The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624)

An Indian Muslim Sufi, considered by his followers as “the renewer of the second millennium” (of the Islamic era; mujaddid-i alf-i thānī), Ahmad Sirhindi was born in Sirhind in East Punjab and received his religious education from several teachers in Sialkot. Because of his scholarship, he was later invited to the court of Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) in Agra. A turning point in his life came in 1599–1600, when he went to Delhi and was initiated into the Naqshbandi order of Sufis by Khwaja Muhammad al-Baqi bi-llah, a prominent Naqshbandi teacher. Subsequently he devoted himself to the propagation of Naqshbandi ideas on Sufism and wrote hundreds of letters in which he explained various points in the doctrine of the Naqshbandis. These letters included ideas that Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) considered arrogant and conducive to heresy. In 1619, Jahangir summoned Sirhindi to his court and imprisoned him. His imprisonment lasted for a year. After his release, Sirhindi continued his Sufi activities until he died in 1624.

Sirhindi’s celebrated collection of letters, titled Maktubat-i Imam-i Rabbani (Letters of the divine guide), is regarded as a landmark in the development of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. Most letters deal with aspects of Islamic mysticism, but some are relevant to questions of political thought. In a few letters, Sirhindi expresses his views on the desirability of a relationship between devout Muslims and their rulers. At times, he writes that a devout Muslim must refrain from any relationship of this kind and should flee from the rulers’ company as he would flee from lions. Nevertheless, he wrote letters to Mughul officials. In some of those letters, he recommended certain individuals for governmental posts or for stipends. In other letters, he urged the officials to strive for the strict implementation of the shari‘a by the state. In particular, he demanded the humiliation of the Hindus and the merciless imposition of the poll tax (jizya) on them. He also expressed his joy at the 1606 execution of Arjun, the fifth guru of the Sikhs.

On the basis of these few letters, many modern scholars and thinkers maintain that Sirhindi brought about major changes in the development of Islam in the subcontinent. According to these scholars, Sirhindi reversed the heretical trends of the period of Akbar, restored the pristine purity of Islam, and inspired the orthodox reforms of Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707). In mainstream Pakistani historiography, Sirhindi is portrayed as a figure who saved Indian Islam from disintegration. The decisive majority of Sirhindi’s letters, however, deal with mystical rather than political issues, and there is no evidence that the Mughal Empire heeded Sirhindi’s advice concerning the imposition of Islamic laws on the state. It is reasonably clear that in the 17th century, Sirhindi was not considered a political activist but rather a Sufi who suffered from delusions of grandeur and whose writings were replete with heretical ideas. In addition to his imprisonment by Emperor Jahangir in 1619, Emperor Aurangzeb—who is supposed to have been influenced by Sirhindi’s views—proscribed the study of his Maktubat in 1679. Sirhindi’s primary influence was not as a political thinker but as a mystic: the Mujaddidi branch of the Naqshbandi order that came into being under his influence spread from India into the Ottoman lands in the 18th century and also was influential in Turkey and in Syria.