THE COMING OF MUSLIMS TO INDIA

Prophet Mohammad interacted with the Hindus on several occasions. A certain Hindu raja is said to have sent his Vizier to Medina to ‘study’ the religion that Prophet Mohammad was propagating. This vizier spent a few years in Medina, so much so that several traditions of Prophet Mohammad are narrated through him. As per a tradition, Prophet even sent one of his trusted companions – Abuzar Ghaffari - to India at the request of the aforementioned king. Ali, Prophet’s closest aide and true adherent to Islamic teachings, trusted the treasury of Basra to a regiment of Jats, while fighting with Muawiya. Hindu Brahmins must surely be interacting with Husain, Prophet’s beloved grandson as we find that a good number of Brahmins, referred to in books as Husaini Brahmins, went to his aide at Karbala but reached there only after Husain, his friends and relatives had been slain by the army of Muawiya’s son, Yazid. However, such was their love and respect for Prophet’s grandson that these Husaini Brahmins stayed back in Iraq and later we find them fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Mukhtar, in avenging the martyrdom of Husain. Several pursuant of knowledge, belonging to Sindh, are said to be studying in the ‘university’ founded by Imam Jafar Sadiq.

Yet the Muslims couldn’t keep record of how the Prophet or his close companions treated the Hindus; since there is no record that all these aforementioned people had changed their religion. The Muslims in Arabia were too engrossed in petty disputes to have recorded these details minutely. It was too much to expect from a community that failed to unite to this day on the day their Prophet died; if they were not united on the day when the Prophet was born, it was understandable, but disunity on the day of death, when the entire Arabia had accepted Islam, clearly shows the extent to which their Islam and love for their Prophet was superficial.

Unmindful of Prophet and his Ahlul-bayt’s (People of the House [of Mohammad]) close relationship with the Hindus, when the Muslim armies knocked on the doors of India, they were quick to label the local Hindus as Kafirs (infidels), without even attempting to understand the Hindu religion. The Muslims had come more as conquerors and less as practicing Muslims and it suited them most to label the Hindus as Kafirs, as through this labeling they were able to justify their reasons for fighting to their own soldiers for whom it was jehad. There must have been several Muslims who would have refrained from fighting if they got to know that they were fighting for territory or war-booty. Fighting with the Kafirs not only gave a real reason to fight but would have surely resulted in a lot many new recruits, who wanted to participate in the jehad.

We will show later how the true face of Islam got distorted within 50 years of Prophet’s departure. And the first real Muslim attack on India took place in 710 A.D., nearly 8 decades after the Prophet’s death. Consequently, majority of present-day Muslims in India are those who converted for various reasons to a religion that was already far removed from its base.

Historically, though Arab traders used to visit the west coast of India before Mohammad, and presumably continued to do so even after his death, Islam as such reached India when about 710 A.D., Mohammad bin Qasim invaded India and conquered the whole of the Indus Valley from the delta of the river up to Multan. Since the teachings of Prophet Mohammad had not by then completely faded from the Arab mind or had not been totally distorted by corrupt monarchs who justified their conduct by fictitious hadeeses prepared to order by subservient mullahs, Mohammad bin Qasim represented a more humane face of Islam. This also happened in the period in Indian history when the tolerant era of Buddhism had been brought to an end and Brahmin reaction had triumphantly restored Brahmins as the dominant caste. It is therefore not strange that, on one hand, Mohammad bin Qasim was welcomed and even assisted in his conquest by local Buddhists and a large section of lower caste Hindus and, on the other, greatly resented by the proud Brahmins.

It is evident from historical narrations that Mohammad bin Qasim’s motivation was conquest and not conversion. It can be seen from an answer Mohammad bin Qasim received to a dispatch of his from the front. This also reveals that the Hindus were not being considered Kafirs as long as some remnants of true Islam remained.

“. . . The letter of my dear nephew Mohammad bin Qasim has been received and the facts understood. It appears that the chief inhabitants of Brahmanabad had petitioned to be allowed to repair the temple of Budh and to pursue their religion. As they have made submission and agreed to pay taxes to the Caliph, nothing more can be properly required of them. They have been taken under our protection, and we cannot in any way stretch out our hands upon their lives or property. Permission is given them to worship their gods (who were actually the devas who took birth as Ahlulbayt). Nobody must be forbidden or prevented from following his own religion. They may live in their houses in whatever manner they like . . . .”

What is astonishing is the extreme lengths to which the early Arabs went to safeguard the interests and welfare of subjugated peoples. In spite of Mohammad bin Qasim’s high birth which had made him a general at eighteen and in spite of his brilliant generalship, he was recalled to Arabia and sewn alive into the hide of an ox, on the mere suspicion, later proved unfounded, that he had misbehaved with the wife and daughter of Dahir, the Hindu ruler of Sindh who had been killed resisting the invasion.

There is no provision or ruling in Islam which sanctions such a death, as was given to Mohammad bin Qasim, that too on a mere suspicion. This shows that though some remnants of real Islam still remained, most of the true teachings had been forgotten.

Most of the mullahs in the then Muslim world had become subservient to the monarchs of the period. This can be seen from the cursing on Ali that was done from 70000 pulpits every Friday, under the sanction of Umayyad rulers. Evidently, 70000 imams of mosques all across the Muslim world were being paid from state exchequer to curse Ali and his family. As per Islamic rule, particularly in the light of importance that the Prophet bestowed on Ali, the Quranic injunctions regarding his truthfulness and purity and his contribution to Islam during the initial years, such cursing actually made all these mullahs Kafirs. But they continued to curse Ali, even if they knew it was unIslamic, for petty gains. No surprise they kept silence when Mohammad bin Qasim was put to death in a totally unIslamic manner.

Not just Mohammad bin Qasim, several prominent people including revered companions of Prophet, were imprisoned or put to death in the most torturous ways. Mohammad bin Abu Bakr was put inside a donkey’s skin and burnt alive. Companions like Hajr bin Adi and others were tortured to death. Abuzar Ghaffari was banished to die from thirst, hunger and fatigue. This is not to speak of the treatment meted out to the Prophet’s own members of house, the Ahlul-bayt. While Prophet’s elder grandson, Hasan, was poisoned to death, his most beloved Husain was martyred along with handful of friends and relatives, not excluding ‘soldiers’ as old as 6-month old infants. Womenfolk and children of Husain’s household were taken as prisoners to Damascus. Since the rulers in Damascus were calling themselves as ‘Caliphs’ and had the tacit support of all those Imams of Mosques who were actually doing what the rulers wanted them to do, the outside world continued to look at this period as the extension of Islam brought by Prophet Mohammad. The truth remains that while true adherence to Prophet Mohammad’s religion enables a person to reach the loftiest heights of spirituality, a Muslim when removed from the true teachings becomes the greatest tyrant; a statement most vividly seen in the conduct of Talibans.

Most disturbing truth is that majority of Muslim writers continue to see the tyrannical Umayyad and Abbasid periods as the Golden Period of Muslim rule; thereby highlighting the state of their mindsets.

Despite this downward march which derailed Islam from its true teachings shortly after Prophet’s death, the great force that the message of Islam had generated in the minds resulted in Arab supremacy in science and other related fields for the next 200 years. This spirit of scientific enquiry carried to Indian shores by the Arabs was also in sharp contrast to the Hindus, as it proved to be for the Europeans. Says Nehru in ‘The Discovery of India’:

“There were many contacts during this period and Arabs learnt much of Indian mathematics, astronomy and medicine. And yet, it would appear, that the initiative for all these contacts, came chiefly from the Arabs and though the Arabs learned much from India, the Indians did not learn much from the Arabs. The Indians remained aloof, wrapped up in their conceits, and keeping as far as possible within their own shells. This was unfortunate, for the intellectual ferment of Baghdad and the Arab renaissance movement would have shaken up the Indian mind just when it was losing much of its creative vigour. In that spirit of intellectual enquiry the Indians of an older day would have found kinship in thought.”

It is the greatest tragedy that the cultural liberalism of the early Arabs gave way to the cultural chauvinism which holds Muslims in thrall till today.

No truer words have been written than: power corrupts; and power did corrupt, for history is full of references to the sweep of “Muslim” armies, “with the sword in one hand and the Quran in the other,” over parts of Europe. There were certainly over-zealous commanders who gave the conquered the choice between conversion and death. Death was certainly prescribed for Kafirs (those who conceal the truth, after knowing it) and for Muslim apostates, but subjugation and jaziya for “people of the Book” or Zimmis. It would, however, be too much to expect that, except for a few leaders, the conquering Arabs would be conversant with such fine points of theology. But it would seem that the eruption from Arabia was due not so much to religious zeal as to the exuberant chauvinism of the newly emerged Arab nation. It could also be that the concept of Muslim Umma was utilized by the Arabs with the statecraft of imperialists to give a pan-Islamic ideological rationale for what was pure imperialism. Moreover, would one be dubbed a Muslim apologist if it were suggested that if the temples of those who paid taxes were spared, iconoclasm, when it was not for loot as in the case of wealthy Somnath, might have been the method of forcing others to pay, and a punishment for those who did not?

But the spirit of tolerance taught by Prophet Mohammad must still have influenced Mohammad bin Qasim and his superiors. The spirit faded both in the Arabs and non-Arabs alike and subsequent “Muslim” invaders of India acted in a very different manner. The Caliphs had become emperors. Dissension and corruption developed in the wake of imperial power with its decadence and luxury, and the Mongol conquest of Baghdad and murder of the Caliph finally destroyed the hegemony of Arab Islam. Whereas the early Arabs had rationalized their remarkably enlightened imperialism, considering the period, as pan-Islamism, other races now emerged, such as the Turks, who having adopted Islam much later adapted Islam to give the seal of religious approval to their military adventures and, much like the Spanish conquistadors in South America, to act as a cloak under which they tarnished the name of Muslims for all time and inflicted deep wounds on the Hindu ethos which have not yet healed, and which, recoiling on the Muslims, intensified the Hindu’s innate social separatism immensely.

Contrary to this reputation, Mohammad bin Tughlaq, according to the distinguished historian, R.C. Majumdar, was an exception to the general pattern of obscurantist despots. The times, of course, were despotic, and some of his actions were fantastically ill-conceived; but he refused to accept the advice of orthodox Muslim divines, and supported the Ahl-e-maqulat against the Ahl-e-manqualat. If he had not been so ill-balanced, some of his ideas might have taken root.

But something more than the atrocities of Muslim races or Hindu separatism prevented synthesis. There were certain basic ground rules on which Hindu assimilation was based, and which the Muslims broke. Hindu society was like a jig-saw puzzle which only formed a whole picture if each separate piece fitted into the pattern. This meant, in practice, that immigrants were accepted and tolerated provided they kept their place. Assimilation was peaceful coexistence in a heterogeneous system which presupposed passivity on the part of the assimilated. This was easy in the case of Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, and Huns who did not belong to established religions. Parsis brought their own priests with them and there being no proselytization in Zoroasterianism they fitted in smoothly. But the Christians, to a lesser degree, and the Muslim races, even when they had ceased raiding and had settled in India, were by no means passive and did not keep their place. Moreover, whereas Islam had no country, apart from some minor emigration, India was exclusively the land of the Hindus. Further, India, the Bharat Mata, had from earliest times been deified. This resulted in an amalgam of territorial chauvinism and distrust of non-Hindus. To even cross the kala pani was to incur religious excommunication. Conversion therefore came to be regarded as defection from the national religion, and the converted as traitors to the religious nation. The defection was all the greater because the converted Hindus underwent a double conversion. Not only did they opt out of the Hindu religion but, because of Arabized Islam and westernized Christianity, they also opted out of Hindu culture. Since the first proselytizing races to enter India were Muslim, it was they who first offended Hindu national religious susceptibilities.

THE TRUE CONTENT OF THE VEDAS (PART-II)

Svetasvatara Upanishad says that the sage Svetasvatara saw the truth owing to his power of contemplation, tapah-prabhava, and the grace of god (original word used is ‘deva’), deva-prasada. This is exactly the point that we are trying to put forth. Truth cannot be seen by a soul that is engrossed in materialism, nor one that is on the negative path. We need to enlighten ourselves with spirituality so as to enable us to get to know the real truth. Sage Svetasvatara, when he progressed on the path of spirituality, through tapah, reached the stage where his atma was in communion with paramatma. This is the stage when the devas give their prasada in the form of real knowledge and the truths vital for our emancipation. This is another proof to show the devas’ role in leading ourselves to the path of the God, their importance in this cosmos as the guides and teacher of dharma i.e. religion, morality, righteousness and good conduct (also endorsed by Manusmriti, 2-6 cited in Part-I of this discussion). What would you call the person, who instead of looking for religion, morality, righteousness and good conduct in the Vedas, finds airplanes, cars and steam engines, Madam Curie’s radiation theory and similar material substances in the Vedas? Who can dare to say that Krishna was wrong when he said that each karma (act) is performed by a mind engrossed in sattva (purity), rajas (materialism) or tamas (darkness)? Even the commentaries of Vedas can be written with all three intents. Can you expect to find the ‘truth’ related to the ‘Creator’ and the ‘path to reach him’ in a commentary or translation done by any other intent other than sattva?

The importance of the true content of the Vedas can be understood from the fact that even Mahatma Buddha, who is erroneously considered to be an atheist or opposed to the Vedas, has stated in Sutta Nipata, 292:

He who attains true knowledge of Dharma or righteousness through the Vedas, attains a steady position. He does not waver.

Isn’t it unfortunate that the Hindus of today are no longer in search of “true knowledge of Dharma or righteousness through the Vedas” and are more hell bent on proving other religions or faiths as inferior and their own faith as the best one indeed.

If we look at the humanity from the Divine perspective, we are miniscule creatures of His cosmos. For God, we are inferior to what a small ant is to us. Who else but God knows the weaknesses and the strengths of His creature called Man? God also knows of the kind of strength He has bestowed upon the misguiding forces, referred to as the Forces of Darkness in Quran. Yes, the devas (including devi) are the guiding agents, whose job from Day One has been to show the path to reach the Almighty Creator. They are the heads of the 14 spheres, as said by an Upanishad.

Vishnu or the Manifest Self of the Absolute God is superior over both the Forces of Light viz. the devas and the Forces of Darkness viz. Satan and others. When one reaches spiritual elevation through tapah (contemplation), adherence to righteousness or various other yogas (methods to reach God) as told in the various chapters of Gita, he receives the light of truth from the devas. This is enlightenment, the end result of which is moksha or salvation.

As said, devas are the guiding agents for entire humanity and for all times to come. They have guided the rishis and munis who aspired for enlightenment, but at times this ‘spirit of truth’ (as told by Jesus) descended in human body, to guide us, lead us and show us how to adhere to the desired path.

Not just the Vedas, look at the earlier accounts of all civilizations, be it the Greek civilization, the Egyptian civilization, the Mesopotamian civilization, the Chinese civilization or the Indus Valley civilization, or even the Aztec civilization of the Mayans, the devas were introduced everywhere as our guides and saviours. Perhaps, the human mind in those times was not developed enough to comprehend their role in the Creation. Therefore, the devas started getting revered as gods under various names in all these civilizations.

I ask a question, dear friends! If the same divine beings were introduced in all the civilizations, it is evident how important their identification is for us, and our salvation. The souls that were obedient and understood the Divine Path, went ahead and attained salvation in different ages. But if we are still living on this earth, it is proof that our soul is not pure enough to attain salvation. Therefore, there is no point at all trying to tell each other who is superior and who is inferior, no point proving which religion is right and which is wrong, fact is that if we had attained the real knowledge about the true path and treaded on that path, we would not have been on this earth. That is why I repeatedly say that people like Pandit Mahendra Pal Arya or even people like and Masih and Nasar bhai who try to prove their own understanding of religion as superior to others on the posts of Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr are far from understanding the truth.

Just as Muslims have got deviated from the path of their scriptures, fact is the Hindus are far removed from the path shown in the Vedas. I believe and am constantly showing that the path of the two scriptures is one and the same and it is we who have interpreted and understood them differently.

Real problem is that despite such weightage given to the path of the devas as the real and true path, there is no serious attempt visible to understand that path. This proves that we are no longer interested in our salvation. Why shouldn’t it be? I have read somewhere that the most obedient of atmas attained salvation right at the time when the path was shown to them in various different parts of the world. If we continue to live even today, it shows that our atma is not fit to attain salvation. It also shows that our atma, in course of time, has got afflicted with such diseases and ailments, that it has become extremely difficult for us to shed away those inflictions caused by the Forces of Darkness, habitual adherence to misdeeds and untruth. Question arises, what are we gaining out of proving that the others are on the wrong, when we ourselves are far from the truth? Do a sincere endeavour to find who are the devas, where can they be found, from your own respective scriptures and make a sincere attempt to tread their path.

Let us now discuss, what is the Straight Path and which is the best of all religions? I started answering this when I said that to God, we are even inferior to what ants are to us. There is only One God of the Cosmos, this Uni-verse. When certain preachers claim that there are various different paths to reach God, they are on the wrong. There has been one and only one path, right through the first day of this Creation. The devas who are the forces of Light created by Vishnu (the Manifest Self of God) to counter the forces of Darkness, also created by Vishnu, are constantly working on us. There have been times when the devas descended in human bodies just as it is possible for the representatives of forces of Darkness to descend in human body.

Let us also find what is the true content of the Vedas.

If Vedas really have a relation to Divinity and reveal the path that will lead us to God, it must shed light on the devas and their true identity. Yes, this is true! Each and every hymn of the Vedas is an invocation to one of the devas (or the devi) and implore them to come (either in human form to guide us) or inside us (to lead our conscience towards Paramatma). This and this only is the Straight Path. But the real problem comes that Muslims like Masih and Nasar Bhai (in various posts here of which I have been a part) would reject the path as soon as names like Vishnu, Vedas, devas (or devi) are taken and the worshippers of Vedas will reject the path as soon as some relation of the devas become visible with Prophet Mohammad or any other of the Ahlebayt. This shows that we are still far from coming to the stage where we are indeed in search of truth, whatever it is and from wherever it comes.

To cite an example, Hindus are hell-bent that it is the Shiva linga that is present in Kaaba and the Muslims are worshipping the Hindu Shiv linga and hence are inferior. While the Muslims are denying all this, despite the fact that a black stone, Sang-e-Aswad, is embedded in the wall of the Kaaba which is revered by all Muslims and which has been there from even earlier times. Instead of proving each of their religion to be superior, why can’t they come to conclude that some relationship do exist between the two scriptures of the two. Why is it that Shivlinga came to be installed in the Kaaba even before Mohammad’s time? Why was it that nobody but Mohammad could lift that Black Stone, called Sang-e-Aswad, when the Kaaba was being reconstructed? Why is it that Allah, who dislikes all idol worship, has made it mandatory on Muslims too kiss this stone? This is so because Shiva and Mohammad do have a relationship, that Mohammad Alvi is proving time and again. And that relationship is simple and can be proved by countless arguments: that Shiva, the head of the devas, descended in human body inside the Kaaba and was called Ali, the second of the 14 Ahlulbayt. History is replete with cases how the Forces of Darkness saw to it that the character of Ali too was maligned through all pulpits and Friday sermons in the entire Muslim world for nearly 100 years. Why? If you are with me, you already know the answer? Forces of Darkness also saw to it that another sect called Shias emerged who elevated Ali to the level of God and thus both the sects, Sunnis (who discarded him as mortal human being) and Shias (who didn’t recognize him nor his true role in God’s Creation) both remained perpetually misguided.

God, our Creator, knew that man will interpret the Path differently and name it religion. I ask you a question. When Buddha shed light on Vedas and called it the source of true knowledge or righteousness or dharma, how is it that the Buddha’s path is a different religion and the path of the Vedas is a different religion? Or for that matter, Mahavira! Fact is that Rama, Krishna and Buddha were all related to the devas and the Manifest Self in some way or the other. Just as Sage Svetasvatara saw the truth through contemplation, Buddha too got enlightenment through contemplation under the Bodhi Tree. The role of the devas in bestowing enlightenment on the Buddha too can be proved! If this is so, how can their path be different? Unfortunately, just as the content of the Vedas was understood differently by Nataraj Guru, Radhakrishnan, Ramanuja, Rishi Dayananda Saraswati and others, there were people who interpreted the teachings of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, David, Moses, Jesus or Mohammad differently and coined different religions. Despite the fact that they were all related to the same source and were giving the same teaching, in different times and through different languages. This is how the One and the Straight Path came to be understood differently so much so that even today those who hold Krishna dear would like to see Krishna as superior to all else, those who hold Mohammad dear would like to see Mohammad as superior to all else and likewise with the believers of the teachings of Buddha, Jesus and others. Likewise, within the religions, there came forth people who started claiming that Siva was superior to Vishnu or otherwise, though both were related to the same source. Among Muslims, the Shias would try to prove that their view has been endorsed and the Sunnis would believe their way to be true.

Then how can we come to the truth! Our Creator has been so kind to us that towards the end of this Creation, in this Kaliyuga, when the real truth about the Straight Path is coming out, neither of the religions or sects can claim that they alone were on the right. The view of all the scriptures is getting endorsed. We are able to see the truth in each of the scriptures. They all are talking about one and the same path. But we understood the path differently. It is we mortal humans who are on the wrong.

The devas and the ahlulbayt are one and the same. While in their noor or light state, the devas are all powerful. But when they descend on earth in human form, they are mortal beings like you and me. But since they have the pure noor inside, they are free from all errors, all sins, all wrong deeds. Buddha talked about them. The Buddhists prayed that they shall come to earth. Jesus talked about them. When they came, the Muslims too couldn’t recognize them. The much awaited devas were imprisoned and killed. Because the Forces of Darkness know that the day the devas will be recognized and mankind get to know the Dharma or the Straight Path or the Sirat-e-Mustaqeem, the Forces of Darkness will be defeated. This is exactly the Divine Plan. It is we mortal humans and not the devas (the Ahlulbayt) who have to defeat the Forces of Darkness. It is we who have to realize the true path through our own efforts. This is the confidence that God has already shown on us when He said to the angels, “I know (about this man) what you know not.”

That is why the Forces of Darkness instigated the Muslims to create all possible hurdles in the teachings, even to the extent of maligning the very character of the devas who took birth as ahlulbayt, but failed. If you wish to see some similarity, here it is! It was Indradeva who took birth in human form and was called Mohammad. Forces of Darkness saw to it that Indradeva was projected in bad light, as if it the only job that Indradeva knew was to have sex with maidens on earth. When Mohammad became the Prophet, people went on to write books as Rangeela Rasool, and it was taken to be true by those who weren’t aware of his true character. Thousands of pulpits and Friday prayer sermons were used to malign the character of Ahlulbayt. And the Forces of Darkness even pushed forth people who were bent on proving that there are no devas at all, despite the fact that their names fill each and every page of the four Vedas, there are innumerable temples across India devoted to various devas and there are thousands of myths and legends (some true and most false) associated with the devas.

To be continued...