Fatawa-e-Alamgiri: Aurangzeb Exposed!

By- Khushi Bisht

The sixth emperor Mughal empire, Aurangzeb, is regarded as one of India's most despised men. He is widely hated as a religious zealot who intended to brutally persecute Hindus, and some even accuse him of instigating wars that lead to the establishment of distinct Muslim-dominated states throughout South Asia.

He ruled for five decades (1658–1707), and his tenure had a significant impact on early contemporary India's political arena. And even after all these years, his influence can still be felt in significant parts of India and Pakistan.

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Mughal royalty came with a lot of leeways, and Aurangzeb took advantage of it to mold Mughal court culture to suit his own ideological and religious preferences. He sponsored the "Fatawa-e-Alamgiri," a compilation of Hanafi (one of four Sunni schools) law rules that control the activities of Indian Muslims.

What is Fatawa-e-Alamgiri?

It is a comprehensive collection of India's Sunni Muslims customs and commandments, produced during Aurangzeb's reign in the late 17th century. Many academics, mostly from the Hanafi school, contributed to this collection, which is based on Sunni Hanafi Islam's Sharia law. Aurangzeb assembled hundreds of Muslim scholars, including Shah Abdul Rahim and Sheikh Nizam Burhanpuri who were well-versed in Islamic laws from South Asia, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to produce Fatawa-e-Alamgiri. In the late Mughal reign, their efforts culminated in the creation of an Islamic law system for South Asia.

By the early 18th century, it had become the core of Aurangzeb's empire's law and philosophy. Even today, Fatawa-e-Alamgiri has a stronghold on the Muslim world, and it is a mandatory curriculum at madrasas (Islamic religious schools).

Sir William Jones' manuscript copy of al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyyah.Wikimedia Commons

What's written in Fatawa-e-Alamgiri?

Fatwa-e-Alamgiri comprises of a law system governing personal, family, inter-religious relations, slavery, land, war, taxation, and other laws, as well as the juristic decisions of the time's 'faqīh' (Islamic jurisprudence) on a variety of probable scenarios. It established a judicial framework that discriminated against individuals based on their faith, position in society, and economic standing.

This isn't all; it also contains several other distressing details that demonstrate Aurangzeb's intolerant, vicious, and misogynistic character. In general, the Fatwa-e-Alamgiri reveals the mentality of India's so-called religious minority.

The Fatawa-e Alamgiri allows Muslims to forcefully conduct a marriage of a girl child, it gives Muslim males the freedom to marry as many women as they like. It addresses the right to own a slave girl and states that Muslim men are permitted to possess a bandhi 'sex slave.' It expresses the belief that a female is equal to half of a man's worth.

It encourages Jihad and allows for the slaughter of anyone who is a Kaafir (Infidel or Non-believer of Islam). It instructs Muslim men to slay, physically assault, rape, and convert "Kaafir" women (mainly Hindu women) to Islam. The beliefs of Aurangzeb favor female slavery and the forcible abduction of infidel women.

As a result of Aurangzeb's ideology, many massacres were committed in India, including forceful conversion of Hindus, the raping and slaughtering of our women, and the destruction of our culture and heritage.

Aurangzeb in his old age. Wikimedia Commons

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Beyond everything else, Aurangzeb was a brutal, ruthless abuser of Hindus. He was an Islamic fundamentalist who is usually assumed to have devoted his near half-century rule wreaking havoc on Hinduism. When his attempt to persuade and convert all Hindus to Islam was unsuccessful, he allegedly turned to Jihad and massacred millions of Hindus.

This is a fact that no one can deny. This has been a pillar of Islam since its inception.

Many of Aurangzeb's Fatawa-e Alamgiri's provisions or extreme ideas and beliefs are totally reflected in present Muslim Personal Law (Shariat), 1937. It is based wholly on Aurangzeb's Fatawa-e Alamgiri, a Mughal tool used to popularize and spread Islamist domination throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The Muslim Personal Law is a complete modification of the Fatawa-e Alamgiri. The only difference between Aurangzeb's Fatawa-e Alamgiri and personal law is their titles. Given the toxic sentiments it supports, the Muslim law board (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) is a threat to India's oneness and harmony.