Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (Mujaddid-i Alf-i Thani)

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, known as Mujaddid-i Alf-i Thani, was an Indian divine and Naqshbandi mystic who helped restore orthodox Islam after the heterodoxies of Akbar's reign. His Persian letters, the Maktubat, are a classic of Muslim India.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), article signed Sh. Inayatullah, describes Shaykh Ahmad as born at Sirhind in 971/1564, the son of Shaykh 'Abd al-Ahad, who traced his descent from the caliph 'Umar b. al-Khattab. He studied at home and at Sialkot, and at Agra he frequented the circle of the minister Abu l-Fadl and his brother Faydi. He probably wrote there his Tahliliyya, against Shi'i views. He returned to Sirhind, and in 1008 was initiated into the Naqshbandi order by Khwaja Baqi bi'llah, who was then at Delhi. His energy against the Shi'a, who were favoured at Jahangir's court, made him suspect, and in 1028/1619 an ecstatic utterance of his brought him to the court at Agra, where his unbending attitude displeased the emperor, who confined him in the fort of Gwalior. He was soon reconciled and released after a year, with a robe and a gift of money, and he then stayed in close touch with the imperial camp until his death in 1034/1624. He was buried at Sirhind. ¹

He wrote tracts on religious topics, among them al-Mabda' wa'l-ma'ad, the Tahliliyya, Ma'arif ladunniyya, Mukashafat ghaybiyya and Adab al-muridin, but he is chiefly remembered for his Maktubat, Persian letters to disciples and others, covering a wide range of faith and practice. They have had a great influence in favour of orthodoxy, and in collected form they are among the most important classics of religious literature in Muslim India. Mulla 'Abd al-Hakim of Sialkot gave him the title Mujaddid-i Alf-i Thani, the renovator who appeared at the beginning of the second millennium. His influence spread to Afghanistan and Central Asia in his lifetime, and his descendants and disciples, the Mujaddidis, were scattered under Sikh rule in the Punjab. ¹

Although connected with several Sufi orders, he avoided their extravagances, especially pantheistic tendencies. He tried to bridge the gulf between monotheistic and pantheistic Sufis by putting the theory of wahdat al-shuhud, the unity of witness, in place of wahdat al-wujud, the unity of being; this is regarded as his special contribution. ²