Indian Islam

Islam (Indian Traditions)

Section 1: Overview

[BEGINNER]

Islam reached India within decades of its founding in Arabia — Muslim traders were settled on the southwestern (Kerala) coast by the 7th–8th century CE, centuries before any Muslim ruler set foot in the subcontinent. Over the next twelve centuries the faith spread through traders, Sufi saints, rulers, scholars, and reformers, taking distinctively Indian forms.

Today India holds the world's third-largest Muslim population — about 200 million people, roughly 14% of the country. Indian Islam is extraordinarily diverse: Sunni and Shia, Sufi and reformist, urban and rural, spanning every state.

Sunni Islam

Most Indian Muslims (about 85%) are Sunni, overwhelmingly of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence (fiqh). Within Indian Sunnism two major late-19th-century movements shape religious life:

• The Barelvi (Ahl-e Sunnat) movement, founded by Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi (1856–1921) of Bareilly — scholar, Sufi of the Qadiri order, author of the Fatawa-i Razawiyya and the Urdu Quran translation Kanz ul-Iman. It defends traditional South Asian Sunni practice: love and veneration of the Prophet, Sufi shrines and urs gatherings, and the Mawlid (Prophet's birthday).
• The Deobandi movement, centred on the Darul Uloom seminary founded at Deoband in 1866 by Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. It emphasises scriptural study and reform of practices it views as innovation, and has no truck with shrine veneration.

Shia Islam

Indian Shia Muslims (about 10–15%) include Ithna Ashari (Twelvers), with historic centres at Lucknow — famous for its Muharram processions, tazias (replicas of Imam Husayn's Karbala tomb), and imambaras — and Hyderabad. The Nizari Ismailis, led by the Aga Khan, are prominent in Gujarat and Maharashtra; in February 2025, Aga Khan IV died and was succeeded by his son Rahim al-Hussaini as Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary Imam.

Sufi traditions

India's great Sufi orders (tariqas) include:

• Chishti: founded in India by Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (d. 1236), whose dargah at Ajmer draws millions of pilgrims of all faiths; his spiritual descendant Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325) of Delhi, whose disciple Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) shaped qawwali music.
• Qadiri, Naqshbandi, Suhrawardi: each with its own emphasis — divine love and service, silent remembrance (dhikr) with strict observance, and engaged mysticism respectively.

Sufi shrines (dargahs) are among India's most visited pilgrimage sites, and Sufi music (qawwali, sama) is beloved far beyond Muslim audiences.

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[INTERMEDIATE]

How Islam came to India

The first phase was peaceful and mercantile: Arab traders settled on the Malabar coast in the 7th–8th century, forming the Mappila (Moplah) Muslim community of Kerala. Tradition holds that the last Chera king, Cheraman Perumal — persuaded, the legend says, by reports of the Prophet's miracle of the splitting of the moon — embraced Islam, died on pilgrimage near Salalah, and directed his companions to build a mosque at Kodungallur: the Cheraman Juma Mosque, traditionally dated 629 CE (scholars debate the date; the living tradition is what pilgrims honour). See Cheraman Juma Mosque.

The second phase was political: Turkic and Afghan rulers from the 13th century (the Delhi Sultanate), and the Mughal Empire (1526–1857), made Persianate Islamic culture a court language of North India — in administration, architecture, music, and cuisine — while conversion proceeded gradually, mostly through Sufi preaching and social movement rather than decree.

Reform and revival under colonial rule

The shock of 1857 and British rule produced competing answers to "how should Indian Muslims live?": Deoband's seminary-based scripturalism; Ahmed Raza Khan's defence of Sufi-inflected Sunnism; Sayyid Ahmad Khan's modernist Aligarh movement (educational reform); and in 1926, Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi's Tablighi Jamaat, an apolitical pietist movement calling Muslims back to the Prophet's example through preaching tours.

The Quran and Hadith

The Quran — believed by Muslims to be the literal word of God revealed in Arabic to Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632 CE) over 23 years — is the supreme authority; translations are honoured as interpretations. The Hadith (records of the Prophet's sayings and actions, sifted through chains of narrators; major collections include Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) guide daily life alongside the Quran.

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Section 2: Core Teachings & Practices

[BEGINNER]

The Five Pillars (arkan al-Islam)

1. Shahada — "There is no god but God (Allah), and Muhammad is the messenger of God": the declaration of faith and entry into Islam.
2. Salat — prayer five times daily (dawn Fajr, noon Zuhr, afternoon Asr, evening Maghrib, night Isha), facing the Kaaba in Mecca.
3. Zakat — obligatory charity, traditionally 2.5% of qualifying wealth, for the poor and community needs.
4. Sawm — fasting from dawn to dusk through the month of Ramadan.
5. Hajj — pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime, for those physically and financially able.

Sufi practices add an inward dimension: dhikr (remembrance of God through repeated names and phrases), sama (devotional listening, especially qawwali), muraqaba (contemplation), and ziyarat (visitation of saints' shrines).

Practices you can explore today:

1. Pause five times: even without adopting the prayer form, the Islamic discipline of stopping five times daily for remembrance is a powerful practice — set gentle reminders to pause and breathe.
2. Give quietly (zakat spirit): wealth as trust, charity as obligation. Give to someone in need today without seeking recognition.
3. Listen to qawwali: the Sufi sama tradition — try the Thursday-evening qawwali at Nizamuddin Dargah in spirit via recordings, and notice how music carries remembrance.

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Section 3: Living Tradition Today

[BEGINNER]

Where Indian Islam lives:

• Shrines: Ajmer Sharif (Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti), Nizamuddin Dargah (Delhi), and thousands of local dargahs where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians alike tie threads and make vows.
• Festivals: Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan), Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), Muharram (Shia mourning processions, grandest at Lucknow and Hyderabad), Milad-un-Nabi (Prophet's birthday, widely observed in Barelvi tradition), and the great Urs death-anniversary fairs at Ajmer and Delhi.
• Figures: Amir Khusrau (poet-musician, "father of qawwali"); Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888–1958), freedom fighter and India's first Education Minister; APJ Abdul Kalam (1931–2015), scientist and President of India.

Contemporary notes: India's Muslims navigate questions of education and economic mobility, political representation, and interfaith coexistence — subjects of active internal debate among ulema, intellectuals, and community organisations. This encyclopedia records traditions, not polemics: for contested current affairs, readers should consult multiple reputable news sources.

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DivineLens presents perspectives from within this tradition, curated for authenticity. For personal spiritual direction, advanced study, or questions about tradition-specific practice, we recommend finding a qualified teacher in Islam. Our Advisory Council reviews all content for theological accuracy.

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Through Travelers' Eyes

How visitors saw Indian Islam, summarised (paraphrased). See Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo.

Ibn Battuta (1330s) — Tangier-born qadi who served Muhammad bin Tughluq — gives the fullest medieval portrait: Delhi's mosques and Sufi hospices, the Sultan's terrifying generosity, Malabar's Muslim ports, and (at Mylapore) even the Christians' tomb-shrine, honoured by Hindus.

Ma Huan (1410s–30s) — Muslim interpreter on Zheng He's treasure fleets — described Calicut: mosques and Muslim traders (Arab and Mappila) beside the Hindu Zamorin's court, pepper weighed in gold-flecked scales. An insider-outsider: Islam observing Islam abroad.

Duarte Barbosa (c. 1516) — Portuguese factor at Kochi writing Malayalam-fluent field notes — catalogued the coast's peoples: Mappila Muslims (traders, sailors, scholars), Nair warriors, and the Kollam Christians still keeping the old faith.

Afanasy Nikitin (1469–72) — Tver horse-trader, first Russian in India — wandered the Bahmani Deccan to Bidar, marvelling at sultans' elephants, temple crowds, and prices: wonder without system, precious for just that reason.

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Known Limitations

1. The Sunni/Shia/Sufi/reformist internal debates are summarised, not settled — each community speaks for itself.
2. Regional Islams (Kashmiri, Hyderabadi Deccani, Bengali, Mappila, Bohra, Khoja) each deserve their own entries.
3. The Barelvi/Deobandi theological differences are outlined briefly; specialists should consult the cited works.
4. Contemporary politics is deliberately out of scope for this entry.

Recommended reviewers: A Sunni Islamic scholar, a Shia Islamic scholar, and a Sufi practitioner.