and laid emphasis on devotion and piety. . Social Impact: The coming of Islam to India also left a deep mark on the social structure. With a view to meet the inroads of Islam more effectively the Hindu leaders made caste system more rigid and laid greater emphasis on the observance of caste rules. With a view to strengthen the Hindu society they recasts the Smritis and thus paved the way for taking back those persons in the fold of the Hindu society who had been forcibly removed from it. During the period 1200— 1500 voluminous commentaries on the Smritis and Nibandhas (digests) were produced with a view to readjust the social relationship according to the changed circumstances. Economic Impact: Though the Muslim rulers established their supremacy in the political sphere, the economy of the country continued to be dominated by the Hindus. No doubt large jagirs were given to the Muslim Amirs but they depended for the cultiva¬tion of their lands on the Hindu peasants. Therefore the land system remained in tact and there was hardly any change in the existing arrangement. The only change was that formally the lands came under the control of the Muslim Jagirdars. Impact on Fine Arts: Probably the deepest impact of Islam was in the field of fine arts. The spirit of assimilation and synthesis between the Hindu and the Muslim cultures led to the evolution of a new type of architecture and music in which the basic elements were those of the Hindus and the finish and outward form was that of the Persians.
As Dr. Tara Chand has said “The craftsmanship, the ornamental richness and general design remained largely Hindu, the actuated form, plain domes, smooth-faced walls and spacious in¬teriors were Muslim super-impositions”.
Impact on Music: In the sphere of Music the blending of the Persian Indian music led to the emergence of new notations. Qawwallis, etc. became more popular. Some of the musical instruments like Sitar were produced by blending the Indian Veena and the Iranian Tambura. Tabla is also considered to be a Muslim modification of Hindu musi¬cal Mirdang.
Role of Sufia in Promotion of Islam
The efforts rendered by the sufis in propagation of islam in the sub continent are unforgettable, innumerable and splendid. The spread of islam in the sub continent owes much to the efforts, exertions and the personal examples of the muslim saints and sufis who made concerted and diligent efforts to reach out to the amasses and sensitize them about the teachings of the islam. Most of these muslim saints migrated to india b/w the time span of eleventh and fourteenth century and devoted their lives for the cause of islam sufis made islam popular in indian sub continent . A large number of non muslims were impressed by the simple teachings, lofty character and fair treatment of the sufis and enterd in the fold of islam
The Origin of sufi
various suggestions have been made as to the origin of the word sufi. One conjecture is that the word is derived from (suf) the name of distinctive woolen robe worn by the early sufis. Yet another suggestion is that the word sufi is derived from (safa) meaning purity in arabic . Sufis were religious guides who aim for closer union with God. Sufis and their contribution towards the spread of islam in the sub continent. The message of islam was spread across the length and breadth of the indian sub continent by the islamic mystics. All the work of teaching creating goodwill of educating people in the simple and direct message of islam was done by muslim divines like Data Ganj Baksh of lahore, Khwaja Moinuddin of Ajmer, Khwaja Bakhtiyar kaki, Delhi, Baba Farid of Pakpattan, Sheikh Bahaudin Zakriya of Multan. Makhdoom Jahania Jangasgt of bahawalpur, Sheikh Nazim udin of Delhi.
The Sufis Taught
Simple faith
The mercy of God
The pleasures of honest dealing
Fellow of feeling
The nearness of God
The power of prayer
The beauties of faith
The duties and responsibilities of men in respect to other men
The Sufi Orders or Silsilas
The number of orders given by abul fazal in his(Ain Akbri) is fourteen. The following 4 silsilas are the most prominent in the Indian sub continent
1, Chishti Order founded by Khwaja Abdul Chishti in Heart.
Kwaja moin Ud Din Chishti implanted this silsila in India
2, Suharwardi order, founded by Sheikh Shahbudin Umar Suharwardi at Bghdad
3. Naqshbandi order popularized in India by efforts of Khwaja Baqi Bilah.
4. Qadira Order founded by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani in Baghdad
Muslim Identity in Sub-Continent
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born on 26 June 1564 in the village of Sir hind. He received most of his early education from his father, Shaykh 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Shaykh Muhammad Sadiq and from Shaykh Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorised the Qur'an. He then studied in Sialkot which had become an intellectual centre under the Kashmir-born scholar Maulana Kamaluddin Kashmiri.[7] There he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read advanced texts oftafsir and hadith under another scholar from Kashmir, Sheikh Yaqub Sarfi Kashmiri (1521-1595), who was a sheikh of the tariqa Hamadaniyya Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Sufi Order. Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught him jurisprudence, prophet Muhammad's biography and history. Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī traditions, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Shaykh Muhammad al-Baqī, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the length and breadth of the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won some favour with the Mughal court. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi had originally declared the reality of the Quran (haqiqat-i quran) and the reality of the Ka'ba (haqiqat-i ka'ba-yi rabbani) to be above the reality of Muhammad (haqiqat-i Muhammadi). This caused fury of opposition, particularly among certain Sufis and ulama of Hijaz who objected to the Ka'ba having exalted spiritual "rank" than the Prophet. Sirhindi argued in response that the reality of the Prophet is superior to any creature. The real Ka'ba is worthy of prostration since it is not created and is covered with the veil of nonexistence. It is this Ka'ba in the essence of God that Sirhindi was referring to as the reality of the Ka'ba, not the appearance of the Ka'ba (surat-i ka'ba), which is only a stone. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the consensus of the Naqshbandi community had placed the prophetic realities closer to God than the divine realities. The rationale for this development may have been to neutralize unnecessary discord with the large Muslim community whose emotional attachment to Muhammad was greater than any understanding of philosophical fine points. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi advanced the notion of wahdat ash-shuhūd (oneness of appearance):93 According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has reached the state of fana' fi Allah (to forget about everything except Almighty Allah). Sirhindi considered wahdat ash-shuhūd to be superior to wahdat al-wujūd (oneness of being):92 which he understood to be a preliminary step on the way to the Absolute Truth.
Despite this, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi still used Ibn al-'Arabi's vocabulary without hesitation.[3]:95
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi writes:
I wonder that Shaykh Muhyī 'l-Dīn appears in vision to be one of those with whom God is pleased, while most of his ideas which differ from the doctrines of the People of truth appear to be wrong and mistaken. It seems that since they are due to error in kashf, he has been forgiven... I consider him as one of those with whom God is well-pleased; on the other hand, I believe that all his ideas in which he opposes (the people of truth) are wrong and harmful.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, one of the architects of the modern Sub Continent was born on October 17, 1817 in Delhi and started his career as a civil servant.
The 1857 revolt was one of the turning points in Syed Ahmed's life. He clearly foresaw the imperative need for the Muslims to acquire proficiency in the English language and modern sciences, if the community were to maintain its social and political clout, particularly in Northern India.
He was one of those early pioneers who recognized the critical role of education in the empowerment of the poor and backward Muslim community. In more than one ways, Sir Syed was one of the greatest social reformers and a great national builder of modern India. He began to prepare the road map for the formation of a Muslim University by starting various schools. He instituted Scientific Society in 1863 to instill a scientific temperament into the Muslims and to make the Western knowledge available to Indians in their own language.
The Aligarh Institute Gazette, an organ of the Scientific Society, was launched in March 1866 and succeeded in agitating the minds in the traditional Muslim society. Anyone with a poor level of commitment would have backed off in theface of strong opposition but Sir Syed responded by bringing out another journal, Tehzibul Akhlaq which was rightly named in English as 'Mohammedan Social Reformer'
In 1875, Sir Syed founded the Madarsatul Uloom in Aligarh and patterned the MAO College after Oxford and Cambridge universities that he went on a trip to London. His objective was to build a college in line with the British education system but without compromising its Islamic values.
He wanted this College to act as a bridge between the old andthe new, the East and the West. While he fully appreciated the need and urgency of imparting instruction based on Western learning, he was not oblivious to thevalue of oriental learning and wanted to preserve and transmit to posterity therich legacy of the past. Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal observes: "The real greatness of Sir Syed consists in the fact that he was the first Indian Muslim who felt the need of a fresh orientation of Islam and worked for it -- his sensitive nature was the first to react to modern age".
The aim of Sir Syed was not merely restricted to establishing a college at Aligarh but at spreading a network of Muslim Managed educational institutions throughout the length and breadth of the country keeping in view this end, he instituted All India Muslim Educational Conference that revived the spirit of Muslims at national level. The Aligarh Movement motivated the Muslims to help open a number of educational institutions. It was the first of its kind of such Muslim NGO in India, which awakened the Muslims from their deep slumber and infused social and political sensibility into them.Sir Syed contributed many essential elements to the development of the modern society of the subcontinent. During Sir Syed's own lifetime, 'The Englishman', a renowned British magazine of the 19th century remarked in a commentary on November 17, 1885: 'Sir Syed's life "strikingly illustrated one of the best phases of modern history". He died on March 27, 1898 and lies buried next to the main mosque at AMU.
Sir Muhammad Iqbal, also known as Allama Iqbal was a philosopher, poet and politician in British India who was born on 9 November 1877 and died on 21th April 1938. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both Urdu and Persian languages.he was also called as Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times. Iqbal is known as Shair-e-Mushriq meaning Poet of the East. He is also called Muffakir-e-Pakistan (“The Inceptor of Pakistan”) and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (“The Sage of the Ummah”). In Iran and Afghanistan he is famous as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī or Iqbal of Lahore, and he is most appreciated for his Persian work. Pakistan Government had recognised him as its “national poet.He has different literary and narrative works. His first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz and also Pas che bayad kard.he had series of lectures in different educational institutions that were later on published by Oxford press as ‘’the Reconstruction of Islamic religious thoughts in Islam’’. Iqbal was influenced by the teachings of Sir Thomas Arnold, his philosophy teacher at Government college Lahore, Arnold’s teachings determined Iqbal to pursue higher education in West. In 1905, he traveled to England for his higher education. Iqbal qualified for a scholarship from Trinity College in Cambridge and obtained Bachelor of Arts in 1906, and in the same year he was called to the bar as a barrister from Lincoln’s Inn. In 1907, Iqbal moved to Germany to study doctorate and earned PhD degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich in 1908. Working under the guidance of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published his doctoral thesis in 1908 entitled: The Development of Metaphysics in Persia. During his study in Europe, Iqbal began to write poetry in Persian. He prioritized it because he believed he had found an easy way to express his thoughts. He would write continuously in Persian throughout his life. Iqbal, after completing his Master of Arts degree in 1899, initiated his career as a reader of Arabic at Oriental College and shortly was selected as a junior professor of philosophy at Government College Lahore, where he had also been a stundent; Iqbal worked there until he left for England in 1905. In 1908, Iqbal returned from England and joined again the same college as a professor of philosophy and English literature. At the same period Iqbal began practicing law at Chief Court Lahore, but soon Iqbal quit law practice, and devoted himself in literary works and became an active member of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam. In 1919, he became the general secretary of the same organisation. Iqbal’s thoughts in his work primarily focus on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from his travels and stays in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe. The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal’s mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal began intensely concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, while embracing Rumi as his guide. Iqbal had a great role in Muslim political movement. Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim League. He did not support Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated by Hindus and was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s, it was absorbed in factional divides between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi and the centrist group led by Jinnah. Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been disillusioned with the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League in the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman, Iqbal came to believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political leader capable of preserving this unity and fulfilling the League’s objectives on Muslim political empowerment. Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was an influential force in convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League. Iqbal firmly believed that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing Indian Muslims to the League and maintaining party unity before the British and the Congress: In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India, “I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be , at least of Northwest India. Iqbal was the first patron of the historical, political, religious, cultural journal of Muslims of British India. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement. The name of this journal is The Journal Tolu-e-Islam. Iqbal died on 21th April 1938 due to severe throat infection that lasted for long till his death. He will be remembered for good.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s achievement as the founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and illustrious public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half of the century, an `ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a political strategist and, above all one of the great nation-builders of modern times. What, however, makes him so remarkable is the fact that while similar other leaders assumed the leadership of traditionally well-defined nations and espoused their cause, or led them to freedom, he created a nation out of an inchoate and down-trodden minority and established a cultural and national home for it. And all that within a decade. For over three decades before the successful culmination in 1947, of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian subcontinent, Jinnah had provided political leadership to the Indian Muslims: initially as one of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the only prominent leader- the Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years, he had guided their affairs; he had given expression, coherence and direction to their legitimate aspirations and cherished dreams; he had formulated these into concrete demands; and, above all, he had striven all the while to get them conceded by both the ruling British and the numerous Hindus the dominant segment of India’s population. And for over thirty years he had fought, relentlessly and inexorably, for the inherent rights of the Muslims for an honorable existence in the subcontinent. Indeed, his life story constitutes, as it were, the story of the rebirth of the Muslims of the subcontinent and their spectacular rise to nationhood, phoenixlike.“We are a nation”, they claimed in the ever eloquent words of the Quaid-i-Azam- “We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”. The formulation of the Muslim demand for Pakistan in 1940 had a tremendous impact on the nature and course of Indian politics. On the one hand, it shattered for ever the Hindu dreams of a pseudo-Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India: on the other, it heralded an era of Islamic renaissance and creativity in which the Indian Muslims were to be active participants. The Hindu reaction was quick, bitter, and malicious.Equally hostile were the British to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their foremost contribution. The irony was that both the Hindus and the British had not anticipated the astonishingly tremendous response that the Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Above all, they failed to realize how a hundred million people had suddenly become supremely conscious of their distinct nationhood and their high destiny. In channeling the course of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, no less than in directing it towards its consummation in the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, none played a more decisive role than did Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It was his powerful advocacy of the case of Pakistan and his remarkable strategy in the delicate negotiations that followed the formulation of the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan inevitable.
Aligarh Movement
The War of Independence 1857 ended in disaster for the Muslims. The British chose to believe that the Muslims were responsible for the anti-British uprising; therefore they made them the subject of ruthless punishments and merciless vengeance. The British had always looked upon the Muslims as their adversaries because they had ousted them from power. With the rebellion of 1857, this feeling was intensified and every attempt was made to ruin and suppress the Muslims forever. Their efforts resulted in the liquidation of the Mughal rule and the Sub-continent came directly under the British crown. After dislodging the Muslim rulers from the throne, the new rulers, the British, implemented a new educational policy with drastic changes. The policy banned Arabic, Persian and religious education in schools and made English not only the medium of instruction but also the official language in 1835. This spawned a negative attitude amongst the Muslims towards everything modern and western, and a disinclination to make use of the opportunities available under the new regime. This tendency, had it continued for long, would have proven disastrous for the Muslim community. Seeing this atmosphere of despair and despondency, Sir Syed launched his attempts to revive the spirit of progress within the Muslim community of India. He was convinced that the Muslims in their attempt to regenerate themselves, had failed to realize the fact that mankind had entered a very important phase of its existence, i.e., an era of science and learning. He knew that the realization of the very fact was the source of progress and prosperity for the British. Therefore, modern education became the pivot of his movement for regeneration of the Indian Muslims. He tried to transform the Muslim outlook from a medieval one to a modern one. Sir Syed’s first and foremost objective was to acquaint the British with the Indian mind; his next goal was to open the minds of his countrymen to European literature, science and technology. Therefore, in order to attain these goals, Sir Syed launched the Aligarh Movement of which Aligarh was the center. He had two immediate objectives in mind: to remove the state of misunderstanding and tension between the Muslims and the new British government, and to induce them to go after the opportunities available under the new regime without deviating in any way from the fundamentals of their faith. Keeping education and social reform as the two planks of his program, he launched the Aligarh Movement with the following objectives: To create an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the British government and the Muslims. To persuade Muslims to learn English education. To persuade Muslims to abstain from politics of agitation. To produce an intellectual class from amongst the Muslim community. Fortunately, Syed Ahmad Khan was able to attract into his orbit a number of sincere friends who shared his views and helped him. Among them were well-known figures like Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk, Hali, Shibli, Maulvi Nazir Ahmad, Chiragh Ali, Mohammad Hayat, and Zakaullah. Above all, his gifted son Syed Mahmud, a renowned scholar, jurist and educationist, was a great source of help to him. Syed Ahmad also succeeded in enlisting the services of a number of distinguished English professors like Bech, Morison, Raleigh and Arnold who gave their best in building up the Aligarh College into a first-rate institution. A brief chronology of Syed Ahmad’s efforts is given below:
1859: Built Gulshan School in Muradabad.
1863: Set up Victoria School in Ghazipur.
1864: Set up the Scientific Society in Aligarh. This society was involved in the translation of English works into the native language.
1866: Aligarh Institute Gazette. This imparted information on history; ancient and modern science of agriculture, natural and physical sciences and advanced mathematics.
1870: Committee Striving for the Educational Progress of Muslims. 1875: Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental School (M. A. O.), Aligarh, setup on the pattern of English public schools. Later raised to the level of college in 1877 and university in 1913.
1886: Muhammadan Educational Conference. This conference met every year to take stock of the educational problems of the Muslims and to persuade them to get modern education and abstain from politics. It later became the political mouthpiece of the Indian Muslims and was the forerunner of the Muslim League.
The Indus Valley Civilization existed through its early years of 3300-1300 BCE, and its mature period of 2600-1900 BCE. The area of this civilization extended along the Indus River from what today is northeast Afghanistan, into Pakistan and northwest India. The Indus Civilization was the most widespread of the three early civilizations of the ancient world, along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were thought to be the two great cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, emerging around 2600 BCE along the Indus River Valley in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Their discovery and excavation in the 19th and 20th centuries provided important archaeological data aboutancient cultures.
Mehrgarh is the site of the earliest known agrarian settlements in the South Asian subcontinent and lies to the west of the Indus River.[1] Dubbed the Mehrgarh culture, this Neolithic settlement is now considered to be a precursor to the Indus Valley civilisation. The ancient people that settled at Mehrgarh were nomads and preferred cattle-herding over hunting. They soon developed agricultural technologies that let them cultivate crops like wheat, barley and cotton. The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilizations of the region comprising North Africa, West Asia and South Asia, and of the three, the most widespread, its sites spanning an area stretching from northeast Afghanistan, through much of Pakistan, and into western and northwestern India. It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial, mostly monsoon-fed, rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the seasonal Ghaggar - Hakra river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The civilisation's cities were noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin).[4] The large cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000 individualsand the civilisation itself during its florescence may have contained between one and five million individuals. Gradual drying of the region's soil during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial spur for the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its population eastward.
In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, an "Iron Age" is recognized as succeeding the Late Harappan (Cemetery H) culture.[1] The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of present-day northern India are the Painted Grey Ware culture(1200 to 600 BC) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BC). This corresponds to the transition of the janapadas or principalities of the Vedic period to the sixteen Mahajanapadas or region-states of the early historic period, culminating in the emergence of the Maurya Empire towards the end of the period.
Gandhara was the name given to the land and its associated civilization that existed in what is now northern Pakistan and Afghanistan from the mid 1st millenium BCE to the beginning of the 2nd millenium CE and consisted of multiple dynasties which ruled over the same area but which were linked by their adoption of Buddhism as a religion for the most part and also of the Indo-Greek artistic tradition as its cultural identity.
Islam in India and Muslim’s Rule
Islam is the second-largest religion in India, with 14.2% of the country's population or approx. 200 million people identifying as adherents of Islam (2018 estimate). It makes India the country with the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries. The majority of Indian Muslims belong to the Sunni sect of Islam, while the Shia form a sizeable minority. The Cheraman Juma Mosque in Methala, Kerala and Barwada mosque in Ghogha, Gujarat are thought to be the first mosques in India, built before 623 CE by Arab merchants. Following an expedition by the governor of Bahrain to Bharuch in the 7th century CE, immigrant Arab and Persian trading communities from South Arabia and the Persian Gulf began settling in coastal Gujarat. Ismaili Shia Islam was introduced to Gujarat in the second half of the 11th century, when Fatimid Imam Al-Mustansir Billah sent missionaries to Gujarat in 467 AH/1073 CE. Islam mainly arrived in North India and Bengal in the 12th century via the Turkic conquests and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage, with the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire having ruled most of India and theBengal Sultanate and Deccan sultanates having played major economic and political roles. The peak of the Islamic rule in India was marked under the sharia reign of emperor Aurangzeb, the world's largest economy, upon the compilation and establishment of the Fatawa Alamgiri. The introduction of further Islamic policies by Mysore King Tipu Sultan contributed to the South Indian culture. Over the centuries, there has been significant integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures across India and Muslims have played a notable role in economics, politics, and culture of India. Muhammad bi Qasim was conquest Sindh in 712 A.D. al walid ibn abdul malik. The king of Ceylon (present day Srilanka) dispatched a ship to the governor of Iraq ; Hajjaj bin Yousaf . The ship was attacked by the pirates as it passed the mouth of Indus. The were seized by the pirates and the Arab merchants were detained. Hijjaj bin Yousaf asked Raja Dahir, to set the captives free and take action against the pirates. Raja Dahir bluntly replied that he had no control over the pirates. Hijjaj Bin Yousaf the decided to retaliate.
First two expeditions sent by Hijjaj against Dahir failed. He then commissioned his son in law Imdad ud Din Muhammad Bin Qasim, who at that time was at Fars (Iran), was reinforced 6000 men from Syria and other places.Muslim intrusion from the north-west
By the 10th century, many new principalities were conquered and ruled by the Turks who had been initially brought into the Arab Armies as slave soldiers. The Turks were central Asian people who after their conversion to Islam in the 8th and 9th century led the next wave of Islamic conquests.Ghaznavid-Density:Ghaznavid dynasty receives its name from the city of Ghazni in modern Afghanistan. Alaptagin one of the most enterprising of Turkish officers was the founder of Ghazni. After the death of Alaptagin in 977 A.D his son in law Subuktugin ascended the throneofGhazni.Subuktugin: He deserve the footnote in the history for being the first Muslim to move across the Khyber pass into the sub-continent. After his victory, subuktugin did not established a foothold across the Khyber pass and returned to Ghazni. After Mahmud of Ghazni the next invader in India was MuhammadGhori. He belonged to the Ghorid dynasty which replaced the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan. After the death of Mahmood Ghaznovi, he was the first Turkish who invaded India; after a long period of 150 years. Delhi Sultanate
The period from the death of Muhammad Ghuri in 1206 till the advent of Mughals in the Sub-continent in 1526 is known in history as a period Delhi sultanate
Five Dynasty ruled on sub continent
(S.K.T.S.L). Slave or Mamulak Dynasty (1206-1290). Khilji dynasty (1290-1320). Taghlak Dynasty(1320-1412). Sayyed Density (1414-1451). Lodhi Dynasty ( 1451-1526)
Mughal’s Rule in India
The Mughal (or Mogul) Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the 16th and 17th centuries. t consolidated Islam in South Asia, and spread Muslim (and particularly Persian) arts and culture as well as the faith. The Mughals were Muslims who ruled a country with a large Hindu majority. However for much of their empire they allowed Hindus to reach senior government or military positions. The Mughals brought many changes to India: Centralised government that brought together many smaller kingdoms. Delegated government with respect for human rights. Persian art and culture.Persian language mixed with Arabic and Hindi to create Urdu. Periods of great religious tolerance. A style of architecture (e.g. the Taj Mahal).A system of education that took account of pupils' needs and culture. Muslims in India: There had been Muslims in India long before the Mughals. The first Muslims arrived in the 8th century. Babur: Babur the first Mughal Emperor, was a descendent of Genghis Khan and Tamerlaine. Babur succeeded his father as ruler of the state of Farghana in Turkestan when he was only 12, although he was swiftly deposed by older relatives. Akbar: The third Emperor, Abu Akbar, is regarded as one of the great rulers of all time, regardless of country. Akbar succeeded to the throne at 13, and started to recapture the remaining territory lost from Babur's empire. By the time of his death in 1605 he ruled over most of north, central, and western India. Jahangir: Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, readopted Islam as the state religion and continued the policy of religious toleration. His court included large numbers of Indian Hindus, Persian Shi'a and Sufis and members of local heterodox Islamic sects. Jahan: The architectural achievements of the Mughals peaked between 1592 and 1666, during the reign of Jahangir's successor Jahan. Jahan commissioned the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal marks the apex of the Mughal Empire; it symbolises stability, power and confidence. Aurangzeb: Jahan's son Aurangzeb was the last great Mughal Emperor. History's verdict on Aurangzeb largely depends on who's writing it; Muslim or Hindu. Aurangzeb ruled for nearly 50 years. He came to the throne after imprisoning his father and having his older brother killed. He was a strong leader, whose conquests expanded the Mughal Empire to its greatest size.
Causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire:
1. Wars of Succession:
The Mughals did not follow any law of succession like the law of primogeniture. Consequently, each time a ruler died, a war of succession between the brothers for the throne started. This weakened the Mughal Empire, especially after Aurangzeb. The nobles, by siding with one contender or the other, increased their own power.
2. Aurangzeb’s Policies:
Aurangzeb failed to realise that the vast Mughal Empire depended on the willing support of the people. He lost the support of the Rajputs who had contributed greatly to the strength of the Empire. They had acted as pillars of support, but Aurangzeb’s policy turned them to bitter foes. The wars with the Sikhs, the Marathas, the Jats and the Rajputs had drained the resources of the Mughal Empire.
3. Weak Successors of Aurangzeb:
The successors of Aurangzeb were weak and became victims of the intrigues and conspiracies of the faction-ridden nobles. They were inefficient generals and incapable of suppressing revolts. The absence of a strong ruler, an efficient bureaucracy and a capable army had made the Mughal Empire weak.
4. Empty Treasury:
Shah Jahan’s zeal for construction had depleted the treasury. Aurangzeb’s long wars in the south had further drained the exchequer.
5. Invasions:
Foreign invasions sapped the remaining strength of the Mughals and hastened the process of disintegration. The invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali resulted in further drainage of wealth. These invasions shook the very stability of the empire.
6. Size of the Empire and Challenge from Regional Powers:
The Mughal Empire had become too large to be controlled by any ruler from one centre i.e. Delhi. The Great Mughals were efficient and exercised control over ministers and army, but the later Mughals were poor administrators. As a result, the distant provinces became independent. The rise of independent states led to the disintegration of the Mughal Empire.
Impact of Islam on Hindu Society
Impact on Religious Field: What was the impact of Islam in the religious field is a matter of great controversy. Charles Eliot for the first time in his book ‘Hinduism and Buddhism’ propounded the thesis that Ramanuj and Shankra were greatly influenced by Islam. This view is supported by another prominent scholar Dr. Tara Chand who holds that the concept of the unity of God was a gift of Islam to India. He says that the great Shankaracharya, who flourished during the later years of the eighth and early years of the ninth Century A. D. was so much influenced by the Islamic theology as to have borrowed the theory of unity of God from his contact with Muslims. It is true that the upper class Hindus both in the north and in the South extended a very generous treatment to the Muslims and gave- them complete freedom to convert people to their religion. The Hindu leaders, reformers and preachers openly advocated that Hinduism and Islam were two paths leading to the same destination. They condemned the priestly rituals in both the religions and laid emphasis on devotion and piety. . Social Impact: The coming of Islam to India also left a deep mark on the social structure. With a view to meet the inroads of Islam more effectively the Hindu leaders made caste system more rigid and laid greater emphasis on the observance of caste rules. With a view to strengthen the Hindu society they recasts the Smritis and thus paved the way for taking back those persons in the fold of the Hindu society who had been forcibly removed from it. During the period 1200— 1500 voluminous commentaries on the Smritis and Nibandhas (digests) were produced with a view to readjust the social relationship according to the changed circumstances. Economic Impact: Though the Muslim rulers established their supremacy in the political sphere, the economy of the country continued to be dominated by the Hindus. No doubt large jagirs were given to the Muslim Amirs but they depended for the cultiva¬tion of their lands on the Hindu peasants. Therefore the land system remained in tact and there was hardly any change in the existing arrangement. The only change was that formally the lands came under the control of the Muslim Jagirdars. Impact on Fine Arts: Probably the deepest impact of Islam was in the field of fine arts. The spirit of assimilation and synthesis between the Hindu and the Muslim cultures led to the evolution of a new type of architecture and music in which the basic elements were those of the Hindus and the finish and outward form was that of the Persians.
As Dr. Tara Chand has said “The craftsmanship, the ornamental richness and general design remained largely Hindu, the actuated form, plain domes, smooth-faced walls and spacious in¬teriors were Muslim super-impositions”.
Impact on Music: In the sphere of Music the blending of the Persian Indian music led to the emergence of new notations. Qawwallis, etc. became more popular. Some of the musical instruments like Sitar were produced by blending the Indian Veena and the Iranian Tambura. Tabla is also considered to be a Muslim modification of Hindu musi¬cal Mirdang.
Role of Sufia in Promotion of Islam
The efforts rendered by the sufis in propagation of islam in the sub continent are unforgettable, innumerable and splendid. The spread of islam in the sub continent owes much to the efforts, exertions and the personal examples of the muslim saints and sufis who made concerted and diligent efforts to reach out to the amasses and sensitize them about the teachings of the islam. Most of these muslim saints migrated to india b/w the time span of eleventh and fourteenth century and devoted their lives for the cause of islam sufis made islam popular in indian sub continent . A large number of non muslims were impressed by the simple teachings, lofty character and fair treatment of the sufis and enterd in the fold of islam
The Origin of sufi
various suggestions have been made as to the origin of the word sufi. One conjecture is that the word is derived from (suf) the name of distinctive woolen robe worn by the early sufis. Yet another suggestion is that the word sufi is derived from (safa) meaning purity in arabic . Sufis were religious guides who aim for closer union with God. Sufis and their contribution towards the spread of islam in the sub continent. The message of islam was spread across the length and breadth of the indian sub continent by the islamic mystics. All the work of teaching creating goodwill of educating people in the simple and direct message of islam was done by muslim divines like Data Ganj Baksh of lahore, Khwaja Moinuddin of Ajmer, Khwaja Bakhtiyar kaki, Delhi, Baba Farid of Pakpattan, Sheikh Bahaudin Zakriya of Multan. Makhdoom Jahania Jangasgt of bahawalpur, Sheikh Nazim udin of Delhi.
The Sufis Taught
Simple faith
The mercy of God
The pleasures of honest dealing
Fellow of feeling
The nearness of God
The power of prayer
The beauties of faith
The duties and responsibilities of men in respect to other men
The Sufi Orders or Silsilas
The number of orders given by abul fazal in his(Ain Akbri) is fourteen. The following 4 silsilas are the most prominent in the Indian sub continent
1, Chishti Order founded by Khwaja Abdul Chishti in Heart.
Kwaja moin Ud Din Chishti implanted this silsila in India
2, Suharwardi order, founded by Sheikh Shahbudin Umar Suharwardi at Bghdad
3. Naqshbandi order popularized in India by efforts of Khwaja Baqi Bilah.
4. Qadira Order founded by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani in Baghdad
Muslim Identity in Sub-Continent
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born on 26 June 1564 in the village of Sir hind. He received most of his early education from his father, Shaykh 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Shaykh Muhammad Sadiq and from Shaykh Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorised the Qur'an. He then studied in Sialkot which had become an intellectual centre under the Kashmir-born scholar Maulana Kamaluddin Kashmiri.[7] There he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read advanced texts oftafsir and hadith under another scholar from Kashmir, Sheikh Yaqub Sarfi Kashmiri (1521-1595), who was a sheikh of the tariqa Hamadaniyya Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Sufi Order. Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught him jurisprudence, prophet Muhammad's biography and history. Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī traditions, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Shaykh Muhammad al-Baqī, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the length and breadth of the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won some favour with the Mughal court. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi had originally declared the reality of the Quran (haqiqat-i quran) and the reality of the Ka'ba (haqiqat-i ka'ba-yi rabbani) to be above the reality of Muhammad (haqiqat-i Muhammadi). This caused fury of opposition, particularly among certain Sufis and ulama of Hijaz who objected to the Ka'ba having exalted spiritual "rank" than the Prophet. Sirhindi argued in response that the reality of the Prophet is superior to any creature. The real Ka'ba is worthy of prostration since it is not created and is covered with the veil of nonexistence. It is this Ka'ba in the essence of God that Sirhindi was referring to as the reality of the Ka'ba, not the appearance of the Ka'ba (surat-i ka'ba), which is only a stone. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the consensus of the Naqshbandi community had placed the prophetic realities closer to God than the divine realities. The rationale for this development may have been to neutralize unnecessary discord with the large Muslim community whose emotional attachment to Muhammad was greater than any understanding of philosophical fine points. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi advanced the notion of wahdat ash-shuhūd (oneness of appearance):93 According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has reached the state of fana' fi Allah (to forget about everything except Almighty Allah). Sirhindi considered wahdat ash-shuhūd to be superior to wahdat al-wujūd (oneness of being):92 which he understood to be a preliminary step on the way to the Absolute Truth.
Despite this, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi still used Ibn al-'Arabi's vocabulary without hesitation.[3]:95
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi writes:
I wonder that Shaykh Muhyī 'l-Dīn appears in vision to be one of those with whom God is pleased, while most of his ideas which differ from the doctrines of the People of truth appear to be wrong and mistaken. It seems that since they are due to error in kashf, he has been forgiven... I consider him as one of those with whom God is well-pleased; on the other hand, I believe that all his ideas in which he opposes (the people of truth) are wrong and harmful.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, one of the architects of the modern Sub Continent was born on October 17, 1817 in Delhi and started his career as a civil servant.
The 1857 revolt was one of the turning points in Syed Ahmed's life. He clearly foresaw the imperative need for the Muslims to acquire proficiency in the English language and modern sciences, if the community were to maintain its social and political clout, particularly in Northern India.
He was one of those early pioneers who recognized the critical role of education in the empowerment of the poor and backward Muslim community. In more than one ways, Sir Syed was one of the greatest social reformers and a great national builder of modern India. He began to prepare the road map for the formation of a Muslim University by starting various schools. He instituted Scientific Society in 1863 to instill a scientific temperament into the Muslims and to make the Western knowledge available to Indians in their own language.
The Aligarh Institute Gazette, an organ of the Scientific Society, was launched in March 1866 and succeeded in agitating the minds in the traditional Muslim society. Anyone with a poor level of commitment would have backed off in theface of strong opposition but Sir Syed responded by bringing out another journal, Tehzibul Akhlaq which was rightly named in English as 'Mohammedan Social Reformer'
In 1875, Sir Syed founded the Madarsatul Uloom in Aligarh and patterned the MAO College after Oxford and Cambridge universities that he went on a trip to London. His objective was to build a college in line with the British education system but without compromising its Islamic values.
He wanted this College to act as a bridge between the old andthe new, the East and the West. While he fully appreciated the need and urgency of imparting instruction based on Western learning, he was not oblivious to thevalue of oriental learning and wanted to preserve and transmit to posterity therich legacy of the past. Dr. Sir Mohammad Iqbal observes: "The real greatness of Sir Syed consists in the fact that he was the first Indian Muslim who felt the need of a fresh orientation of Islam and worked for it -- his sensitive nature was the first to react to modern age".
The aim of Sir Syed was not merely restricted to establishing a college at Aligarh but at spreading a network of Muslim Managed educational institutions throughout the length and breadth of the country keeping in view this end, he instituted All India Muslim Educational Conference that revived the spirit of Muslims at national level. The Aligarh Movement motivated the Muslims to help open a number of educational institutions. It was the first of its kind of such Muslim NGO in India, which awakened the Muslims from their deep slumber and infused social and political sensibility into them.Sir Syed contributed many essential elements to the development of the modern society of the subcontinent. During Sir Syed's own lifetime, 'The Englishman', a renowned British magazine of the 19th century remarked in a commentary on November 17, 1885: 'Sir Syed's life "strikingly illustrated one of the best phases of modern history". He died on March 27, 1898 and lies buried next to the main mosque at AMU.
Sir Muhammad Iqbal, also known as Allama Iqbal was a philosopher, poet and politician in British India who was born on 9 November 1877 and died on 21th April 1938. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both Urdu and Persian languages.he was also called as Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times. Iqbal is known as Shair-e-Mushriq meaning Poet of the East. He is also called Muffakir-e-Pakistan (“The Inceptor of Pakistan”) and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (“The Sage of the Ummah”). In Iran and Afghanistan he is famous as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī or Iqbal of Lahore, and he is most appreciated for his Persian work. Pakistan Government had recognised him as its “national poet.He has different literary and narrative works. His first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz and also Pas che bayad kard.he had series of lectures in different educational institutions that were later on published by Oxford press as ‘’the Reconstruction of Islamic religious thoughts in Islam’’. Iqbal was influenced by the teachings of Sir Thomas Arnold, his philosophy teacher at Government college Lahore, Arnold’s teachings determined Iqbal to pursue higher education in West. In 1905, he traveled to England for his higher education. Iqbal qualified for a scholarship from Trinity College in Cambridge and obtained Bachelor of Arts in 1906, and in the same year he was called to the bar as a barrister from Lincoln’s Inn. In 1907, Iqbal moved to Germany to study doctorate and earned PhD degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich in 1908. Working under the guidance of Friedrich Hommel, Iqbal published his doctoral thesis in 1908 entitled: The Development of Metaphysics in Persia. During his study in Europe, Iqbal began to write poetry in Persian. He prioritized it because he believed he had found an easy way to express his thoughts. He would write continuously in Persian throughout his life. Iqbal, after completing his Master of Arts degree in 1899, initiated his career as a reader of Arabic at Oriental College and shortly was selected as a junior professor of philosophy at Government College Lahore, where he had also been a stundent; Iqbal worked there until he left for England in 1905. In 1908, Iqbal returned from England and joined again the same college as a professor of philosophy and English literature. At the same period Iqbal began practicing law at Chief Court Lahore, but soon Iqbal quit law practice, and devoted himself in literary works and became an active member of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam. In 1919, he became the general secretary of the same organisation. Iqbal’s thoughts in his work primarily focus on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centered around experiences from his travels and stays in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe. The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal’s mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal began intensely concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, while embracing Rumi as his guide. Iqbal had a great role in Muslim political movement. Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim League. He did not support Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated by Hindus and was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s, it was absorbed in factional divides between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi and the centrist group led by Jinnah. Ideologically separated from Congress Muslim leaders, Iqbal had also been disillusioned with the politicians of the Muslim League owing to the factional conflict that plagued the League in the 1920s. Discontent with factional leaders like Sir Muhammad Shafi and Sir Fazl-ur-Rahman, Iqbal came to believe that only Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a political leader capable of preserving this unity and fulfilling the League’s objectives on Muslim political empowerment. Building a strong, personal correspondence with Jinnah, Iqbal was an influential force in convincing Jinnah to end his self-imposed exile in London, return to India and take charge of the League. Iqbal firmly believed that Jinnah was the only leader capable of drawing Indian Muslims to the League and maintaining party unity before the British and the Congress: In his presidential address on December 29, 1930, Iqbal outlined a vision of an independent state for Muslim-majority provinces in northwestern India, “I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Self-government within the British Empire, or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated Northwest Indian Muslim state appears to me to be , at least of Northwest India. Iqbal was the first patron of the historical, political, religious, cultural journal of Muslims of British India. This journal played an important part in the Pakistan movement. The name of this journal is The Journal Tolu-e-Islam. Iqbal died on 21th April 1938 due to severe throat infection that lasted for long till his death. He will be remembered for good.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s achievement as the founder of Pakistan, dominates everything else he did in his long and illustrious public life spanning some 42 years. Yet, by any standard, his was an eventful life, his personality multidimensional and his achievements in other fields were many, if not equally great. Indeed, several were the roles he had played with distinction: at one time or another, he was one of the greatest legal luminaries India had produced during the first half of the century, an `ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, a great constitutionalist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a top-notch politician, an indefatigable freedom-fighter, a dynamic Muslim leader, a political strategist and, above all one of the great nation-builders of modern times. What, however, makes him so remarkable is the fact that while similar other leaders assumed the leadership of traditionally well-defined nations and espoused their cause, or led them to freedom, he created a nation out of an inchoate and down-trodden minority and established a cultural and national home for it. And all that within a decade. For over three decades before the successful culmination in 1947, of the Muslim struggle for freedom in the South-Asian subcontinent, Jinnah had provided political leadership to the Indian Muslims: initially as one of the leaders, but later, since 1947, as the only prominent leader- the Quaid-i-Azam. For over thirty years, he had guided their affairs; he had given expression, coherence and direction to their legitimate aspirations and cherished dreams; he had formulated these into concrete demands; and, above all, he had striven all the while to get them conceded by both the ruling British and the numerous Hindus the dominant segment of India’s population. And for over thirty years he had fought, relentlessly and inexorably, for the inherent rights of the Muslims for an honorable existence in the subcontinent. Indeed, his life story constitutes, as it were, the story of the rebirth of the Muslims of the subcontinent and their spectacular rise to nationhood, phoenixlike.“We are a nation”, they claimed in the ever eloquent words of the Quaid-i-Azam- “We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions; in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law, we are a nation”. The formulation of the Muslim demand for Pakistan in 1940 had a tremendous impact on the nature and course of Indian politics. On the one hand, it shattered for ever the Hindu dreams of a pseudo-Indian, in fact, Hindu empire on British exit from India: on the other, it heralded an era of Islamic renaissance and creativity in which the Indian Muslims were to be active participants. The Hindu reaction was quick, bitter, and malicious.Equally hostile were the British to the Muslim demand, their hostility having stemmed from their belief that the unity of India was their main achievement and their foremost contribution. The irony was that both the Hindus and the British had not anticipated the astonishingly tremendous response that the Pakistan demand had elicited from the Muslim masses. Above all, they failed to realize how a hundred million people had suddenly become supremely conscious of their distinct nationhood and their high destiny. In channeling the course of Muslim politics towards Pakistan, no less than in directing it towards its consummation in the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, none played a more decisive role than did Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It was his powerful advocacy of the case of Pakistan and his remarkable strategy in the delicate negotiations that followed the formulation of the Pakistan demand, particularly in the post-war period, that made Pakistan inevitable.
Aligarh Movement
The War of Independence 1857 ended in disaster for the Muslims. The British chose to believe that the Muslims were responsible for the anti-British uprising; therefore they made them the subject of ruthless punishments and merciless vengeance. The British had always looked upon the Muslims as their adversaries because they had ousted them from power. With the rebellion of 1857, this feeling was intensified and every attempt was made to ruin and suppress the Muslims forever. Their efforts resulted in the liquidation of the Mughal rule and the Sub-continent came directly under the British crown. After dislodging the Muslim rulers from the throne, the new rulers, the British, implemented a new educational policy with drastic changes. The policy banned Arabic, Persian and religious education in schools and made English not only the medium of instruction but also the official language in 1835. This spawned a negative attitude amongst the Muslims towards everything modern and western, and a disinclination to make use of the opportunities available under the new regime. This tendency, had it continued for long, would have proven disastrous for the Muslim community. Seeing this atmosphere of despair and despondency, Sir Syed launched his attempts to revive the spirit of progress within the Muslim community of India. He was convinced that the Muslims in their attempt to regenerate themselves, had failed to realize the fact that mankind had entered a very important phase of its existence, i.e., an era of science and learning. He knew that the realization of the very fact was the source of progress and prosperity for the British. Therefore, modern education became the pivot of his movement for regeneration of the Indian Muslims. He tried to transform the Muslim outlook from a medieval one to a modern one. Sir Syed’s first and foremost objective was to acquaint the British with the Indian mind; his next goal was to open the minds of his countrymen to European literature, science and technology. Therefore, in order to attain these goals, Sir Syed launched the Aligarh Movement of which Aligarh was the center. He had two immediate objectives in mind: to remove the state of misunderstanding and tension between the Muslims and the new British government, and to induce them to go after the opportunities available under the new regime without deviating in any way from the fundamentals of their faith. Keeping education and social reform as the two planks of his program, he launched the Aligarh Movement with the following objectives: To create an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the British government and the Muslims. To persuade Muslims to learn English education. To persuade Muslims to abstain from politics of agitation. To produce an intellectual class from amongst the Muslim community. Fortunately, Syed Ahmad Khan was able to attract into his orbit a number of sincere friends who shared his views and helped him. Among them were well-known figures like Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk, Hali, Shibli, Maulvi Nazir Ahmad, Chiragh Ali, Mohammad Hayat, and Zakaullah. Above all, his gifted son Syed Mahmud, a renowned scholar, jurist and educationist, was a great source of help to him. Syed Ahmad also succeeded in enlisting the services of a number of distinguished English professors like Bech, Morison, Raleigh and Arnold who gave their best in building up the Aligarh College into a first-rate institution. A brief chronology of Syed Ahmad’s efforts is given below:
1859: Built Gulshan School in Muradabad.
1863: Set up Victoria School in Ghazipur.
1864: Set up the Scientific Society in Aligarh. This society was involved in the translation of English works into the native language.
1866: Aligarh Institute Gazette. This imparted information on history; ancient and modern science of agriculture, natural and physical sciences and advanced mathematics.
1870: Committee Striving for the Educational Progress of Muslims. 1875: Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental School (M. A. O.), Aligarh, setup on the pattern of English public schools. Later raised to the level of college in 1877 and university in 1913.
1886: Muhammadan Educational Conference. This conference met every year to take stock of the educational problems of the Muslims and to persuade them to get modern education and abstain from politics. It later became the political mouthpiece of the Indian Muslims and was the forerunner of the Muslim League.
