Advent of Islam in India | How Islam came to India ?

Islam came India through various route:

1. Arabian traders
2. Arab conquerors
3. Islamic teachers
4. Turkish conqueror

Arabian traders

Trade relation between India and Arabia is very ancient. Arabian traders brought the message of Islam to India through thier trade. First rays of knowledge of Islam reached to Kerala and kokan regions because these were the areas most frequented by Muslim traders from Arabia. For this reason, these areas are called "the gate of Islam in India".

In relation to this, most ancient evidence that we  get is that of the mosque of Malik Ibn Deenar R which is situated on the sea shore in Kerala. The year of construction engraved on the gate of this mosque is 628 AD, whereas prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) died in the year 632 AD. It means that four year's prior to the death of prophet (ﷺ), his companion Malik Ibn Deenar R had reached the shores of Kerela.

During his life, prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) performed the miracle of splitting the moon just by the signal of his finger. People in India witnessed this miracle. A person by the name of Ratan Sen traveled all the way to Makkah with the intention to investigate the truth. Upon reaching there he was so impressed that he immediately accepted Islam. Hence he became famous as the Indian companion.

Some other to tradition say that during the caliphate of Ali R delegation had come to India to preach Islam. Most important is the effort of the Arab trader's. Once illuminated by the knowledge of Islam, this traders traveled not just for trade but also for the sake of spreading Islam. Wherever they went they illuminate the native people with the light of Islam and by virtue of thier noble manners, honesty and fair dealings endeared themselves to one and all.

Arab conquerors

During the caliphate of Umar R sa'd Ibn Aas R attacked Chembur Thana, and returned after gaining victory. This was the first victory in India. Some reports say this attack was on Behruch. Later in the year 712 AD, Arab invaders entered India and one by one conquered Sindhu, Baluchistan and many parts of Punjab. One of the reasons for these attacks was king Dahir of Sindhu. He gave shelter and encouragement to the Outlaws of Banu Umaiyyah. When Banu Umaiyyah asked him to return these outlaws, he refused to comply.

The second provocation came when on the shores of Sindhu, near Deebal, pirates attacked the Arab ships and all of them were taken captives. Among these captives were some women who wrote for help to Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf, the Governor of Iraq. Hajjaj in response wrote to king Dahir to punish the entering pirates and free all the captives. But when king Dahir replied that he has no control over the pirates of Deebal, Hajjaj sent an army to crush the pirates. King Dahir encouraged the pirates whereas his son prepared an army to face the force of Hajjaj. Force of Hajjaj was defeated. Later, Hajjaj sent a large army under the leadership of his son in law Muhammad Ibn Qasim R. He attached the Deebal in the year 712 AD and after a struggle of six months captured it. Muhammad ibn Qasim R was just 17 years old at that time. Hence he is referred to as youngest conqueror in history. As a result of these victorious campaign it became possible for the Islamic preacher to go to interior of the nation and spread the truth.

Islamic preachers

Many elderly preacher of Islam came to India solely for the purpose of spreading the truth. Some of the eminent among them are: Moinuddin Chishti, Shams Peerzada, Baba Farid R, etc. Innumerable people embraced Islam after being impressed by their great character, piety, honesty and spiritual powers.

Mo'inuddin Chisti Rahmatullah alaih was from Afghanistan. He went to Madinah to pay visit to Prophet (ﷺ) grave and then decided to travel to India. Enroute, he was joined by forty learned elders. All along the journey, they spread the knowledge of Islam. On the way, they reached Sabzwar which was ruled by Yadgar Muhammad. He was a traitor of the central rule of Baghdad. When he received the news of the arrival of these elders, he went to them and behaved rudely with them. But later on he was greatly impressed by their noble manners and ultimately decided to repent for all his previous misdeeds and accepted Islam. He also gave up Kingship and joined the caravan of these elders in the way of preaching the religion of Allah. They all traveled to Multan, then to Lahore and finally reached Delhi.

Mo'inuddin Chisti R selected Ajmer as permanent abode, which at that time was the capital of Prithvi Raj. He called Prithvi Raj also towards the truth of Islam who did not accept it. But when Prithvi Raj started sensing trouble for himself because of the increasing popularity of Mo'inuddin Chisti R, he started troubling him by various means but Allah protected him and large quantity accepted Islam by his efforts.

Among the great disciples of Mo'inuddin chisti R Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki R is most eminent.

Turkish conqueror

Conquest of the Arabs were limited mainly to the coastal areas. The roads to the preaching of Islam to the interior were opened as a result of the conquest of Muhammad Ibn Qasim R and Mahmood Ghaznavi R. But these people returned back soon. As a result, stability was not achieved.

Later on, in the year 1192 AD Muhammad Ghauri R attacked and defeated Prithivi Raj in Tarain. This was the entry of Turkish conqueror into India. Soon Muhammad Ghauri R returned back after appointing his slave Qutbuddin Aibak R as the ruler of the conqueror land. After the death of Muhammad Ghauri R in the year 1302 AD Qutbuddin Aibak became independent ruler. He selected Delhi as his permanent capital and thus established the first Muslim empire in India.

Since Qutbuddin Aibak R was himself a slave, he knew well the suffering of poor. Therefore he used to do a lot of charity as a result of which he became popular as "Lakh Data" (Giver of Lakhs).

Slowly but surely Turkish conqueror captured most part of India and ruled for over 200 years. These people were great adherents of Islam and by their remarkable administrative skills managed to establish a formidable Empire. During this period, Islam spread to all corners of the conquered land. The greatest favour that the Turkish did to India was that they fought the Barbarians of Mangolia with great risk and saved Indian from their loot and Barbarism.

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Allah and his messenger knows best