Islam in India

Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.

REL 231
Religions of India and Tibet
Berea College
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Fall 2005
ARABIAN ROOTS OF ISLAM
• Muhammad (570-632 CE):
• Born in Arabian city of Mecca; raised
by relatives after parents’ death
• Absorbs diverse religious influences
(Christian, Jewish, local Arab
polytheism) in cosmopolitan
commercial city
• Experiences revelations from Allah
(name of one Arab deity) beginning
with “Night of Power” (610), later
transcribed in Quran
• As revelations continue, begins to
preach monotheism, moral purity, and
simplicity of lifestyle
• Persecution leads to escape (Hijra)
from Mecca to Medina (622)
• Gaining support, returns to Mecca as
conqueror (630)
• Dies after making pilgrimage (Hajj) 2
to sacred sites in Mecca
 WHO IS A MUSLIM?
• Muslim = from Arabic Islam,
“submission”
• A Muslim is “one who submits”
to one who submits” to Allah
(God) through the revelation
(Quran) given to humanity
through His Prophet and final
messenger, Muhammad
• A Muslim is anyone who can say
and believe the Shahada, or
“Profession of Faith”:
4. There is no God but Allah
5. Muhammad is Allah’s Prophet
• 50% of Muslims today live in
South and Southeast Asia
• Fewer than 20% of Muslims are
Arabs 3
 THE “FIVE PILLARS”
OF ISLAM
• Shahada: profession of faith
in Allah as sole deity and
Muhammad as final
messenger (culmination of
Hebrew Bible and New
Testament prophecy)
• Salat: ritual prayer five times
daily (morning, noon,
afternoon, sunset, dusk) while
prostrated in direction of
Mecca – customarily solitary,
but communal on Fridays at
noon in masjid (mosque)
• Zakat: charity – a “loan to
God” representing 2.5% of
one’s income, donated by
those 16 years and older who
can afford it
• Ramadan: abstinence from
food, drink, sex, stimulants
during daylight hours of ninth
lunar month in
commemoration of the
Prophet’s “Night of Power”
• Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca to
be made by every Muslim at
least once in a lifetime
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THE RISE OF SUFISM
• Soon after Prophet’s death, some
Muslims become critical of what they
see as worldliness and corruption of
caliphs (“deputies” or Islamic rulers)
• Preaching simple living and constant
prayer, and distinguished by their
blue wool (sūf) clothing, Sufis
become famous for their use of
meditation and mystical union with
Allah
• Primary value of Sufism: tawakkul
(absolute trust in Allah)
• Tawakkul in turn arises from tawhid
(absolute unity/uniqueness of Allah)
• Tawakkul is expressed through faqr
(“poverty,” both material and
spiritual)
• Faqr in turn leads to fanā
(“annihilation” of self in the presence5
of almighty Allah)
 SUFI THEOLOGY
• As Sufism expands throughout
Muslim world, it encounters
Buddhist and Hindu traditions in
South and Central Asia
• Other Muslims criticize Sufis for
assimilating non-Islamic ideas,
leading to systematization and
defense of Sufi doctrine
• Sufi teachers (shaikhs) transmit
their spiritual lineages (silsila)
inherited from Muhammad to
communities of disciples (tarīqa)
• Basic Sufi theme: love, not fear,
should define relationship between
humanity and Allah
• Sufis practice dhikr
(“remembrance”) of Allah
through chanting, dancing,
fasting, music, and prayer
• Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-
1111), most famous Sufi
theologian, defines 4 major
points of Sufism:
• islām (“surrender, submission” to
God in all aspects of life)
• īmān (“faith” in God and his Prophet,
Muhammad)
• ihsān (“serving God as if one were
seeing Him” at all times)
• ishrāq (“illumination” of the soul,
leading it from dark material realm to
light spiritual realm)
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 THE ISLAMIC CONQUEST
OF INDIA
• Between 700 and 1000, Islam
gradually introduced to India
through combination of Arab
invasion, settlement, and trade
• 1000-1200: Persian-speaking
Turks conquer northern and
central India
• 1206-1526: Turkish “Delhi
Sultanate” controls northern
India, insulates Islam from
devastating Mongol conquests
elsewhere, and forms partnership
with Sufi faqirs who help bridge
gap between Muslim rulers and
Hindu subjects
• 1526-1858: Mughal Empire
displaces Delhi Sultanate and
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eventually masters all of India
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ISLAM UNDER THE
MUGHALS
• Like their Turkish predecessors, the
Mughals rely on Sufi leaders to
maintain power
• Aurangzeb (1618-1707), heir to Shah
Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal),
becomes famous for his simplicity of
life and Islamic orthodoxy, imposing
the jizya (tax on non-Muslims) on
Hindus
• Shah Wali Allah (1702-1762) leads
Islamic revival across India, but
weakened Mughal rule cannot check
rise of quasi-independent Muslim and
Hindu territories within Empire
• In general, Islamic rulers preside over a
syncretistic period of Indian religious
history, in which multiple traditions
interact and recombine to form new
concepts, movements, and practices
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 COLONIAL AND
POSTCOLONIAL ISLAM
• Western settlements in India:
2. Portuguese (1510)
3. Dutch (1609)
4. English (1612)
5. French (1674)
• 1858: British depose last Mughal
emperor and rule until 1947
• 1947: Partition of mostly Muslim
Pakistan from mostly Hindu
India inaugurates wave of
refugees and reprisals
• 1948: Mahatma Gandhi
assassinated by right-wing Hindu
who opposed his conciliatory
policy toward Muslims
• 1971: India backs secession of 10
East Pakistan (Bangladesh)
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