The ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' (, ),
known during its time as ''Tawḥīd-i-Ilāhī'' (, ) or Divine Faith, was a short lived
syncretic religion propounded by the
Mughal emperor
Akbar in 1582.
According to Iqtidar Alam Khan, it was based on the
Timurid concept of ''
Yasa-e Changezi'' (Code of
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
), to consider all sects as one. The elements were drawn from different religions.
Name
The name ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' literally translates to "God's Religion", "Religion of God", or "divine religion". According to historian
Mubarak Ali, ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' is not the name that was used for the religion in Akbar's time. At the time, it was called ''Tawhid-i-Ilāhī'' ("Divine Monotheism"), as it is written by
Abu'l-Fazl, a court historian during the reign of Akbar. This name suggests a particularly
monotheistic
Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...
focus for Akbar's faith. The anonymous ''
Dabestan-e Mazaheb'' uses the name ''Ilahiyya'' to refer to the faith.
History

Akbar promoted
tolerance of other faiths and even encouraged debate on philosophical and religious issues. This led to the creation of the
''Ibādat Khāna'' ("House of Worship") at
Fatehpur Sikri in 1575, which invited theologians, poets, scholars, and philosophers from all religious denominations, including Christians, Hindus, Jains, and Zoroastrians.
Since Akbar had severe
dyslexia, rendering him totally unable to read or write, such dialogues in the House of Worship became his primary means of exploring questions of faith. Despite his aforementioned illiteracy, Akbar would eventually amass a library full of more than 24,000 volumes of texts in
Hindustani,
Persian,
Greek,
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and
Kashmiri. The later
Mughal Emperor and son of Akbar,
Jahangir, stated that his father was "always associated with the learned of every creed and religion." In a letter to
King Philip II of Spain
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
, Akbar laments that so many people do not investigate their religious arguments, stating that most people will instead blindly "follow the religion in which
heywere born and educated, thus excluding
hemselvesfrom the possibility of ascertaining the truth, which is the noblest aim of the human intellect."
By the time Akbar established the ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'', he had already repealed the ''
jizya'' (tax on non-Muslims) over a decade earlier in 1568. A religious experience while he was hunting in 1578 further increased his interest in the religious traditions of his empire. From the discussions held at the Ibādat Khāna, Akbar concluded that no single religion could claim the monopoly of truth. This revelation inspired him to leave Islam and create a new religion, ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'', in 1582 and Akbar along with his loyal officials converted to this new religion ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' in 1582.
This conversion of Akbar to ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' angered various Muslims, among them the
''qadi'' of the
Bengal Subah and Shaykh
Ahmad Sirhindi, who responded by declaring it to be
blasphemy to Islam.
Some modern scholars have argued that the ''Din-i Ilahi'' was a spiritual discipleship of Akbar of his own belief which he propounded in his new religion.
After Akbar
''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' appears to have survived Akbar according to the ''
Dabestān-e Mazāheb'' of
Mohsin Fani. However, the movement was suppressed by force after his death and was totally eradicated by
Aurangzeb, a task made easier by the fact that the religion never had more than 19 adherents.
In the 17th century, an attempt to re-establish the ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' was made by
Shah Jahan's eldest son,
Dara Shikoh, but any prospects of an official revival were halted by his brother, Aurangzeb, who executed him on grounds of
apostasy. Aurangzeb later compiled the ''
Fatawa-e-Alamgiri'', reimposed the ''jizya'', and established Islamic
Sharia
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
law across the
Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
, spreading Islamic orthodoxy and extinguishing any chance of religious reform for generations.
Beliefs and practices
Although the spirit and central principles of ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' were adapted from
Sufism
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
(including ideas from the
Andalusi Sufi mystic,
Ibn al-'Arabi), Akbar endeavored to create a synthesis of other beliefs and so his personal religion borrowed concepts and tenets from many other faiths. Aligned with Sufi practices, one's soul is encouraged to
purify itself through yearning of God. Virtues included generosity, forgiveness, abstinence, prudence, wisdom, kindness, and piety. The following details illustrate the personal religious observances of Akbar:
The visitation of
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionaries such as
Rodolfo Acquaviva brought the virtue of celibacy into the House of Worship, where it consequently became a virtue of Akbar's faith that was not mandatory (as it is for the priests of
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
) but respected. The faith also adopted the principle of
''ahimsa'', an ancient virtue of almost all
Indian religions, including
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...
. The nonviolence extended from humans to animals, encouraging vegetarianism and prohibiting the slaughter of animals for any reason at all. The ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' had no sacred scriptures and, similar to both Islam and
Sikhism
Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...
, there was no priestly hierarchy.
Light was a focus of divine worship, with a light-fire ritual based on the
yasna (the primary form of worship in
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...
) and an adoption of the hymn of the 1,000 Sanskrit names for the
sun. Followers were referred to as ''chelah'' (meaning "disciples").
The major practices and beliefs of Dīn-i Ilāhī were as follows:
#
The unity of God
# Followers salute one-another with or (meaning: "may His glory be glorified")
#
Absence of meat of all kinds
# One's "
on-birth-by-anniversary" party was a must for every member
# ''
Ahimsa
(, IAST: , ) is the ancient Indian principle of nonviolence which applies to actions towards all living beings. It is a key virtue in Indian religions like Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
(also spelled Ahinsa) is one of the cardinal vi ...
'' (non-violence); followers were prohibited from dining with fishers, butchers, hunters, etc.
''Ṣulḥ-i-kul''
It has been argued that the theory of ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'' being a new religion was a misconception which arose because of erroneous translations of
Abu'l-Fazl's work by later British historians. However, it is also accepted that the policy of ''sulh-i-kul'', which formed the essence of ''Dīn-i Ilāhī'', was adopted by Akbar as a part of general imperial administrative policy. ''Sulh-i-Kul'' means "
universal peace".
According to Abu'l-Fazl, the emperor was a
universal agent of god, and so his sovereignty was not bound to any single faith. In this,
Akbar appointed officials based on their ability and merit, regardless of their religion or background. This helped to create a more efficient government and contributed to the prosperity and cultural achievements of the Mughal period.
The emperor is further prohibited from discriminating between the
different religions of the realm and if the ruler did discriminate, then they were not fit for the role as an agent of god. Abu'l-Fazl saw the religious views of Akbar as a rational decision toward maintaining harmony between the various faiths of the empire.
Disciples
The initiated disciples of Dīn-i Ilāhī during emperor Akbar's time included:
* Shaikh Mubarak
*
Shaikh Faizi
* Jafar Beig
* Qasim Khan
*
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
* Azam Khan
*
Abdus Samad
* Mulla Shah Muhammad Shahadad
* Sufi Ahmad
* Mir Sharif Amal
* Sultan Khwaja
* Mirza Jani Thatta
* Taki Shustar
* Shaikhzada Gosala Benarasi
* Sadar Jahan
* Sadar Jahan's first son
* Sadar Jahan's second son
*
Birbal
*
Prince Murad
See also
* ''
Allopanishad''
* ''
Sirr-i-Akbar''
* ''
Majma-ul-Bahrain''
*
''Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb''
*
Religious policy of the Mughals after Akbar
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Din-I Ilahi
Akbar
1580s establishments in India
Mughal Empire
Religious pluralism
Religious syncretism in Asia
Universalism
Culture of India
History of Islam in India
History of religion in India
Religions derived from Islam
1582 establishments in Asia