Dīn-i Ilāhī

The Dīn-i Ilāhī (دین الهی "Divine Faith"), was a syncretic religious doctrine propounded by the Mughal emperor Jalālu d-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar ("Akbar the Great"), who ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1556 to 1605.

From the discussions he led there in 1575, Akbar concluded that no single religion could claim the monopoly of truth. This inspired him to create the Dīn-i Ilāhī in 1581. Various Muslim clerics, among them the Qadi of Bengal and the seminal Sufi personality Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, responded by declaring this to be blasphemy.

Akbar not only tolerated religions other than Islam, he encouraged interfaith discussion and debate. After listening to many religious scholars from the prominent religions of his empire (i.e., Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and, to a lesser extent Jainism, Christianity and Judaism) he decided that no one faith was entirely and exclusively true; he developed a syncretic religion which he called Din-i Ilahi, "the Divine Faith" and encouraged his subjects to follow it. It combined elements primarily from Islam and Hinduism, but also from Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Christianity. While it never gained a real following, it promoted many universal values found in these religions, including compassion, piety, abstinence and prudence. It forbade celibacy and animal slaughter.