Author: Umme Danyaal Bilal
India
India is a country that attracts millions of tourists every year and is considered one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. As the 7th largest country in the world extending from its snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests in the south, marked off by its mountains and sea gives this country a distinct geographical entity. As you travel the expanse of the country you are greeted by diverse nuances of cuisines, faiths, arts, tribes, and history.
While the tourism is an adventure to behold, its history and more so Islamic history will have you mystified. Myths are not created they create themselves and then find expression in that which serves their purpose. Perhaps it’s time we dispel some misconceptions. It has been believed that Islam came to India through invasion but it was trade that brought Islam to India when Arabs began settling in towns on the coast in the last part of the 7th century. An interesting fact is that the first mosque in India was built in Kerala in the year 629 which was in the lifetime of our beloved Nabi SAW and is probably one of the oldest mosques in the world. Through continued trade between Arab Muslims and Indians, Islam continued to spread in coastal cities both through immigration and reversion.
The first great expansion of Islam into India
The first great expansion of Islam into India came through the Ummayids Dynasty who were in Damascus. In 711, the Ummayids appointed a lad by the name of Muhammed bin Qaasim at the tender age of 17 from Taif to extend the Ummayids’ control into Sindh, the land around the Indus River which today is part of present-day Pakistan. Bin Qaasim set out with his army through Persia and faced little to no resistance as he made his way to India. He was received well by Buddhist monks when he reached Nerun a city on the banks of the Indus River. Most cities in this region voluntarily chose Islam without any fighting, in fact, some oppressed Buddhist minorities sought protection from the Muslims against the Hindu governors.
Despite the support and approval of much of the population, Dahir the rajah of Sindh, opposed the Muslim expansion and rallied his army against Muhammed Bin Qaasim. In 712 the two armies met in a crucial battle where the Muslims gained victory and Sindh came under Muslim control.
It is important to note that the people of Sindh were under no duress to revert to Islam, in fact for most there was no change to their day-to-day life. Bin Qaasim provided protection and security to Hindus and Buddhists under his control. For example, the Brahman caste continued their jobs as tax collectors and the Buddhist monks continued to maintain their monasteries, on account of his religious tolerance he was respected by all and he and his army were greeted by dance and music.
Reversion to Islam
The sequential waves of Muslim armies penetrating India followed much of the same pattern. Leaders such as Mahmood Ghazni (known as the first Sultan to rule and also made 17 attacks on India which may have paved the way for the Moghuls’ later adoption of Islam) and Muhammed bin Tughluq (the 18th Sultan of Delhi from the Tughlaq Dynasty and was also known as Jauna Khan) expanded Muslim political domains without altering the religious or social fabric of Indian society because pre-Islamic India was entirely based on a caste system in which society was broken into separate parts, conversion to Islam happened in a step-by-step process.
Many times entire castes would revert to Islam at a time. This would happen for many different reasons, but mainly the equality Islam provided was more attractive than the caste systems’ organized racism. In the caste system, who you are born to determines your position in society. There was no opportunity for social mobility or to achieve greater than what your parents achieved. By reverting to Islam, people had the opportunity to move up in society, and no longer were subservient to the Brahman caste.
The myths of Islam violently destroying Buddhism in India are false.
Buddhism, which was once very popular slowly died out under Muslim rule. Traditionally, when people wanted to escape the caste system, they would move to the major population centers and convert to Buddhism. When Islam became an option, people began to revert to Islam instead of Buddhism, leaving the caste system. The myths of Islam violently destroying Buddhism in India are simply false. Buddhists were tolerated under Muslim rule and no evidence exists which shows forced reversions or violence against them. Nomadic teachers also had a major role in bringing Islam to the masses. Muslim scholars traveled throughout India, making it their goal to educate people about Islam. Many of them preached Sufi ideas, a more mystical approach to Islam that appealed to the people. These teachers had a major role in bringing Islam to the masses in the countryside, not just the upper classes around the Muslim rulers.
We are led to think that the Moghuls were the chief patterns of the excellence and superiority of Islam in India, we are never taught that long before the establishment of Moghul sovereignty in India, Islam had already illuminated the world with the awe-inspiring glory of its piety, civilization, and culture. In India, at present there is a great outcry about the necessity of unity between Hindus and Muslims, but it does not seem likely that there will be any real cordiality between these sister communities so long as either is ignorant of the history of the other.
No state can endure, no sovereignty can flourish upon the basis of physical force alone. Fierce non-Muslim Moghuls like Genghis Khan had indeed succeeded from time to time in establishing a vast empire in Central Asia, but their empire did not last in the line of their successors. On the other hand, a religion that has maintained its power intact for over a thousand years which has people spread in every corner of the globe, such a religion and its people can only be upheld by Divine inspiration and strength. The power that has enabled Islam to overcome the barriers of the oceans, rivers, and mountains and to spread from continent to continent, that power will surely continue to uphold it and communicate everywhere the blessings of true faith.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Halaal Travels. While we encourage diverse perspectives, these views are solely the author’s and are not intended to represent the position of Halaal Travels.