Dargah Of Hazrat Mujadid e Alfi Sani Sheikh Ahmed Faroqi Sirhindi R.A

Imām Rabbānī Shaykh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī (1564–1624) was an Indian Islamic scholar from Punjab, a Hanafi jurist, and a prominent member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He is described as Mujaddid Alf Thānī, meaning the "reviver of the second millennium", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the heterodoxies prevalent in the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar.[1] 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.[2]
Most of the Naqshbandī suborders today, such as the Mujaddidī, Khālidī, Saifī, Tāhirī, Qasimiya and Haqqānī sub-orders, trace their spiritual lineage through Sirhindi, often referring to themselves as "Naqshbandī-Mujaddidī".
Sirhindi's shrine, known as Rauza Sharif is located in Sirhind, India.

Early life and education[edit source | editbeta]

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was born after midnight, on 14 Shawwal 971 H. in the village of Sirhind. From an ashraf family claiming descent from caliph Umar, he received most of his early education from his father, Shaykh 'Abd al-Ahad and memorised the Qur'an. He was then sent to Sialkot, in modern Pakistan, where he learned logic, philosophy and theology and read some advanced texts of tafsīr and hadīth before he returned home.[3] Sirhindi also made rapid progress in the Suhrawardī, the Qadirī, and the Chistī turūq, and was given permission to initiate and train followers at the age of 17. He eventually joined the Naqshbandī order through the Sufi missionary Shaykh Muhammad al-Baqī, and became a leading master of this order. His deputies traversed the length and breadth of the Mughal Empire in order to popularize the order and eventually won some favour with the Mughal court.[4]
Sirhindi's world view[edit source | editbeta]

Sufism and Tariqa
Shrine of Abdul Qadir Jilani..jpg
Ideas[show]
Practices[show]
Sufi orders[show]
Notable early Sufis[show]
Notable modern Sufis[show]
Topics in Sufism[show]
Portal Mosque02.svg Portal
v t e
According to Yohanan Friedmann and J.G.J. ter Haar, Sirhindi should be regarded as a synthesizer who brought Sufi practices, including those regarded as antinomian, and the Islamic juristic traditions into a single system supported by rational argument, scripture, and mystical experience.
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's teaching emphasized the inter-dependence of both the Sufi path and Shariah, stating that "what is outside the path shown by the prophet (Sharia) is forbidden." Arthur Buehler explains that Sirhindi’s concept of sharia 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 sharia, 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.” [5]
Yohanan Friedmann has argued against communalist interpretations of Sirhindi's thought specifically in South Asian nationalist historiography, pointing out that there is no evidence that Sirhindi or his disciples spread "anti-Hindu sentiments wherever they went." [6]
Importance of Sharia v. Sufism[edit source | editbeta]
According to Simon Digby, "modern hagiographical literature emphasizes [Sirhindi's] reiterated profession of strict Islamic orthodoxy, his exaltation of the sharia and exhortations towards its observance."[7] On the other hand, Yohanan Friedmann questions how committed Sirhindi was to sharia, commenting: "it is noteworthy that while Sirhindi never wearies of describing the minutest details of Sufi experience, his exhortations to comply with the shariah remain general to an extreme." [8] Friedmann also claims "Sirhindi was primarily a Sufi interested first and foremost in questions of mysticism."[9]
Oneness of being (wahdat al-wujūd)[edit source | editbeta]
Sirhindi strongly opposed the mystical doctrine known as wahdat al-wujūd ('unity of being') or tawhīd-i wujūdi, a concept which emphasizes that in reality all things exist within God. Nonetheless, he did not hold a particularly unfavorable view of the Sufi mystic and theoretician Muhyī 'l-Dīn ibn Arabī, who is often presented as the originator and most complete propounder of this philosophy. Sirhindi writes:
I wonder that Shaykh Muhyī 'l-Dīn appears in vision to be one of those with whom God is pleased, while most of his ideas which differ from the doctrines of the People of truth appear to be wrong and mistaken. It seems that since they are due to error in kashf, he has been forgiven... I consider him as one of those with whom God is well-pleased; on the other hand, I believe that all his ideas in which he opposes (the people of truth) are wrong and harmful.[10]
In refuting the monistic position of wahdat al-wujūd, he instead advanced the notion of wahdat ash-shuhūd (oneness of appearance). According to this doctrine, the experience of unity between God and creation is purely subjective and occurs only in the mind of the Sufi who has re