Was Guru Nanak A Muslim ? First of all I would like to comment that as a Muslim my faith should not be strengthenedor weakened if anybody like Guru Nanak was a Muslim or not. Our faith is in Allah and not in anyone else, ‘No man will bear the burden of sins of another man’. Right now, lets analyze some aspects of the life of Guru Nanak according to Sikh books and texts. He was born in a Hindu family and his immediate friends were Muslims, so he would have had somekind of Islamic influence when he was young. He was once at school and his teacher asked him to count to 3, he refused and his teacher urged him to recite…. Nanak kept saying 1, 1, 1, teacher asked him why? he replied ‘because there is only 1 God’. This in itself is massive indication of his influence ofIslam because the Hindus at that time had millions of different Gods and deities besides Allah, the Hindus being the arch enemies and haters of Islam even from the time (idolaters) of Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)so for some one to go against the tide of his culture, family, religion and society and to profess the oneness of God was very impressive indeed, verily to monotheistic belief of 1 God. Being young to develop this conviction lets look where he could have got sources of information, both religious and philosophical…we can deduce there were 3 main sources, his family, his teachers and his friends….his family was from a hardcore Hindu family and Nanak went against the belief ofhis father and forefathers, so that is ruled out. Clearly the authority of his teachers didn’t hold much weight in the sight of Nanak or else why would he speak against them and disobey, and also they were all Hindu! With logical reasoning one must deduce that his friends were influential over him because Islam was the only religion then to profess the oneness of Allah at the time, so he must have had a Islamic inclination even when he was young. Lets move on to when he was slightly older though still young. He was from a quite wealthy family, and once his mother gave him gold bracelets to wear, there and then Nanak went and threw them into the River Ganges. Why did he do this? This act of adoration of children was seen as a big custom for those that could afford it. Sikh scholars as yet can only say he must not have liked them, though this is clearly obvious he didn’t like them but why didn’t he? Could it be because Allah and his Prophet (saw) have declared it haraam (impermissible) for men to adorn themselves with gold, and this is why he hastened to get rid of them? As Nanak was getting older he wore a jubba (like a kurta pajama but without the slit down the side and slightly longer!), he started wearing a turban and lengthening his beard. This was not customary for Hindus to wear such items, there is absolutely no other rationale answer but to conclude that he was following the sunnah (the way) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), which every devout Muslim endeavors to do. The Prophet (saw) used to wear a jubba, he used to lengthen his beard, and he used to wear a turban, just like many of the Prophets that had come before. Now you may think that Sikhs don’t cut their beard and they wear turbans so maybe he was a Sikh, a quick and simple answer is that Sikhism wasn’t even around at this time, only a couple of hundred years later was the Sikh Khalsa formed at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh. Now as a devout Muslim one should not just try to follow the Holy Prophet (saw) in justoutward appearance but inwardly as well, in his sublime character, in his gentleness and generosity. As Nanak was maturing glimpses of his life reflected the teachings of the Prophet (saw). OnceNanak’s father gave him some money to go to the market place and to do business, on his way there he met some poor beggars, Nanak spent all the money on food and fed the beggars instead! Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an, ‘do not rebuke the beggar’, it is a well known fact with proof and authenticity in the field of hadith that the Prophet (saw) never once sent a begger empty handed when he was approached. He would also meditate a lot and strived to renounce the material life of this dunya, the words of the Prophet (saw) comes to mind, ‘live in this life as if you are but a traveler.’ He used to pray a lot (as in the sufi meditation), and we can clearly see that Naam Simran is just like the prayer that the sufis do. In Islam, Naam Simran is known as Dhikr. As you know the Sikh statement of faith is ‘Ek Onkar’, this is what Guru Nanak was said to have uttered and encouraged others to believe in. Letsstudy this, Ek obviously means ‘one’, but what does Onkar mean? Onkar is actually from the sanskript word ‘Omkar’ now like a lot of sanskript words Omkar which means creator and in Arabic Al-Khaaliq means creator which is 1 of the 99 names of Allah (swt) thatare found in the Holy Qur’an. The word ‘Rabb’ is also very widespread in Sikhism and is found in the Granth Sahib as well, ever thought where it came from? From the Holy Qur’an which was written over 1400 years ago! After all of this even if one attempted to try and refute all of the above, then I challenge anyone to explain this. It is documented by many if not all Sikh books on the life of Nanak that he performed Hajj and Umrah therefore visiting the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina. If he wasn’t a Muslim then why would he do this, sikh scholars try to justify this by claiming that Nanak was accepted by everyone and this is why he went for Hajj and Umrah. Acceptanceis one thing, but participating in the most holy and significant pilgrimage that a Muslim will ever make is quite a different issue altogether. These same scholars are silenced when the following verse ofthe Holy Qur’an is recited to them, ‘..verily the disbelievers are impure so let them not come near the Holy pave of worship (Mecca)…’ Thus meaning that non Muslim shall not never under any circumstances enter Mecca or Medina openly, to this day and Insha Allah till the Day of Judgment no fitnah can enter. So therefore Nanak must have been a Muslim or else he wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Holy Land, since he philosophy was to respect all religions. I think I’ve said enough but there are still a couple other points, sikh sources testify to the fact that Nanak went to Baghdad (Iraq), at that time Baghdad was the Islamic capital of the entire world and was for many years. At that time when economy was soaring, social structuring through the justiceof Islam was being implemented, advancement oftechnology was moving at a rapid rate. So much could be said about Baghdad but the question is if Nanakwasn’t a Muslim he had no reason to be in Baghdad. He spent twelve long years in Baghdad, which was then a major centre for the Sufis. Here he studied with many leading Sufis of his day, and it is said that the Sufisof the city presented him with a turban as a token of respect and honor. In Baghdad , in the courtyard of the shrine of Hazrat Bahlol Danaai, a famous Sufi, there isa shrine which mentions that Baba Nanak Sahib stayed there. The shoes, the Muslim-style prayer mat [ja-namaz] and the blanket of Baba Nanak and the copy of the Holy Qur’an which he used to regularly read, are also preserved. The copy of the Quran is Guru Nanak used to carry is at located in Ferozepore district in Punjab. To conclude, in the Gurudwara of Ferozepur District (North Punjab) was the jubba of Nanak, for reasons of maintenance it was wrapped many times and remained like this for many years, until just over 200 years ago it was unveiled, and low and behold on the jubba was verses of the Holy Qur’an, and scrawled across the front was the statement of faith declaring, ‘There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah, and that Muhammad (saw) is the Messenger of Allah’….as yet sikh scholars haven’t explained this unsurprisingly, for it speaks for itself. There’s so much more than can be said, I hope I have done justice to your question, I pray that this is a means of opening your heart to the light of Islam, just like my heart was opened through the Mercy of the ever- Merciful (swt). As one companion of the Prophet (saw) once said when inviting towards Islam, ‘we were sent to take mankind out of the servitude of things and bring them under the servitude of Allah, from the injustice of oppressors and systems, to the justice of Islam. From the narrowness of this dunya, to the vastness of the hereafter.’ ‘No one can guide whom Allah has set astray, and no one can set astray whom Allah has guided’
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 17:43:50 +0000
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