If Islam was the religion of Muhammad how was it hijacked by revisionists?

As in all religions the traditions of Islam were changed frequently over the centuries by a number of passionate clerics who moved the Islamic Sharia from the mostly peaceable words of Muhammad to the angry rhetoric of the Taliban and IS. This continuous shift is clear from main milestones of the religion:

570 AD. Birth of the prophet Muhammad.

610. Muhammad receives the divine revelation from the angel Gabriel.

622. The Hijra. Muhammad migrates from Mecca to Medina to mark the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

632. Death of Muhammad.

661. Assassination of Ali that marks the beginning of Shia faction.

665. The third Khalif Uthman announces the definitive version of the Quran probably written by Zaid Ibn Thabit 33 years after Muhammad’s death.

704. Birth of Ibn Ishaq the first biographer about the life of Muhammad. There is no record of the prophet’s life till 82 years after the hijra. 142 years later Al Tabari elaborated on it.

Two hundred years after the death of Muhammad the second most sacred Islamic book, the Hadis (or Hadith) was compiled by a few pious scholars to guide Muslims to not only follow the words of the Prophet in the Quran but also examples from his life. Scholars like Al Bukhari tried to trace the descendents of the prophet’s family and reconstruct the stories of his life. Bukhari however rejected 99% of the stories that were offered to him. Restrictions on women like the veil only now become a requirement. The Prophet’s smallest actions become acts of piety for many Muslims. 

750 – 1258. Abbasid Caliphate. The Islamic empire containing many diverse races became a complex imperial society that needed new legal authorities like the Qazi (magistrate) concerned with legal matters, functions of the police, taxes and the status of non-Muslim subjects. Islamic law now split into six schools.

In the tenth century the Jewish Torah (Tawraat) was adopted and the Jewish sins of blasphemy, heresy, witchcraft, etc., became Islamic sins. Muslim clerics only now began prescribing the Jewish death sentences by burning, stoning, beheading and strangulation even though the Quran had never prescribed such punishments.

Four categories of punishment in Islamic law were devised much after the Quran. These were Qisas - (retaliation as `an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth’ following the Jewish Torah); Diyya -compensation paid to the heirs of a victim in blood money or ransom; Hadud – harsh punishments for severe crimes like murder, adultery, blasphemy, intoxication, idolatry or apostasy and Tazir – punishments given at the discretion of a Qazi.

1256. After the bloody sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols, Ahmad ibn Tamiyya, a Muslim scholar, was driven out of Iraq and declared a new policy to divide the Islamic world. `Dar ul Islam’ (abode of Islam) and `Dar ul Harb’ (abode of disbelievers). He also redefined the word Jihad to mean a Holy War.

1683. The defeat of the Turkish armies outside Vienna marked the end of Islamic expansion and the beginning of European power that was to soon dominate the world and push Muslim countries into increasingly narrow minded orthodoxy.

In the nineteenth century Islam was hijacked by Mohammad Abd Al Wahhab who started the Sunni Wahhabiya movement. It accepted the Quran and Hadis but opposed all innovations, superstitions and deviances with a very narrow interpretation in a puritanical and legalistic form. They considered the veneration of pirs, the intercession of Imams, religious holidays, and other devotional acts as heresies and even desecrated the tomb of Muhammad. With the support of the ibn Saud family they promoted an extreme form of Islam that led to the Taliban, Al Qaida and IS.

1922. The Balfour declaration at the end of the First World War Britain callously divided the former Turkish territories. Israel became an independent country in 1948 and began a series of bitter wars with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria leading to an unending cycle of conflict ever since.

1991 and 2003. The American `War on Terror’ against Iraq and Afghanistan (2001) outraged many Muslims who considered them morally unjustified. The American CIA support for Saudi Arabia made them virtual allies in the creation of the radical Taliban. Later the Sunni ISIS attacked the Shia majorities in Syria and Iraq who were supported by a Shia Iran backed by Russia.

Like all religions Islam changed frequently over time. As many of the frequently irrational or violent laws of Judaism became sanctified in Islam Muslim clerics found them convenient to regiment their followers with increasingly onerous regulations enforced by draconian punishments.

People forget that the Quran explicitly says that killing in the name of Islam is the opposite of Jihad and had expressly forbidden an attack on anyone who had offered no offence and that it is forbidden to harm or to kill women and children. Many do not know that it is also forbidden to take hostages or to torture or kill prisoners. Even suicide is forbidden. The Prophet had said that anyone who sets another on fire, even an ant, commits the greatest sin and is destined to the fires of hell.

Times of India carried this article on the edit page on May 28.

Not Plassey 1757 but Samugarh 1658: Fateful tipping point

that fixed the subcontinent’s future course

Murad Ali Baig

On May 29 1658 India’s history changed forever. Aurangzeb’s victory over his brother Dara Shikoh marked the beginning of Islamic bigotry in India that not only alienated Hindus but the much more moderate Sufis and Shias as well. His narrow Sunni beliefs were to make India the hotbed of Muslim fundamentalists long before the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia sponsored the fanatics of the Taliban and ISIL.

Samugarh marked the beginning of Islamic bigotry that led over the centuries to the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan and backlash of radical Hinduism.

Two great Mughal armies led by Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh and his third son Aurangzeb clashed on a dusty plain about twenty kilometers south east of Agra. It was not only a battle for the Mughal throne but a battle for the very soul of India pitting Dara, an eclectic scholar who respected all religions, against Aurangzeb who was an orthodox Sunni Muslim. Dara had first translated of the Bhagavat Gita and the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Persian to make them known to the public for the first time. The fact that he had been a Sanskrit scholar shows that there had been considerable Hindu – Muslim amity in the time of Shahjahan. But Dara had been a pampered prince who faced a smaller battle hardened army that Aurangzeb had marched up from the Deccan after defeating an Imperial army at Dharmat near Indore.

Blocked at the Chambal River Aurangzeb quietly slipped behind Dara’s lines to reach a secret ford across the Chambal by nonstop double marches over two days. Dara now realized that Aurangzeb’s armies had outflanked his army and come very close to Agra so he had to rush east without most of his cannons. The two armies met on a flat dusty plain east of a village called Samugarh on an unbelievably hot day with the sun was like a furnace in a cloudless sky. There was not enough water so many soldiers and horses collapsed of heat and sun stroke. The battle was more than just a contest between Dara and his rebel brothers but was beginning to become a religious war with the Hindus supporting Dara and many Muslim nobles supporting Aurangzeb.

Dara was on the brink of victory when he was betrayed. One of his commanders, Khalilullah Khan rushed up and insisted that he must dismount and finish the battle on a horse. He is reported to have cried out… ”Praise be to Allah this victory is your own! But my God! Why you are still mounted on a lofty elephant? Have you not been sufficiently exposed to danger? If one of the numberless musket balls or arrows touch your royal person who can imagine the terrible situation to which we will all be reduced? In God’s name descend quickly, mount this horse and pursue the miserable fugitives with all vigour.” But as soon as Dara descended, a huge shout was sent up by Khalilullah Khan’s squadron that Dara Shikoh had been killed. When the bewildered soldiers saw through the swirling clouds of dust and smoke that the howdah of Dara’s elephant was empty they feared the worst and fled towards Agra.

The noise of battle quite quickly subsided and the dust and smoke began to slowly clear to reveal some fifteen thousand corpses lying on the dusty battlefield in hundreds of piles coated in vivid crimson blood. The Rajput corpses in their yellow jamas looked like untidy fields of saffron but all the fallen bodies were quickly shrouded by a huge cloak of choking yellow dust. Dara rode back to his mansion from where left for Delhi. He then retreated to Lahore and then down the Indus and a year later was able to muster a big army to fight a fierce three day battle against Aurangzeb at Deorai south of Ajmer. He then fled towards Kandahar to be betrayed once again and brought to Delhi where the imperial Qazis sentenced him to death for the crime of heresy. He had written a book called the `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the many similarities between the Quran and the Brahma Shastras of the Hindus. 

At the trial the first Qazi asked Dara to hand him the jade thumb ring that was still on his left hand. He is reported to have turned it over and asked why the green stone was inscribed with the words ‘Allah’ on one side and ‘Prabhu’ on the other. Dara evidently replied that the creator was known by many name and called God, Allah, Prabhu, Jehova, Ahura Mazda and many more names by devout people in many different lands. He added that it is written in the Quran that Allah had sent down one hundred and twenty four thousand messengers to show all the people of the world the way of righteousness and he believed that these messengers had been sent not only to Muslims but to all the people of the world in every age. He said that this belief had inspired him to write the `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the similarities between the Quran and the Hindu Brahma Shastras. Aurangzeb casually signed the order of execution after the Qazis found him guilty of heresy.

Aurangzeb’s greatest weakness was his inflexible religious bigotry that made him lose the support his influential Shia subjects as well as his many Hindu and Rajputs followers. His intolerance became more acute after twenty years of rule as he became frustrated by endless rebellions. By persecuting his own Rajput followers he cut off his own arms and weakened his military power. The Maratha leader Shivaji initially had no anti Muslim sentiment and had been quite willing to become a Mughal Amir. Aurangzeb’s obstinate pride however alienated him and gave him a weapon to turn a purely political war against the Mughals into a religious war.

If Dara had won at Samugarh his rule might have promoted harmony between India’s turbulent peoples and a united Mughal empire may have prevented India becoming so easily colonized by European powers. Samugarh marked the beginning of Islamic bigotry that led over the centuries to the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan and the backlash of radical Hinduism. Samugarh was a tipping point in India’s history.

REVIEW IN KASHMIR MONITOR

Of faith and fratricide

SUNDAY, 22 MAY 2016

KASHMIR MONITOR

MUNEEZA SHAMSIE

140 VIEWS

1

OF FAITH AND FRATRICIDE

In recent years, the rise of religious extremism and related violence has led to an increasing literary interest in the historical rivalry between Dara Shikoh the Mughal heir and his younger brother, Aurangzeb. In these writings, the former represents an intolerant religious extremism and the latter a more inclusive, tolerant and multicultural aspect of faith. Now the Indian writer and historian Murad Ali Baig has added to this body of work with his debut novel Ocean Of Cobras which encompasses the sibling rivalry between Shah Jahan’s four sons, but focuses in particular on Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb and the respective partisanship of their sisters Jahanara and Roshanara.

Baig constructs his plot in the form of a lost manuscript, discovered after 1857, by British officers in the Red Fort, Delhi and translated by British scholars from the original Persian into English: the document proves to be written by the fictitious Mubarak Ali, a eunuch at Shah Jahan’s court. The great strength of his narrative lies in the descriptions of different aspects of 17th century India including the precariousness of court life while serving a fratricidal/patricidal dynasty.

Mubarak Ali, the son of a Persian nobleman and an aristocratic French lady, becomes the victim of family misfortune following his father’s support for Khusrau’s unsuccessful rebellion against Jahangir, his father. Mubarak Ali is subsequently imprisoned and castrated by a vicious enemy. He is then bought in the slave market, to serve in the imperial harem. There his background, breeding and personal courage stand him in good stead. He is not only befriended by Shah Jahan’s eldest, the beautiful Princess Jahanara, but is later placed in charge of young Prince Murad and is educated alongside.

The book uses Mubarak Ali’s role as eunuch to great advantage to portray life among both the men and women at the Mughal court. He rides and hunts with Shah Jahan’s sons. He conjures up a vivid description of the royal shikar and of life in the Mughal camp, “a huge tented city”. As Shah Jahan travels to different districts to receive due tribute from their vassals or intimate rebels, the novel also captures the panoply of power which accompanies the imperial caravan — elephants, camels, cavalry and artillery, women (including the pregnant Mumtaz Mahal) carried in palanquins or riding veiled, on horses. Mubarak Ali goes on describes the death of Mumtaz Mahal in childbirth, Shah Jahan’s grief and the monument — the Taj Mahal — that he builds for her. Mubarak Ali’s sojourn with his shikari friend, deep in the forests among the Bhil tribe, teaches him how live and survive in a world close to nature which stands him in good stead during the exile he shares with Dara Shikoh and his diminishing entourage.

Mubarak Ali’s eyewitness account of the sibling rivalries between Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh begins when Mubarak Ali is nine and first joins the royal household. He observes Shah Jahan’s harsh treatment of 11-year-old Aurangzeb, while the Mughal heir Dara Shikoh enjoys the undisguised love showered on him by Shah Jahan: he can do no wrong in his father’s eyes. Mubarak Ali writes of Aurangzeb’s courage, his undoubted competence as a military commander — and his successful campaign in Orchha at 15, followed by his appointment as viceroy of the Deccan.

He reveals that the teenaged Aurangzeb was strongly influenced by a Sunni scholar in the Deccan, during his campaign there. He contrasts the puritanical and orthodox Aurangzeb with the intellectual and literary Dara Shikoh, who translated The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita into Persian, espoused a mystical, inclusive Islam and was strongly influenced by the Sufis and Mian Mir.

In fact, as the friction between the two brothers grows, the novel continues to describe their rivalry and their power-struggle in the somewhat simplistic terms:

Dara wanted to bring all the people into the loving bosom of a merciful and benevolent Allah but Aurangzeb believed that the Mughals had a moral right to convert all the people of Hindustan into Muslims.

The problem with such a black-and-white reading of Mughal history and indeed Baig’s repeated statement that under the Mughals, India was a Muslim country, is that Baig looks at a pre-modern society through modern concepts of nationalism and statehood. Such interpretations are doubtless common currency in India and Pakistan today, but they do ignore the fact that from the 15th to 19th centuries, the religious wars that raged in Europe (Catholic versus Protestant) defined the nations of modern Europe, whereas in pre-colonial India, although religious conflicts did exist, battles were largely fought for power or territory with Hindu and Muslim rulers, joining forces against a common foe. Aurangzeb’s military allies were frequently Rajputs. As Aurangzeb’s power grew, both Hindu and Muslim princes/warriors joined him, and betrayed his incarcerated father and his defeated brothers.

As a historical novel, Ocean of Cobras does not take advantage of fiction as a creative medium to explore the emotional complexities of Shah Jahan and his fratricidal sons, which did not simply revolve around issues of faith, and whose actions would define the fate of their dynasty — and facilitate a denouement that they could not have imagined: British hegemony. Instead, Dara’s spiritual inclinations and his quest for transcendence, which encompassed many faiths and scriptures, are reduced by the author to a self-conscious post-independence polemic on religious unity. The novel is also peppered with sweeping and sometimes, inaccurate statements on Mughal/Indian history, including a reference to Aurangzeb’s literary daughter Zebunissa, as his granddaughter. 

Nevertheless, this is a very readable book and its insights into Mughal life include particularly interesting details of military battles witnessed by Mubarak Ali. His narrative includes a detailed account of the Battle of Samugarh during which Shah Jahan’s armies led by Dara Shikoh were defeated by Aurangzeb. As a part of Dara Shikoh’s entourage, Mubarak Ali tells of their journey across the subcontinent from Agra to Lahore, where Dara Shikoh regroups his forces and travels through Multan, Thatta and Ahmedabad and encounters Aurangzeb’s armies at the Battle of Deorai. There Dara Shikoh is defeated once more. Mubarak Ali’s account leads up to the brief, shocking and tragic trial of Dara Shikoh for apostasy, instituted by Aurangzeb and his orthodox clerics, culminating in Dara Shikoh’s execution (soon followed by that of his mentor Sarmad) which is all the more chilling for its combination of fratricide, realpolitik and faith.

Ocean of Cobras: The Epic Battle for the Soul of India between Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb

(HISTORY)

By Murad Ali Baig

Tara Press, India

ISBN 978-8183861281

344pp.

Kashmir Monitor 25/05/2016