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Hindu religion. The real case is just the reverse. The Emperor gave big estates and endowments for the maintenance of Hindu temples in Benares. Fortunately for us, the custodians of these temples hold "firmans" (orders) of Aurangzeb entitling them to such estates, otherwise they would have been confiscated by the British rule. I have photographs of those "firmans" with me. Kashmir, at present a Hindu State, maintains a large number of Hindu temples out of the estates created by the Moghul Kings for them, and most of the endowments came from Aurangzeb. Even to-day I find the same Muslim liberality in Hyderabad (Deccan) and in the State of Bhopal, where a large portion of the State revenue goes to maintain non-Muslim shrines, including Christian and Zoroastrian churches.
Even in time of war a Muslim soldier is forbidden to touch an alien's house of worship. He has to spare the lives of religious teachers.[1]
- ↑ The words of Abu Bakr, the immediate successor of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, read as follows:
… Let there be no perfidy nor falsehood in your treaties with your enemies, be faithful in all things, proving yourself ever upright and noble, and maintaining your word and promise truly. Do not disturb the quiet of the monk or hermit and destroy not their abodes, but inflict the rigour of death upon all who shall refuse the conditions you may impose upon them—(The Law Quarterly Review, 1908.}
