History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c45.s2: §2. Ideal of a Muslim State.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c45.s2
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§2. Ideal of a Muslim State.
v3.c45.s2.1
The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent, is the ideal of the Muslim State. If any infidel is suffered to exist in the community, it is as a necessary evil, and for a transitional period only. Political and social disabilities must be imposed on him, and bribes offered to him from the public funds, to hasten the day of his spiritual enlightenment and the addition of his name to the roll of true believers.* The growth of the infidel population in number or wealth would, therefore, defeat the very end of the State. Hence, a true Islamic king is bound to look on jubilantly when his infidel subjects cut each other's throats, for "whichever side may be slain, Islam is the gainer," (har tarf ke shawwad kushta sud-i-Islam ast). If for instance, two rival orders of Hindu monks fought each other to the death for precedence in bathing in a holy tank, a Muslim king like Akbar was expected to abdicate his function of guardian of the public peace, and assist them in mutually thinning the number of the infidels.†
v3.c45.s2.2
∗ "With regard to the idolators of a non-Arabic country, Shafi maintains that destruction is incurred by them also; but other learned doctors agree that it is lawful to reduce them to slavery, thus allowing them, as it were, a respite during which it may please God to direct them into the right path, but making, at the same time, their persons and substance subservient to the cause of Islam." (Hughes, 710.) Encyclo. Islam, i. 917 (dar-ul-harb.)
v3.c45.s2.3
† Khuda Bakhsh MS. of Khandan-i-Timuria, 322a, where Akbar's action is justified on the principle, Har tarf &c. Tabaqat-i-Akbari, 279.