BJP’s Shazia Ilmi writes: Stoking mandir-masjid disputes is a disservice to Viksit Bharat

For a portion now, the Ajmer shrine has been a root of contention for immoderate extremist groups. It has been subjected to ridiculous claims by immoderate who intelligibly don’t recognize the past and value of Sufi thought. Ironically, the beatified shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti is venerated arsenic overmuch by the Hindus arsenic it is by the Muslims. More than 75 per cent of the shops and hotels successful the dargah marketplace are owned by Hindus. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, each premier ministers person sent the ineffable chadar connected the juncture of the Urs, oregon decease anniversary, of the revered saint, arsenic a people of respect.

After the disputes of Babri Masjid, Gyanvapi and Sambhal, this is the newest strain connected the cloth of peaceful coexistence of the 2 communities. However, portion different disputed sites were mosques, this 1 is simply a renowned Sufi shrine. One of the main differences betwixt a mosque and a dargah is that a mosque is simply a spot of worship for Muslims wherever the believers prostrate, that is, connection sajda to Allah, whereas a dargah is wherever shrines are built for revered Sufi saints.

This is not the archetypal clip that a Sufi shrine has been threatened. Sufi orders oregon silsilas are considered astatine likelihood with orthodox theology, which is the crushed wherefore they person been persecuted down the centuries. Sufism is the ascetic, mystical signifier of Islamic thought, the esoteric forms of which widen beyond the Shia-Sunni divide, crossed governmental borders, economical classes, languages and faiths. Threatened by their widening sphere of influence, Sufis and their shrines person been attacked by each the schools of theological Islamic thought. The Wahhabi, Deobandi, Salafi and Islamic revivalists look down connected the veneration of saints and Sufi practices arsenic “shirk” oregon polytheistic. Right from Afghanistan and Iran to Turkey and present-day Pakistan, Sufi orders are inactive subjected to favoritism and violence. In India, too, the Deobandi sect has often denounced the dargah wallahs, astatine times adjacent refusing them spiritual legitimacy. It’s casual to judge that successful India the past Sufi martyr, Sarmad Kashani, was executed by the bigoted Aurangzeb.

Ajmer, which was visited by emperor Akbar much than 17 times, was besides the birthplace of his large grandson Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s heir apparent. However, Dara Shikoh was executed successful 1659 connected his member Aurangzeb’s orders, for the coveted Mughal throne. Barely 2 years later, Dara Shikoh’s adjacent confidante, Sarmad, was beheaded connected the steps of Jama Masjid by Aurangzeb’s men. Sarmad, who was executed connected charges of blasphemy, is inactive revered arsenic a saint and his mausoleum adjacent Jama Masjid remains an inspiring spot of Sufi pilgrimage.

Though the mystically inclined Dara Shikoh’s top literate bequest was Sirr-e-Akbar oregon the “Great secret”, which was the Persian translation of Upanishads, it was

his Majma-ul-Bahrain oregon the “Confluence of the Two Seas”, which is the archetypal ever treatise connected unity, 1 that explored the commonality betwixt Sufism and Vedanta successful an enlightened breakthrough.

Besides listening earnestly to Mohan Bhagwat’s advice, the likes of Vishnu Gupta tin besides larn from Dara Shikoh’s penetration that determination is nary indispensable quality betwixt Islam and Hinduism. It astounded him that the scholars of each religion were truthful mired successful the constructs of their ain religions that they had not realised this 1 important philosophical information — possibly the astir important of each — that, successful essence, the 2 faiths are 1 and the same. It was essential, therefore, that they beryllium apprised of this expansive insight.

An India that is marching connected the dependable way of inclusive improvement tin bash without communal upheavals and disruptions. Religious strife is antithetical to the thought of societal advancement and economical growth. Crude spiritual animosity has to beryllium arrested earlier it devours the innate spirituality of our civilisational ethos. India of yesterday indispensable not beryllium allowed to unsettle and derail the India of tomorrow.

The writer is national spokesperson of the BJP