Rise Of Islam Research Paper

“Men of the pen…In these and their assertions in the use of their delightful pens, the subsistence of faith and of the world itself is vested and bound up…[T]o persons of ready understanding, the similarity of knowledge and water is as clear as water itself.” This quote from Muhammad Ibn Asad Jalal ud-din al-Dawwani, a fifteenth century Persian writer, discussed how some people use their pens as a way of acquiring knowledge. Those people can then use their knowledge and spread it throughout the world. This is exactly what a group of Muslims were able to do in the Indian Ocean world. They were the Sufis, a mystical group of Muslims that trace their origins back to the Prophet Muhammad. Sufism helped Islamize South and Southeast Asia because

For example, a seventeenth century imperial edict from the Mughal Empire in Bengal mentioned that there should be farmland given to the shah of the region as a way of paying for his mosque’s maintenance. The shah wanted more money because he claimed that there were religious ascetics and other people who used the mosque frequently. Another example of Muslims clearing forest for mosques is in the work of sixteenth century Bengali poet Mukundaram. In his story, Mukundaram described how men came from the west to clear a forest for a mosque and “chanted the name of their pir [spiritual leader] and the Prophet”. These two documents show how the prevalence of Sufis in India was leading to an increasing need for a place of worship. The spread of Islam in India was largely due to the efforts of Sufis to disseminate their beliefs across the

They used the sayings of Muhammad to justify orthodox beliefs. For example, Fakhr ud-din al-Razi, a twelfth century jurist and theologian, quoted Muhammad, who said that the Muslim community could not agree on an error. This quote from Muhammad influenced some Muslims critique of Sufis and anyone who attempted to blend other religious doctrine into Islam. Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, a seventeenth century Muslim who opposed Akbar’s tolerance towards other religions, argued against Sufis and Muslim communities that had gone astray. He was proud that Akbar’s successor was spreading the word of the Shari’a as a way to strengthen the Muslim community. He criticized the Sufis for being “ignorant” and allowing ulema, a group of Muslim judges, to stray away from orthodox Islam. This critique of Islam in South Asia was a serious attempt to emphasize the core tenets of Islam while trying to suppress the Sufis syncretic views. A perfect example of this would be from Ibn ‘Umar Mihrabi. This seventeenth century Indian writer, tried to counter Hindu influences in Islam in the India by telling stories. For instance, Mihrabi used a dialogue between a mystical talking bird and a parrot to talk about the main doctrines of Islam. This story emphasized the “correct” way to follow Islam while attempting to counter Sufi syncretic efforts in