Aḥmad al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī (1564 – 1624), also known as Imam Rabbani and Mujadid Alf-e-Sani (Reviver of the second Millennium), was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the newly made religion of Din-i Ilahi and other problematic opinions of Mughal emperor Akbar. While early South Asian scholarship credited him for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, more recent works, notably by ter Haar, Friedman, and Buehler, have pointed to Sirhindi's significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.
Most of the Naqshbandī suborders today, such as the Muḥammadī, Haqqānī, Qāsimī, trace their spiritual lineage through Sirhindi as the Mujaddidī branch.
Sirhindi's shrine, known as Rauza Sharif, is located in Sirhind, Punjab, India.
Early life and education
Ahmad Sirhindi was born on 26 May 1564 in the village of Sirhind, Punjab. He received most of his early education from his father, 'Abd al-Ahad, his brother, Muhammad Sadiq and from Muhammad Tahir al-Lahuri. He also memorised the Qur'an. He then studied in Sialkot, which had become an intellectual centre under the Kashmir-born scholar Kamaluddin Kashmiri. There he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read advanced texts of tafsir and hadith under another scholar from Kashmir, Shaykh Yaqub Sarfi Kashmiri (1521-1595), who was a sheikh of the tariqa Hamadaniyya Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Sufi Order. Qazi Bahlol Badakhshani taught him jurisprudence, prophet Muhammad's biography and history.
Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī traditions, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Khwaja Baqi Billah, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won favour with the Mughal court.
Views
Ahmad Sirhindi's teaching emphasized the inter-dependence of both the Sufi path and sharia, stating that "what is outside the path shown by the prophet is forbidden." Arthur Buehler explains that Sirhindi's concept of shariah is a multivalent and inclusive term encompassing outward acts of worship, faith, and the Sufi path. Sirhindi emphasizes Sufi initiation and practices as a necessary part of shariah, and criticizes jurists who follow only the outward aspects of the sharia. In his criticism of the superficial jurists, he states: "For a worm hidden under a rock, the sky is the bottom of the rock."
Views on Shias
Sirhindi also wrote a treatise under the title "Radd-e-Rawafiz" to justify the execution of Shia nobles by Abdullah Khan Uzbek in Mashhad. In this he argues: "Since the Shia permit cursing Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and one of the chaste wives (of the Prophet), which in itself constitutes infidelity, it is incumbent upon the Muslim ruler, nay upon all people, in compliance with the command of the Omniscient King (Allah), to kill them and to oppress them in order to elevate the true religion. It is permissible to destroy their buildings and to seize their property and belongings." He has expressed his hate towards Shias in his letters too. According to him, the worst distorters of faith "are those who bear malice against the companions of Prophet Muhammad. God has called them Kafirs in the Quran". In a letter to his discple Sheikh Farid, the Mir Bakhshi of the Mughal empire, he said that showing respect to the distorters of faith (ahl-e-Bidʻah) amounted to destruction of Islam.
Views on Sikhism
He was hostile to the Sikhs. In his Makutbat letter 193 he is said to have stated [sic]:
Jahangir writes in his Tuzuk that he had the Guru put to death and had his property confiscated. Mujaddid-i-Alf Thani Sheikh Ahmed Sirhindi (1564-1624), as a hard-line supporter of Islamic orthodoxy and a highly influential religious revivalist, had opposed Akbar’s policy of religious tolerance. He had concerns about the spread of Sikhism in Punjab. So he cheered on the murder of the Guru, thus giving it a religious rather than political colour.