The Institutes of Akbar 2.3.7

2.3.7

The promulgation of this new doctrine was the making of Abul Fazl’s fortune. Both he and Akbar held to it to the end of their lives. But the new idea was in opposition to Islám, the law of which stands above every king, rendering what we call a constitution impossible; and though headstrong kings as ’Aláuddín Khiljí had before tried to raise the law of expediency (مصلحت وقت, maṣlaḥat i waqt) above the law of the Qorán, they never fairly succeeded in separating religion from law or in rendering the administration of the empire independent of the Mullá. Hence when Abul Fazl four years later, in 986, brought up the question at the Thursday evening meetings, he raised a perfect storm; and while the disputations, bitter as they were, had hitherto dwelt on single points connected with the life of the Prophet, or with sectarian differences, they henceforth turned on the very principles of Islám. It was only now that the Sunnís at Court saw how wide during the last four years the breach had become; that “the strong embankment of the clearest law and the most excellent faith had been broken through;” and that Akbar believed that there were sensible men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers and men endowed with miraculous power among all nations, Islám, therefore, possessed in his opinion no superiority over other forms of worship.” The learned party seeing their official position endangered, now shewed signs of readiness to yield, but it was too late.