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Why Five Muslim Reformers in India? Introduction: India Had Historically Hosted Five Reformers1 of Islam

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Why Five Muslim Reformers in India? Introduction: India Had Historically Hosted Five Reformers1 of Islam Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem Why Five Muslim Reformers in India? Introduction: India had historically hosted five Reformers1 of Islam. First Reformer was in 9th Hijri2 with four consecutive Reformers in 11th -14th Hijri, making India the highest recipient of Reformers in Islam. Whilst this may seem disproportionate to some people from other countries, India had that past history, which compelled frequency of Reformers, to personally protect Muslims and preserve Islam in its originality. India was widely entrenched with practises in idolatry, polytheism and all subsystems of idolatry and polytheism. For sake of consistency, hereinafter, Reformer will be referred to the widely accepted Muslim terminology as Mujaddid. Discussion on Why Five Muslim Reformers in India: 1) India, apart from being one of the oldest civilizations in this world, also has the status of hosting some of the oldest religions and complex cultural mix. Many of the old Indian religions have been in existence for thousands of years before Christianity. Some of these very old religions of India have been: Hinduism and its various sectarian divisions, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Jainism, and Buddhism, to mention a few3. However, there are so many other different religions in India and these have been spread throughout the breadth and vertical measures of the Indian subcontinent. Many of these also have widespread inclusions of practises such as idolatry, polytheism, and their various subsystems. Included in this complex mix were several layers of ethnic caste systems, with cultural barriers, which did not allow freedom of intermixing communities. Muslims 4 who were sparsely spread throughout the entire Indian subcontinent, had the potential threat of becoming completely swamped by religions, built around idolatry and polytheism. The Delhi Muslim Sultanate was founded in 1206 and ruled India till 1526. This happened after leader Muhammad Ghori defeated king Pritvi Raj Chauhan and captured Delhi in 1 Reformer is English equivalent of the Arabic terminology called Mujaddid. It is perhaps timely to mention the purpose and function of Mujaddid. A Mujaddid is a maintenance manager of the religion of Islam, as a reviver, selectively appointed by Almighty God; and that person is informed by Almighty God’s angels of his appointment as the Mujaddid at the head of the emergence of an Islamic Century (Hijri), at that point in time. 2 After 12 years of preaching and correcting the people of Mecca, the situation became very dangerous for Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). There had become an alliance of conspiracy and treachery comprising idolaters, polytheists, Jews and Mithras from all over Mecca, who planned to kill Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Almighty God was aware of their evil plans. The House where Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was residing at, was surrounded by this alliance of heavily armed conspirators. Almighty God then intervened and caused a miracle, which brought about slumber to all those surrounding the house. At the precise moment Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his close associate Abu Bakar, slipped out of the house and headed towards Medina. This incident is also called “the flight.” From that moment onwards Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), was relocated to Medina, where he received several revelations comprising of 27 other Chapters of the Holy Qur’an. This forced departure from Mecca to Medina is the Islamic dating system called Hijri, with year followed by AH. 3 Christianity and Islam as religions per se did not exist more than 2,000 years previously. 4 Islam commenced in India around 7th Century AD, with Arab spice traders frequenting the Indian west coastal area for their purchases. 1 1192. Subsequently, the Mughal Empire 5 captured Delhi and saw the Mughal Emperorship as rulers of India from 1526 till 1857. It was throughout this period that Almighty God had appointed the five Mujaddids to salvage Muslims from the threat of very overpowering and very complex mix of religions, castes and cultures in India. This religious landscape was unique to India. The greatest difficulties the Mughal Emperors faced in India was the resistance to their administration by the Sikhs. Most of the Sikhs in the region were generations’ downstream descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great (326BC). They were mainly of Greek origins and settled there, with cross marriages into the then communities of the Punjab. These Sikh descendants were for hundreds of years fighting for their own homeland, which the Sikhs want to call Khalistan6. It became imperative to send four more Mujaddids to save Muslims and preserve Islam. The 14th Hijri Mujaddid came immediately after the Sikhs’ killing of the 13th Hijri Mujaddid. This is shown in the table at paragraph 5. 2) There is dire need to establish that no Prophet and Messenger will come after the death of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in 632AD7. However, a Mujaddid will continue to come every Hijri, in certain parts of the world where Islam and Muslims have come under intense pressure and both of their survivals have to be sustained by a Mujaddid. There were 19 Mujaddids8 over 14 Hijris and after the death of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in 632AD. 3) The Divine authority for commencement and continuation of the arrival of Mujaddid every Islamic Century (Hijri) is in the Holy Qur’an at HQ24:55, as “Allah has promised 5 Mughal Emperor Babur, born in Uzbekistan but came as ruler from Kabul in modern-day Afghanistan, conquered the Delhi Sultanate in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodhi, the Pastun King at the Battle of Panipat and established the Mughal Empire. Babur was a descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. The Mughal Empire was a Muslim majority empire that ruled India from 1526 to 1857AD. 6 Sikhism was founded in 1469AD by Guru Nanak in the Indian region of Punjab. There were nine other Gurus in 16th through 17th centuries AD. The Khalistan movement was a Sikh nationalist movement 1709-1849 AD, which wanted to create an independent state for Sikh people, inside the former North-Western Mughal India, (which is now part of Pakistan, since August 1947). The Sikhs had compounded their stubbornness of demand for independent State throughout the regime of the Mughal Empire 1526-1857AD. It was during this period that the 13th Hijri Islamic Reformer Hazrat Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (b.1786 - d.1831) was killed by the Sikhs upon direct orders of Sikh’s king Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Balakot, Mansehra District. The decline and fall of the Mughal Empire was largely caused by the orchestrated conspiracy and treachery by Sikhs and Hindus with the British in 1857. The Sikhs wanted to have Khalistan as an independent State within India. The British promised to give Sikhs their independent State of Khalistan: provided the Sikhs and Hindus helped British in overthrow of the (then existing) Mughal Empire. To date there, there is still no independent State of Khalistan. 7 There shall not be another Prophet (Prophet or Messenger) after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). This testimony is easily available as two streams of materially verifiable evidences, which testify that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) shall be the Final Prophet (both Prophet and Messenger) ever. The first evidence is in the Holy Qur’an at HQ33:40, which testifies as “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the prophets. And Allah is ever Knower of all things.” The second evidence was a paragraph in the last sermon, which Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) delivered to and witnessed by the multitude of tens of thousands of Muslims in 632AD, in which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) clarified (as his paragraph No 7): “O People, no prophet or apostle will come after me and no new faith will be born. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand my words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my example, the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray.” 8 The reason there is disproportionate match of 19 Mujaddids within 14 Hijris is because of the 9 Crusades against Muslims from 1095AD-1291AD. Most Crusades were fought by Christians against Muslims in their attempts to recapture Jerusalem (called the “Holy Land”) from Muslims’ control. Consequently two Mujaddids arrived in each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th Hijri to sustain survival of Muslims against the militaries of combined countries in the battles of the 9 Crusades. These Mujaddids featured within the larger radius to Middle East of those countries, affected by battles of the 9 Crusades. The intensity of these Crusades covered France, Spain and Portugal in the West and all countries of the Northern Mediterranean region and extended East towards the current Middle East countries, including all countries bordering Adriatic Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Herzegovina and Slovenia. In the past these recently broken up countries were historically known as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia till 1993 and 1992 respectively; they were main battlegrounds of Crusades. 2 to those of you who believe and do good that He will surely make them rulers in the earth as He made those before them rulers, and that He will surely establish for them their religion, which He has chosen for them, and that He will surely give them security in exchange after their fear. They will serve Me, not setting up any partner with Me. And whoever is ungrateful after this, they are the transgressors.” 4) It is embedded belief in the minds of all Muslims that all Prophets (both Prophets and Messengers 9 ) brought messages, rules and practices 10 , which were fundamentally Muslim principles; because they were centrally guided by Almighty God. They all came with differently worded messages to communities, but as continuous flowing of the same messages.
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