GAGASAN TOLERANSI SEJAGAT SULTAN AKBAR, 1542-1605

Abstract

Sultan Akbar was the third Sultan of the Mughal Dynasty and reigned from 1542 until 1605. Tough Akbar was not the founder the dynasty, he was widely acknowledged as the greatest of the Mughal Emperors. Besides having the strongest army, he also pioneered the idea of religious tolerance in the religiously divided Indian society. Through his idea, Akbar tried to make a paradigm shift in the practice of Islam in India making it more acceptable to other religious beliefs. Akbar was very much influenced by the doctrine of mystical sufism in his practice of Islam. In order to provide a venue for the discussion of his new belief, Akbar built a place known as Ibadat Khana. Here, discussion and consultation with religious and community leaders were conducted pertaining to the importance of religious tolerance to each community. His period as sultan was considered an important episode of the development of Islamic civilization in the Indian sub-continent because of his propagation of religious tolerance.