Sikhism as we know it today is the result of the teachings of the ten Gurus, the first of which was Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and the tenth and last of which was Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708).
Guru Nanak spread a simple message: "We are all one, created by the One Creator of all Creation." There is no definitive biography of Guru Nanak, though there have been many attempts to write the story of his life by his devotees after his death.
According to Dr. Hari Ram Gupta, author of A Life-Sketch of Guru Nanak, Nanak started his mission at a time when both Hinduism and Islam as practiced in the Indian Subcontinent had become distorted and degraded. The caste system was at its worst, and all kinds of corruption had become rampant in society. Men of vision were worried, and they attacked the rot that had set in the society. Rather than address the scion-political problems, the reformers of the day tried to initiate a spiritual movement that would turn people towards God. They believed that this was the way to cure the ills of the society.
Guru Nanak was indeed the most important of these reformers. He was born to a simple Hindu family. From an early age, he made friends with both Hindus and Muslims and acquired a good knowledge of Hinduism and Islam. He used to spend long hours in discussions with Muslim and Hindu holy men of the area.
There is a story of how he disappeared for three days and came back with enlightenment. It is reported that he was no longer the same person he had been. Then he uttered these words:
"There is but One God, His name is Truth, He is the Creator, He fears none, He is without hate, He never dies, He is beyond the cycle of births and death, He is self illuminated, He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning, He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True, He is also True now." (Japji)
These words are enshrined at the beginning of the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. It was 1499 and Guru Nanak was thirty years old at this time.
After this, with a Muslim companion, Guru Nanak undertook long journeys as part of a spiritual mission. He took twelve years to return from this first journey. He then set out on a second journey traveling as far south as Sri Lanka. On his third journey Guru Nanak traveled to the north to Tibet.
Guru Nanak visited Sheikh Ibrahim, the Muslim successor of Baba Farid, the great Sufi dervish of the twelfth century at Ajodhan. When asked by Ibrahim which of the two religions was the true way to attain God, Guru Nanak replied, "If there is one God, then there is only His way to attain Him, not another. One must follow that way and reject the other. Worship not him who is born only to die, but Him Who is eternal and is contained in the whole universe."
On his fourth great journey Guru Nanak dressed in the blue garb of a Muslim pilgrim and traveled to Makkah. He visited Madinah and Baghdad, too.
After having spent a lifetime in traveling abroad and setting up missions, an aged Nanak returned home to Punjab. He settled down at Kartharpur with his family. People came from far and near to hear his hymns and preaching.
After Guru Nanak?s death in September 1539, his Hindu followers thought him to be a Hindu and his Muslim followers thought him to be a Muslim. That is to say, both Muslims and Hindus viewed him from the perspective of their respective faiths.
It was the later disciples of Nanak who gave shape to a new religion, of which Nanak is considered the first Guru. In 1604, Arjan Dev (one of the ten Gurus) compiled the hymns of Guru Nanak along with the compositions of both Hindu and Muslim holy men, like Jaidev, Surdas, Sheikh Farid, and Kabir. The compiled book was enshrined by Arjan in the Golden Temple and was called the Adi Granth.
It was the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, who organized the community of Sikhs into a khalsa ? "a spiritual brotherhood devoted to purity of thought and action." He taught his followers to wear long hair (kesh, denoting saintly appearance), underwear (kachha, denoting self-control), iron bangle (kara, denoting purity in acts), comb (kangha, denoting cleanliness of mind and body), and sword (kirpan, denoting fight for a just cause).
The Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth (called respectfully as Guru Granth Sahib) is considered the Supreme Spiritual Authority and Head of the Sikh religion, rather than any living person. It contains the works of not only the ten Gurus but also the hymns by sufis like Sheikh Farid (1175 - 1265) and Sheikh Bhikan (who died during the early part of Akbar?s reign).
From the foregoing, we understand the following:
Guru Nanak was a religious reformer at best; he was not the founder of any new religion.
Sikhism is the creation of the Gurus, particularly of Guru Gobind Singh, whose compositions and innovations form the content and the framework of the new religion.
The Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth (called respectfully as Guru Granth Sahib) is considered the Supreme Spiritual Authority and Head of the Sikh religion, rather than any living person. It contains the works of not only the ten Gurus but also the hymns by sufis like Sheikh Farid (1175 - 1265) and Sheikh Bhikan (who died during the early part of Akbar?s reign).
From the foregoing, we understand the following:
Guru Nanak was a religious reformer at best; he was not the founder of any new religion.
Sikhism is the creation of the Gurus, particularly of Guru Gobind Singh, whose compositions and innovations form the content and the framework of the new religion.
The scripture of Sikhism is not any revelation from God but only the compositions of the Gurus as well as those of certain Muslim and Hindu mystics. For this reason, there is no meaning in talking about the authenticity of the book as a Divine Revelation. Because neither the book nor the authors claim it to have been revealed by God.
As Muslims, we can perform da`wah to the Sikhs, chiefly by appealing to their faith in the Oneness of God. We can tell them that Guru Nanak was most probably a Muslim when he died; the available evidence favors that conclusion. Anyway he did not try to replace Islam with a new religion; on the other hand, his utterances point to the fact that he certainly believed Islam to be the True Religion of God.
And Allah knows best.
Sikhs are mainly consisted of the people of Punjab.
very welcoming, sweet, and loving people.
I know a little bit about guru Nanak and how the 9Th guru was killed by one of the Muslim emperors of the Mughal Empire because the guru did not convert to Islam.
but i have many Sikh friends and they have a LOT of pride in their culture and religion
Lil they always tell people not to mess with them because their Sikh and
i always reply "SO....???" :P
Master
SALAAM
Bro. Singh, You know it was politics and it is politics now. Everything evil thing is done by evil politician, somehow good politician keeps silent though he knows the truth. That is what politics is.
In 1947 when the British announced freedom it was night in India. But several hours earlier Pakistan got freedom than India. When announcing freedom to huge country like India, there should be lot of preparations, consensus, meetings, suggestions gathering of leaders from BOTH sides, on the borders and inside the countries of both sides might have manned by para military to safeguard the innocent public. The Viceroy did not do anything of such kind. He just announced the freedom. The public moved from India to Pakistan had been massacred in thousands and the same happened Sikhs and Hindus at the border between India and Pakistan. The tradition of Sikhism just like Muslim's. I don't go deep in to the subject. The Outer look of both religion especially the costume (every human on earth witnessed, what happened after the terror attack on twin tower in NY).
There has been lot of question raised on this (guruJoas killed by muslims). It was a plot made by some Hindu activists (RSS) and transformed the whole blame on Muslims. If you are really interested I think I could shower more lights on this, if God wills.
Because those who killed Sikhs were selfish misguided Muslims. They wanted land, property and all other assets belonging to Sikhs in Punjab and Sindh in 1947. Not satisfied with this, now Sunnis in the name of religion killing Shi as, their own brothers, to acquire Shea's property all over the world. Christians are interested in dividing Muslim, Hindu and Buddha community. This is so called religion for western world.
Our Hindu religion is a way of life does not think of only Hindu but as a whole man kind Sikhs are warriors and they are born Hindus called Kshatriya.
In our Bhagwat Geeta Krishna told Arjuna (who was Kshatriya) that He has created four types of
people Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra according to qualities and Karma one possesses. Every one has been gifted with qualities like knowledge, strength, statistical knowledge and some disqualifies. One who has thorough knowledge is called Brahman, one who has strength and he uses it for betterment of society is Kshatriya, one who has knowledge but always use it for selfish means for his own is Vaishya and one who does not do any thing but enjoy life is Shudra.
Muslims did not kill your gurus. there r 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. they did not kill your guru. One Maugham ruler in India who was a Muslim pursued political persecution of some Sikh gurus.
If a Hindu ruler killed a Muslim priest, it doe snot mean all Hindus killed the Muslims.
Also the partition killings in 1947 was not only the handiwork of Muslims. Milliojns of people-hindus, muslims and sikhs were killed. u mean no mulsims was killed in the parition. no muslims were murdered by sikhs in the partitons?? So the question will be then-why did sikhs massacre muslims in 1947?
Read your history and find out hundreds of thousands of people -muslims, sikhs and hindus were massacred by each other. Each community blamed the other.
O ye disbelievers. You do not worship what I worship. Nor do I worship what you worship. You will never worship what I worship. I will never worship what you worship. Unto you your religion and unto me my religion. (Surah 109, Qur'an)
I personally don't have an opinion on Sikhs. I have had many Sikh friends and I am still friends with some of them mine. I know some Sikhs have strong religious beliefs, I respect them for that.
As for your second question, I can name you many situations I know where Sikhs have brutally killed Muslims. This has been told to me by Sikhs themselves:
http://talk.islamicnetwork.com/archive/index.php/t-4440.html
But I'm not going to stoop to your level by judging the whole religion on a group of people.
Sikhs are just a tribe . Guru Nanak was born Hindu. He rejected Hinduism's teachings and converted to Islam. The fact that he was indeed a Muslims can be seen from the fact he had entered Mecca. Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad only Muslims may enter Mecca. Even former president Bush could not enter Mecca. It is a divine rule. So it would have been impossible for Guru Nanak to enter Mecca is he wasn't a Muslim.
The Sikhs were initially Hindus, might have followed Guru Nanak and became Muslims. This can be observed from the attires and practices of the Sikhs. (After 9/11 Sikhs were even mistaken for Muslims and attacked by the American Christians because of their attires) But due to continuous confrontations with the Moghul rulers, the latter Gurus opted to get away from Islam. It seems they judged the book, Islam, by its cover the Muslims. That is the greatest mistake the latter gurus tend to have made. I recall here a statement by the former pop star, Cat Stevens, now, Yusuf Islam made when people asked him the reason for his conversion, "You were born in a Jewish Christian background. You should be hating Islam. But You embraced Islam instead.What made you embrace Islam? Is it the book (Quran) or the Muslims". the answer, "Fortunately for me, I looked at the Quran first. If it was the muslims I had looked first, I might not even have thought of converting to Islam.Islam is not what you see in the actions of some muslims".
He was right. The Moghul rulers in general were not the yardstick to measure Islam. And Islam is not what we see in the actions of some Muslims.
Even the history of the Golden Shrine talks about an Islamic sufi saint laying the first foundation stone in the building of the temple. Islamic names are also related with the composition of the Grant Sahib. Even the word Sahib is derived from Islamic sources.
So I think Guru Nanak was definitely a Muslim. Latter Gurus changed the way of Guru Nanak and named a new religon, Sikhism. Also, there is no proof that Guru Nanak ever preached a religion n named it Sikhism. The name Sikhism was a tribal name given by latter Gurus
What muslims think about Sikhism and Sikhs ?
