In other thread someone was telling me that Sufis are different from True Islamists. Many have been misled, mostly by their own soft-headed scholars, to cherish the fond belief that the Sufis were spiritual seekers, and that unlike the Mullahs, they loved non-Islamic religious lore and liked their non-muslim neighbours. A reknowned Sufi saint was Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624). He was always foaming at the mouth against Akbar’s policy of peace with the Hindus. He proclaimed himself the Mujaddid-i-alf-i-sãnî, ‘renovator of the second millennium of Islam’. Besides writing several books, he addressed many letters to several powerful courtiers in the reign of Akbar and Jahangir. His Maktûbãt-i-Imãm Rabbãnî have been collected and published in three volumes. A few specimens should suffice to show the quality of this man’s mind. After Guru Arjun Deva had been tortured and done to death by Jahangir, he wrote in letter No. 193 that
“the execution of the accursed kafir of Gobindwal is an important achievement and is the cause of the great defeat of the Hindus.” 1
In letter No. 163 he wrote: “The honour of Islam lies in insulting kufr and kafirs. One who respects the kafirs dishonours the Muslims… The real purpose of levying jiziya on them is to humiliate them to such an extent that they may not be able to dress well and to live in grandeur. They should constantly remain terrified and trembling. It is intended to hold them under contempt and to uphold the honour and might of Islam.”2
1.S.A.A. Rizvi, Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Agra, 1965 p. 215.
2.Ibid
Just to remind that Sirhindi ranks with Shah Waliullah as one of the topmost sufis and theologians of Islam. Referring to his role, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has written in his Tazkirah that “but for these letters Muslim nobles would not have stood by Islam and but for the efforts of Shaikh Ahmad, Akbar’s heterodoxy would have superseded Islam in India.”3
1.S.A.A. Rizvi, Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Agra, 1965 p. 215.
2.Ibid
3.Ibid
Some how Sirhindi was able to convince Jahangir to kill Fifth Guru. This is how he writes in his Tuzuk-i-Jahãngîrî:
"In Gobindwal, which is on the river Blyah (Beas), there was a Hindu named Arjun, in the garments of sainthood and sanctity, so much so that he had captured many of the simple-hearted of the Hindus, and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners, and they had loudly sounded the drum of his holiness. They called him Guru, and from all sides stupid people crowded to worship and manifest complete faith in him. For three or four generations (of spiritual successors) they had kept this shop warm. Many times it occurred to me to put a stop to this vain affair or to bring him into the assembly of the people of Islam. At last when Khusrau passed along this road this insignificant fellow proposed to wait upon him. Khusrau happened to halt at the place where he was, and he came out and did homage to him. He behaved to Khusrau in certain special ways, and made on his forehead a fingermark in saffron, which the Indians (Hinduwan) call qashhqa. When this came to my ears and I clearly understood his folly, I ordered them to produce him and handed over his houses, dwellingplaces, and children to Murtaza Khan, and having confiscated his property commanded that he should be put to death"
[
www.archive.org] page 72 second para.
According to other accounts, he asked the Guru to include some sûrahs of the Quran in the Ãdi Grantha, which the Guru refused to do and this what infuriated Jahangir.