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Sikhism arose in a climate that was heavily influenced by Sufism and the Bhakti Movement. Guru Nanak was thoroughly conversant in not only the Hindu texts, but also the Qur\'an. The Guru Granth Sahib contains the teachings, philosophies and beliefs of Islamic saints. Sikh religious philosophy incorporates some aspects of Islam, and rejects others.
Islam and its culture was the dominant strain of civilization and culture in northwestern India before Guru Nanak was born; its common idioms and modes of thought had been absorbed by the Punjab. Sikhism was born in this climate. Guru Nanak was in intimate contact with the Muslim learned men and centers of Islamic thought, and had made a close study of the basic Islamic literature; he also had a thorough knowledge of the Hindu sacred texts.Sirdar Kapur Singh, Guru Nanak\'s Life and Thought, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 2001, page 177. Guru Nanak, in Sikh thought, was a prophet in his own right; as such he does not give precise quotations or references to Hindu and Muslim texts in his verses, but a close study reveals that Guru Nanak had a definite and positive attitude toward the Qur\'an.ibid, page 178. Nanak ignores the Qur\'an\'s statements on Judaic mythology as irrelevant to his message, considering it uninteresting. He also implies a rejection of the Qur\'an\'s pronouncements on social organization and ethics as contingent and non-perennial. However, he takes the Qur\'an\'s dissertations on the nature of God and man\'s relation to him quite seriously. He finds most of it as worthy of consideration and even assent, and has explicitly incorporated its essentials in the sacred book of the Sikhs, after some re-interpretation.ibid.
An instance of this is the fact that one of the Qur\'an\'s verses about the majesty of God, the "throne verse," claims Nanak\'s attention and general assent; his own verse in the Guru Granth Sahib known as "the Gate" has a similar tone and import. There is a difference of metaphors, however. Guru Nanak implies that the formal nature of the "throne" of God is best comprehensible by the human mind through reference to sound and feeling, while the Qur\'anic text uses visual and spatial metaphors. In this departure Nanak is influenced by the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, which categorizes sound as the foremost element of sensation and perception.ibid, page 180.
Similarly, the verse of sura 24 of the Qur\'an known as "the tabernacle" has been taken note of in the Sikh holy scripture. This verse is an important one to Muslim mystics such as the Sufis, and it describes God as a mysterious lamp whose rays bathe the whole universe. Hindu thought had produced a similar metaphor in the sacred texts of Hinduism, and Nanak produced his own verse on a guiding lamp that is grounded in both traditions:My light is the Naam of the One and only God, and its oil is pain and suffering: The former is consumed, and the latter is then done way with. Lo! There is no-doing between myself and death.ibid, page 181.
There are many similar texts in the Guru Granth that are thus grounded in the sacred texts of both Hinduism and Islam, but have an identity and content of their own.
Muhammad\'s name never appears in the Guru Granth, though the Qur\'an is mentioned. But the Sikh doctrine on the subject of the praiseworthiness of mortals is clear; in Sikhism, all praise is due to God. Thus, to whatever extent Guru Nanak perceived excellence in Muhammad, he attributes it exclusively to the grace of God, and whatever was contingent in Muhammad\'s actions he deemed as impermanent.ibid.
The creeds of Nanak and Muhammad have much in common. Both men quite strongly condemned all types of idol-worship and superstitions,N.D. Ahuja, The Great Guru Nanak and the Muslims. Kirti Publishing House, Chandigarh, page 144. and both were staunch monotheists.ibid, page 128. Nanak strongly believed in the nirvana of the Hindus and the fanaa of the Sufis,ibid. and just as some believe that Moses was given the decalogue and Muhammad the Wahi, Sikhs believe that Nanak was given laws by God to propagate throughout the world; these are: Naam, the law of love and devotion to the One God; Dan, the law of charity and goodness; and Isnan, the law of purity of personal character.ibid, pages 131-132. Both Nanak and Muhammad advised complete self-surrender to God.ibid, page 135. Sikhs believe that Nanak was directly inspired by God, and had direct contact with God while in isolation away from society; Muslims believe something similar about Muhammad.ibid. Nanak and Muhammad both emphatically rejected the doctrine of incarnation of God,ibid, page 141.as did Guru Arjan, who said: "Let that mouth be scorched that declares that God incarnates."Surinder Singh Kohli, "Guru Granth Sahib, an analytical study." Singh Brothers, 1992, page 267.
There are some differences in the theology of the two faiths. The Qur\'an describes God as merciful and beneficient, though frequently angry.Michael Cook, Muhammad. In Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press, 1986, page 314.Surinder Singh Kohli, "Guru Granth Sahib, an analytical study." Singh Brothers, 1992, page 279. In the Sikh scripture, this is not an attribute of God, who is described as always merciful.ibid. Also, the Sikh Gurus believed in metempsychosis, unlike Muhammad, who preached of a day of judgement.Ahuja, page 148. Regarding heaven and hell, Sikhism shares the Hindu belief in temporary heavens and hells.Surinder Singh Kohli, Sikhism and Major World Religions, Singh Brothers, Amritsar, 1995, page 96. Sikhs are instructed to neither desire heaven nor fear hell, both being the fruit of ego. The Sikh has to rise above ego in order to escape uncontrolled transmigrationibid. and attain permanent union with the creative immanence of God.Daljeet Singh, Sikhism: A Comparative Study of its Theology and Mysticism. Singh Brothers, Amritsar, 1998, page 224. Having done so, the soul retains its identity; man and God are never ontologically identical.ibid, page 227.
To be a Muslim is difficult; if one really be so, then one may be called a Muslim. Let one first love the religion of saints, and put aside pride and self as the file removes rust. Let him accept the religion of his authorities, and dismiss anxiety regarding death or life; Let him heartily obey the will of God, worship the Creator and efface himself. When he is kind to all men, then Nanak, he shall indeed be a Muslim.ibid, page 145.
He also said, "if you make good works the creed you repeat, you shall be a Muslim," and "act according to the Qur\'an and your sacred books."ibid. Similarly, in a song about maqam,Guru Nanak redefines Qiyamat to refer to a transformation of man, after which he is established in permanent union with God.Ahuja, page 148.
SHALOK, FIRST MEHL: It is difficult to be called a Muslim; if one is truly a Muslim, then he may be called one. First, let him savor the religion of the Prophet as sweet; then, let his pride of his possessions be scraped away. Becoming a true Muslim, a disciple of the faith of Mohammed, let him put aside the delusion of death and life. As he submits to God’s Will, and surrenders to the Creator, he is rid of selfishness and conceit. And when, O Nanak, he is merciful to all beings, only then shall he be called a Muslim.
Allah is hidden in every heart; reflect upon this in your mind. The One Lord is within both Hindu and Muslim; Kabeer proclaims this out loud.
Be kind and compassionate to me, O Creator Lord. Bless me with devotion and meditation, O Lord Creator. Says Nanak, the Guru has rid me of doubt. The Muslim God Allah and the Hindu God Paarbrahm are one and the same.
To be Muslim is to be kind-hearted, and wash away pollution from within the heart. He does not even approach worldly pleasures; he is pure, like flowers, silk, ghee and the deer-skin. || 13 || One who is blessed with the mercy and compassion of the Merciful Lord, is the manliest man among men. He alone is a Shaykh, a preacher, a Haji, and he alone is God’s slave, who is blessed with God’s Grace. || 14 || The Creator Lord has Creative Power; the Merciful Lord has Mercy. The Praises and the Love of the Merciful Lord are unfathomable. Realize the True Hukam, the Command of the Lord, O Nanak; you shall be released from bondage, and carried across.
I am not a Hindu, nor am I a Muslim. My body and breath of life belong to Allah — to Raam — the God of both. || 4 || Says Kabeer, this is what I say: meeting with the Guru, my Spiritual Teacher, I realize God, my Lord and Master.
While in Baghdad as part of his journey to Mecca and Medina, Guru Nanak had extensive dialogue with Muslim scholars there. In one discourse with a pir there, Nanak proclaimed his belief that - in contradistinction to the Qur\'anic belief regarding seven firmaments and fourteen regions - there are innumerable earths, each with intelligent beings.Ahuja, page 154.
Nanak was on good terms with his Muslim contemporaries.Ahuja, page 209. He converted many Hindus and Muslims to his creed,Ahuja, page 182. including many sheikhs with whom he had religious discussions,Ahuja, 182-190. though proselytization was not a point of major emphasis for his religion.ibid, page 160. It is significant that the Muslim emperor of Lodi permitted or ignored the conversion of Muslims in a Muslim state.Ahuja, page 188. Guru Nanak and his four successors in the sixteenth century had, on the whole, cordial relations with the Mughal emperors.D.S. Dhillon, Sikhism: Origin and Development. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, 1988, page 296. During that period, neither the Muslim political authority nor its organized religious orders had taken full stock of the implication of the rise and development of the new faith.ibid, page 300. The Muslim rulers of the Lodi dynasty and the first Mughals were too concerned with consolidating their respective rules, and Akbar\'s liberalism led him to establish cordial relations with all religious communities in India.ibid. This good will did not continue. The influence of the Sufi Naqshbandi order on Jahangir did the execution of Guru Arjan Dev.ibid.
In December 1588, the great Muslim Sufi saint of Lahore, Hazrat Mian MirA Gateway to Sikhism | The Sikh Saints:Mian Mir - A Gateway to SikhismHarban Singh; Punjabi University (1998). Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Punjabi University. ISBN 817380530X. , who was a close friend of Guru Arjan Dev, initiated the construction of the Golden temple by laying the first foundation stone (December 1588 AD).
Bhai Mardana (1459-1534) was a Muslim and the first followerSikh PersonalitiesA Gateway to Sikhism | Early Gursikhs: Bhai Mardana ji - A Gateway to Sikhism and companion of the Sikh founder Guru Nanak. He was with Guru Nanak in all of his journeys across India and Asia.Harban Singh; Punjabi University (1998). Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Punjabi University. ISBN 817380530X. Mardana was born a muslim to a Mirasi couple, Badra and Lakkho, of Talvandi Rai Bhoe, now called Nankana Sahib, in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan.
GHANI KHAN and his brother Nabi Khan, Pathan horse dealers of Machhivara in present-day Ludhiana district of the Punjab, were admirers of Guru Gobind Singh whom they had visited at Anandpur and to whom they had sold many good animals. When they learnt that, travelling in a lonely state after the battle of Chamkaur (1705), the Guru had come to Machhivara, they at once turned out to meet him and offered their services. They provided him with a bluecoloured dress and carried him out of Machhivara in a palanquin disguised as a Muslim divine. They declared him to be Uchch da Pir, the holy man of Uchch, an old seat of Muslim saints in southwest Punjab. They escorted him thus up to Hehrari, a village near Raikot in Ludhiana district, where a group of Sikhs relieved them. The Guru dismissed Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan with his blessings and a hukamnama meant to be a letter of commendation which was reverently preserved by their descendants. The family migrated to Pakistan in 1947. Their house in Machhivara is now a gurudwara known as Gurdwara Uchch da Pir.
PEER BHIKHAN SHAH OR SHAH BHIKH, a seventeenthcentury Sufi saint, was born the son of Sayyid Muhammad Yusaf of Siana Sayyidari, a village 5 km from Pehova, now in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. For a time, he lived at Ghuram in present day Patiala district of the Punjab and finally settled at Thaska, again in Kurukshetra district. He was the disciple of Abul Muali Shah, a Sufi divine residing at Ambhita, near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and soon became a peer or saint of much repute and piety in his own right.
According to tradition preserved in Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Pir Bhikhan Shah, as he learnt through intuition of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh (1666 - 1708) at Patna, made obeisance that day to the east instead of to the west. At this his disciples demurred, for no Muslim should make such respectful gestures except towards the Kaba. The Pir explained that in a city in the east, the Beneficent Lord had revealed Himself through a newborn baby, to whom it was that he had bowed and to no ordinary mortal. Bhikhan Shah with his disciples then travelled all the way to Patna to have a glimpse of the infant Gobind Rai, barely three months old. Desiring to know what would be his attitude to the two major religious peoples of India, he placed two small pots in front of the child, one representing in his own mind Hindus and the other Muslims. As the child covered both the pots simultaneously with his tiny hands, Bhikhan Shah felt happy concluding that the new seer would treat both Hindus and Muslims alike and show equal respect to both. Sikh chronicles record another meeting between (Guru) Gobind Singh and Pir Bhikhan Shah which took place in 1672 when the latter went to see him at Lakhnaur, near Ambala, where he was halting for some time on his way from Patna to Kiratpur.
Peer Buddhu Shah(1647 - 1704), a Muslim divine whose real name was Badr udDIn and who was an admirer of Guru Gobind Singh, was born on 13 June 1647 in a prosperous Sayyid family of Sadhaura, in presentday Ambala district of Haryana. Because of his simplicity and silent nature during his early childhood he was given the nickname of Buddhu (lit. simpleton) which stuck to him permanently. He was married at the age of 18 to a pious lady, Nasirari aka Bibi Naseera, who was the sister of Said Khan, later a highranking officer in the Mughal army. It is not certain how Buddhu Shah first became acquainted with Guru Gobind Singh, but it is recorded that he called on him in 1685 at Paonta, on the bank of the Yamuna. At his recommendation, the Guru engaged 500 Pathan soldiers under the command of four leaders, Kale Khan, Bhikhan Khan, Nijabat Khan and Hayat Khan. In 1688, when Guru Gobind Singh was attacked by a combined force of the hill chiefs led by Raja Fateh Shah of Srinagar (Garhval), all the Pathans with the exception of Kale Khan deserted him and joined the hill monarch. The Guru conveyed the news of the treachery to Pir Buddhu Shah, who immediately rushed to Bharigani, the battlefield, with 700 of his followers, including his brother and four sons. Many of the Pir\'s disciples as well as two of his sons, Ashraf and Muhammad Shah, and his brother, Bhure Shah, fell in the action. After the battle Guru Gobind Singh offered rich presents to the Pir which the latter politely declined to accept. However he, as the tradition goes, begged the Guru to bestow upon him the comb from his hair and the turban he was going to tie. The Guru gave him the two articles and a small kirpan or sword which the Pir and his descendants kept in the family as sacred heirlooms until Maharaja Bharpur Singh of Nabha (184063) acquired them in exchange for ajagir or land grant. The relics are still preserved in the family\'s palace at Nabha (in the Punjab). The Rajput chiefs defeated at Bharigani remained hostile towards Guru Gobind Singh, and wished to evict him from Anandpur to where he had returned. To solicit help from the imperial government, they sent to the emperor reports describing the Guru as a dangerous rebel. Complaints also reached the authority against Pir Buddhu Shah who had rendered assistance to the Guru. The Faujdar of Sirhind, under whose jurisdiction the parganah of Sadhaura then fell, directed a local official, \'Usman Khan, to chastise the Pir. The latter marched on Sadhaura, arrested Buddhu Shah and had him executed on 21 March 1704. Banda Singh Bahadur avenged the Pir\'s execution in 1709 by storming Sadhaura and killing \'Usman Khan. Pir Buddhu Shah\'s descendants migrated to Pakistan in 1947. Their ancestral house in Sadhaura has since been converted into a gurdwara named after Pir Buddhu Shah.
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