The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.65

v4.c16.65

Another result of the Bhera vision was the revival of the discussions in the "Hall of Worship", and it was now that the Muslim dogmatists disgraced themselves. The orthodox party consisted of two factions, one headed by Makhdūm-ul-Mulk and the other by Shaikh ‘Abdun-Nabī, whose differences were mainly personal, though Muslim theology presents difficulties sufficient to arouse strife even between the orthodox. Their recriminations either convinced Akbar that he could find no peace in Islām or furnished him with a pretext for abjuring a faith which claimed the obedience of one who was resolved to be supreme in spiritual as in temporal matters, and it was now that he first openly admitted to the discussions Christians, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Sabaeans. 'Abdun-Nabī was dismissed, owing to his unseemly violence in dispute, from the office of *Sadr-us-Sudūr*, and his place was filled by Sultān Khvāja, who, although he had led the pilgrims of 1576 to Mecca, was a latitudinarian in religion and a self-seeker in politics and ultimately became a convert to the "Divine Faith".