The Pakistani War-Cry of “Ghazwa-e-Hind” is neo-Khārijite Extremism; It’s An Ideology Of Umayyad-Islamist Militancy Which Betrays The Spiritual & Moral Compass Of Islam!

By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam 14 May 2025 Once again in Pakistan, the distorted doctrine of Ghazwa-e-Hind or Ghazwa-tul-Hind—which was first conceived by the Umayyads for their expansionist and imperialist designs— has been blatantly and deliberately misused for militant and political purposes. But this time, this narrative was not just heard from the fundamentalist clergymen of Pakistan but it was also echoed in Pakistani military rhetoric, where religious symbolism is infused with nationalist ideology. In the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict, this kind of eschatological militarism was amplified to mobilize public support under religious pretences. (From Files) ___ In modern times, especially post-1947, some elements in Pakistan have used the term Ghazwa-e-Hind as a justification for hostility toward India, presenting it as a divine prophecy or religious duty. Groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and ideologues like Zaid Hamid have frequently invoked Ghazwa-e-Hind to promote violent extremism and jihadist sentiments among Pakistani youth. But the established Islamic scholars, both in India and globally, have condemned and rebutted the use of Ghazwa-e-Hind as a tool for propaganda warfare. They argue: • It distorts Islam’s universal message of peace and justice. • It reduces complex geopolitical conflicts to simplistic religious binaries. • It promotes extremism and inter-religious hatred. How can a Prophet who felt cool breeze coming from the earth of Hind (India) sanction a military attack on the same land glorifying it as an Islamic expedition? Did the holy Prophet (PBUH) who spoke so highly and optimistically about the people of India (Hind) in several hadith reports really exhort a military expedition against it? Well, Pakistani clerics, ideologues, and radical Islamist groups are once again parroting the concocted, fabricated and distorted concept of Ghazwa-tul-Hind, and have weaponized it as a propaganda tool against India in the wake of India-Pakistan military escalation. From Maulana Tariq Jameel to Mufti Tariq Masood and his mentor Mufti Abdul Rahim, prominent Pakistani preachers affiliated with the Deobandi school of thought have pitched this: Pakistan Se Ghazwah-e-Hind Hoga (Ghazwa-tul-Hind would be waged from Pakistan). But the concept of Ghazwa-e-Hind or Ghazwa-tul-Hind, as it's popularly preached today—especially in militant and political rhetoric—is not just a distorted Islamic doctrine but rather a controversial and often misused narrative. While it originates from a few weak and highly controversial and debatable hadiths, its military use has been heavily politicized, particularly in the context of the ongoing India-Pakistan war. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) spoke so highly of ‘Hind’ as authenticated by established Islamic scholars like Shah Waliullah Dehlvi (1703–1762 CE)—one of the most influential Islamic scholars, theologians, and reformers of the Indian subcontinent. Revered as a reviver (mujaddid) of Islamic thought and practice in 18th-century India, Dehlvi documented a hadith in his Takhrīj which refers to the Prophet revering and glorifying Hind (the Indian subcontinent) and saying as follows: “"I am Arab, but Arab is not in me and I am not in Hind but Hind is in me"”. Shah Waliullah Muhaddith Dehlavi mentioned this Hadith as referenced by Al-Tabrani-Al-Awsat. Imam Bukhari (810–870 CE) whose compilation of hadith is considered the “most authentic after the book of Allah” (Asahhaul Kutub Ba’ada Kitabillah) among the Sunni Muslims records the following hadith: Narrated Um Qais bint Mihsan: I heard the Prophet (pbuh) saying: "Treat with the Indian incense, for it has healing for seven diseases; it is to be sniffed by one having throat trouble, and to be put into one side of the mouth of one suffering from pleurisy." [Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 71, Number 596] In another hadith collection "Al-Adab Al-Mufarrad", Bukhari mentions the following: Once when Prophet's wife Hazrat Aisha fell ill, her nephews brought a Hindi doctor for her treatment. More to the point, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the grandson of the holy Prophet (PBUH) also had a great liking for the land of Hind. Ibn Abbas reports: Ali Ibn Abi Talib stated: "The most fragrant heavenly breeze comes from the earth of India [Hind]", as reported in Mustadrak Al-Haakim (Hadith No. 4053). Imam Haakim who compiled this collection of hadith states: 'This Hadith is authentic i.e. Sahih in accordance with the conditions and criteria of Sahih Muslim, though the Shaikhain (Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim) have not recorded it in their hadith collections. Inspired by this hadith tradition attributed to Imam Ali (AS), Allama Iqbal who is considered as Haikmul Ummah (the Most Wise of the Ummah) said in his Urdu couplet of Bang-e-Dra: Meer e Arab Ko Aai Thandi Hawa Jahan Se Mera Watan Wohi hai ..... Mera Watan Wohi hai “From where the Arab Leader [Imam Ali AS] had felt cool breeze; that is my homeland, the same is my homeland!” Ibn Abbas reports: Ali Ibn Abi Talib said: "I feel cool breeze coming from the earth of Hind." Mustadrak Al-Haakim Hadith 4053. Hakim said, 'This Hadith is Sahih on the conditions of [Sahih] Muslim.' Inspired by this hadith, Allama Iqbal who is considered as Haikmul Ummah (the Most Wise of the Ummah) said in his Urdu couplet of Bang-e-Dra: Meer e Arab Ko Aai Thandi Hawa Jahan Se Mera Watan Wohi hai ..... Mera Watan Wohi hai “From where the Arab Leader [Imam Ali AS] had felt cool breeze; that is my homeland, the same is my homeland!” The reason why the holy Prophet (pbuh) said that “he was not from India but India was from him” could be the fact that his prophetic light (Noor-e-Muhammadi) embodied in the first Prophet of Islam Hazrat Adam (AS) descended in India even before his own birth in Arabia. ‘Imraan ibn ‘Uyayna said, narrating from ‘Ata’ ibn al-Saa’ib, from Sa‘eed ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ‘Abbaas, who said: “Adam came down from Paradise in Dahna, in the land of India”. Hafiz Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqi—one of the most renowned classical Hadith and Tafseer scholars, states: Allah states (in the Qur’an): “Get you down, all” [2:36]. So they came down; Adam came down in India and the Black Stone and a handful of leaves from Paradise came down with him, and he scattered them in India, and a perfume tree grew, which is the origin of what comes from India of perfume from the handful of leaves that Adam brought down. Adam only took them because of his sorrow at leaving Paradise when he was expelled from it. Thus, the Hind (the Indian subcontinent)—far from being framed as a perpetual enemy—was mentioned by the Prophet (pbuh) in terms that reflected dignity, sanctity, sacred historicity and an opportunity for spiritual reward, and the spread of Islam’s essential and universal message of humanity. Therefore, it is reported in certain oral traditions of Ahlul Bayt (the holy Prophet’s family) that Imam Ali (AS) averted an attack that the Umayyad Caliph Muʿawiya Bin Abu Sufiyan (602–680 CE) wanted to wage against India/Hind on the pretext of spreading Islam. Later, Ameer Muʿawiya did initiate military expeditions towards India, particularly into Sindh and Makran (present-day Pakistan and south-western Iran). However, his intent was not a religious crusade, but rather political expansion as part of broader Umayyad imperial objectives. Clearly —as part of political and strategic expansion of the Ummmayds, and not as a just cause or religious campaign of Islam, the so-called "Ghazwa-e-Hind" was conceived in the Ummayyad dynasty. The most cited hadith narration about Ghazwa-tul-Hind comes from Musnad Aḥmad, in which the Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have said: "A group of people among my Ummah will conquer the kings of Hind, and Allāh will forgive their sins." (Musnad Aḥmad, 28/637; weak but widely quoted) While modernist Islamic scholars like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi have totally dismissed and ruled out any future occurrence of such incident, classical eschatology experts like Dr Imran Nazr Hussain view this not as an ethnic war but as a spiritual struggle against injustice, without identifying modern political borders. The mention of “forgiveness” in this hadith reflects a hopeful tone, not a call to domination. All the rest of the hadiths about Ghazwa-e-Hind are found in secondary collections like Sunan an-Nasā’ī, and many scholars—both classical and contemporary—question their authenticity or interpret them metaphorically. They do not appear in the most authoritative collections like Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī or Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. All in all, the hadiths of Ghazwa-tul-Hind which are being used today for militant purposes and jihadist interpretations in Pakistan reek of the Ummayad-Yazidi mentality among the mullahs who are parroting them. As these controversial ḥadiths on Ghazwa-tul-Hind are entirely absent from the established traditions of Ahul-Bayt and authentic collections recognized by the Ahlus Sunnah and Shīʿa schools of thought, it is obvious that they were fabricated by the Umayyads to support their imperial expansion in the name of Islamic Ghazwa. It is worth noting that the Umayyads did, in fact, reach Sindh — which was considered a part of Hind (India) at the time." But remember that this earliest attempt and the following Muslim expeditions to invade India was in stark contradiction to the spiritual will of Imam Ali (AS) as well as against the prophetic testament of the holy Prophet (pbuh). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Pakistani Jihadis' War Cry of Ghazwa-e-Hind Is Entirely Based On Concocted Ahadith: No Religious Sanctity attached to Terrorist Designs on India ------------------------------------------------------------------- Indian lands were never vilified in Prophetic traditions. In fact, early Muslims—such as the Companions (Sahaba) and their Companions (Tābiʿīn)—traded, migrated to, and respected India, especially for its sciences, philosophy, and medicines. The Prophet (pbuh) never made derogatory statements about Hind. Rather, Sufi saints and scholars later expanded this vision by seeing Hind as a land of wisdom and future spiritual transformation. Historically, Islam spread in Hind through trade, Sufis, and saints—not military conquest. Saints like Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddīn Chishti and Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddīn Awliya continued this legacy of the Prophet (pbuh) by promoting mutual harmony, love, inclusion, and unity in the Indian subcontinent. This is the path of mystical Islam—rooted in the teachings of Imam ʿAli (ʿalayhi al-salām)—which has consistently been rejected by the Umayyads, the followers of Yazīd, the Khawārij, and now their ideological heirs in the modern era in Pakistan, a country which has become a focal point for the neo-Khārijite extremism. Last but not the least, Islam’s Eschatology Is Ethical, Not Geopolitical. The Prophet (pbuh) emphasized Haqq vs Bāṭil (truth vs falsehood) as an ethical struggle, not one based on nation-states. When the idea of Ghazwa-e-Hind is distorted into a nationalistic or militant ideology, it betrays the spiritual and moral compass of Islam. ----- A Regular Columnist with Newageislam.com, Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an Indo-Islamic scholar, Sufi poet and English-Arabic-Urdu-Hindi writer with a background in a leading Sufi Islamic seminary in India. He is currently serving as Head of International Affairs at Voice for Peace & Justice, Jammu & Kashmir. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/pakistani-war-cry-ghazwa-hind-kharijite-extremism-ideology-umayyad-/d/135532 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism