Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s1.40

c18.s1.40

Thus Kabīr preached a universal religion, and showed a path which everybody could tread. But people, he found, were enveloped in gross superstition. There were distinctions of high and low and differences between Hindus and Muslims. Therefore he fervently appealed to them to give up their superstitious beliefs and dogmas, and take to the path of universal brotherhood. He asked the Hindus to give up all externalia of religion—worship of idols, ritualism, belief in distinctions of caste and creed, emphasis on scriptures and incarnations. He asked the Muslims to give up their arrogance and blind faith in "one Prophet and his book". Pilgrimages to Mecca, fasts and regulated prayers were meaningless. To both Hindus and Muslims he taught reverence for the living creatures, to abstain from violence and bloodshed, to give up all pride and live like brothers. Kabīr was perhaps the first socio-religious reformer who clearly and repeatedly declared that Hindus and Musalmans were the children of the one Supreme Being. They must live as one. Their differences were the product of their ignorance.