Religion

At the time of Akbar's rule, the Moghul Empire included both Hindus and Muslims. Profound differences
separate the Islamic and Hindu faith; Muslims are allowed to eat beef, while for those of the Hindu
religion it is forbidden to harm cows because they are worshiped as sacred. Hindus are allowed to drink
alcoholic beverages (such as wine), a practice which is forbidden by Islam. Nonetheless, Hindus were
regarded as “people of the book” since they possessed scriptures and, while worship of the many deities
could be regarded as both idolatry and polytheism, they were given the benefit of the doubt on both
accounts. That is, on the issue of idolatry they were said to venerate not the representation, or image,
but the deity that it represented while the many deities were taken to be different names for the same,
single reality. In fact, some Hindu mystical teachers attracted Muslim devotees while such Muslim Sufi
saints as Chisti and Kabir were popular with Hindus. Sufis taught unity of all beings (wahdat-al-wujud),
and Akbar was a disciple of Chisti, who prophesied the birth of his first son. Akbar incorporated Chisti's
shrine into Fatehpur Sikri (1670).

Akbar the Great, leader of the Moghul Empire, fostered pluralism and tolerance for all religions

During the period of the Moghul Empire, the majority of the Indian population was Hindu, but the rulers
of the empire were almost exclusively Muslim. It was in this polarized religious arena that Akbar
commenced his rule. Akbar himself fostered tolerance for all religions, which was known as his policy of
sulh-i-kull (universal tolerance) (Davies, 317). Clearly interested in religious issues, he started to invite
scholars to court to discuss theological topics. Initially, only Muslims took part, but later Akbar invited
Jews, Parsees (Zoroastrians), Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians, including Jesuits from Goa. At his
new capital, he built the 'ibadat-khana (house of worship) to accommodate scholarly exchanges.

Akbar was “genuinely interested in the study of Comparative Religion,” according to Davies, as he
became convinced of “good in all religions.” Some assume that Akbar's interest was mainly political, to
retain the loyalty of non-Muslim subjects. Thus, his cross-cultural marriages to several Hindu princesses
have been dismissed as politically motivated, rather than a genuine attempt at religious reconciliation.
On the other hand, he also married Christians and at the time no Christian power was strong enough to
justify a strategic alliance. Therefore, he appears to have seen his marriages as a way of cementing
interreligious friendship.

Akbar tried to reconcile the differences of both religions by creating a new faith called the Din-i-Ilahi, or
tawhid-i-Ilahi, which incorporated both Islam and Hinduism. This stressed unity (tawhid) of all beings
and a pure theism that in his view represented the “common element of all the creeds he sought into”
(Gibb and Kramers, 27). Some believe that, in any formal sense, few people subscribed to this religion.
However, it was his successors' “departure from the main principles of his rule that led to the decline of
the Moghul empire” (Davies: 317). In reaction, harsh measures were enacted against Muslims (and also
Sikhs). His immediate successors, Jehangir (1569 – 1627) and Shah Jahan (1627 – 1658) (builder of the
Taj Mahal) more or less continued his policy of toleration but Aurangzeb (1618 – 1707; emperor from
1658 until 1707), influenced by traditional or conservative Muslim scholars, pursued an iconoclastic
policy of destroying Hindu images, banning music, closing non-Muslim schools, and even destroying
temples. The jizya was re-introduced. He also disapproved of Sufi Islam. Much of this anticipated the
type of Islam that Shah Waliullah (1702 – 1767) would advocate.

Akbar and Orthodox Islam

They also had to declare that he was a just ruler, imam-i-'adil (Qureshi, 62). However, in practice Akbar
was not qualified to act as an Islamic judge, since this involves adjudicating between the opinions of
different scholars, so as a matter of fact (although the subject of considerable controversy) the decree
was never implemented. Instead, Akbar “relied upon the political device of appointing to high religious
and legal offices his own nominees” (Davies, 62).

His successors saw him as an apostate and infidel who compromised Islam but “the charge that he
denounced Islam and ceased consciously to be a Muslim is not proved,” concluded Qureshi (63).
According to Shaikh Nur al-Hakk, Akbar “tried to take the good from all differing opinions” with the “sole
object” of “ascertaining [the] truth” (Gibb and Kramers, 27). This represents a classic struggle between
the two spheres of authority in Islam, that of siyasah, or politics, and of fiqh, or jurisprudence. As sultan,
Akbar wanted to control both and to recruit support for his interpretation of Islam. The tactic of
appointing nominees to high office who are sympathetic to one’s views is almost universally used by
heads of state and of government. Akbar clearly wanted to curb the power of the traditional ulama,
whose version of Islam he considered narrow and intolerant. Following the “Infallability Decree,”
Akbar's half-brother, Hakim (governor of Kabul) tried to ferment a revolt with the aid of a fatwa in
support of his cause. Aided by his loyal Hindu soldiers, Akbar took Kabul in 1581, defeating Hakim