The Emperor Akbar (1543-1605) had his capital at Fatehpur Sikri, 45 kilometres from Agra. One of the many buildings in this city was the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship), which has since been buried underground and covered in trees and shrubs. As the Times of India reported on June 8, 1984, the Archaeological Institute of India, in collaboration with Aligarh Muslim University, have made excavations in the area, and the remains of the Ibadat Khana have now been uncovered.
In this Ibadat Khana, Akbar used to sit in the company of religious scholars and hold theological discussions. It was here that he conceived of his famous Din-i-Ilahi, or divine religion—a blend of all the different religions of India. Akbar wanted to found a national religion, one that would be acceptable to all his subjects. Religious diversity was, he believed, the cause of political instability in India: the people of the sub-continent would never unite under one ruler until their religion was one. Changing people’s religion through missionary work seemed an arduous task to him, so instead he “devoted himself,” as one historian has put it, “to the evolution of a new religion, which would, he hoped, prove to be a synthesis of all the warring creeds and capable of uniting the discordant elements of his vast empire in one harmonious whole.”
Quoted in “An Advanced History of India” (Macmillan, India) p. 451.
While preparing his Din-i-Ilahi. Akbar felt a need to know more about Christianity, so he wrote to the King of Portugal asking to be sent a Persian translation of the Bible. The Christian monarch did this, but Akbar found it insufficient for his needs. He required someone to explain Christian teachings to him as well. So he wrote to the Pope in Rome, asking for qualified teachers of Christianity to be sent to him. Without delay, the Vatican dispatched two trained theologians to the court of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri.
The two Jesuit priests, Fr Aquaviva and Fr Monserrate, arrived in Fatehpur Sikri on February 28, 1590, and were accommodated in the Khushbu Khana (Fragrant room), next to the Ibadat Khana. A painting in the Akbar-Nama shows the Emperor enrapt in deep discussion with them. They were not just ordinary priests; they were highly trained missionaries, clever enough to convert the Khushbu Khana into a chapel—the first in northern India. □
In the report that Fr Aquaviva and Fr Monserrate submitted to the Pope, they wrote that Akbar was, on an intellectual level, readying himself for conversion to Christianity; what prevented him from taking this step, they said, was the fact that Christianity would not have provided him with the power-base that he was really looking for. Even after despairing of converting Akbar, at least one of the priests remained in Fathepur Sikri preaching Christianity amongst his subjects. There are extensive carvings of David’s fish—a famous Christian emblem—in the ruins of Fathepur Sikri which prove this.
There are two main lessons for us to learn from this episode. One is that kings, and people in power generally, tend to hold their power dearer to them than anything else. They will not accept a faith or creed which—however sensible it may seem to them—is detrimental to their power. This is something that Christians experienced in preaching to Muslims, but it is something that Muslims must remember when preaching their faith as well. Islam must never be made to appear a threat to the power of those to whom it is addressed, for if it is they will put their power first and Islam second, however true and reasonable the latter may appear to them.
We can also learn from the way the Pope, as soon as he was asked, was in a position to send two fully-equipped instructors to Akbar’s court. The same demand has been made of Muslims time and time again in modern times, but they have not been able to fulfill it. There is one reason alone for this failure, and that is a lack of missionary spirit. Christians, despite the fact that their religion is culturally and historically based in the west, have for centuries been in a position to send missionaries to work in both east and west. This is because they are moved by a universal missionary spirit which enables them to do this. Muslims, on the other hand, despite the fact that their religion is a universal one, are bereft of missionary spirit, so they have not been able to fulfill the demands of either east or west in the field of missionary work.
The sorry state that Muslims find themselves in nowadays is due entirely to this failure. As bearers of the final divine scripture, the status of the Muslims is that of witnesses to the truth on earth. What this means is that their purpose in life should be to proclaim the word of God. This should be the target at which all their efforts are aimed; if they concentrate on it then their efforts will find fulfillment. But if they lose sight of it and vainly pursue other ends, then they will lose all unity of purpose; no action that they perform will reap results. □
