Towards an Islamic Theology of Hindu‐Muslim Relations

The relation between Muslims and Hindus has a very long history that can be traced back to the very first century of Islam. It seems that the interaction between these two communities of faith in the Indian sub-continent, where they happened to co-exist over a millennium, has always been—as long as politics was not involved—quite positive and prospering, as it is today. Until modern times, the Hindu community confined itself to what we know today as the Indian subcontinent with some settlements in the regions of southeast Asia, especially those of Java and Sumatra in present-day Indonesia, where it enjoyed, even before the arrival of Islam, a tremendous influence over the thought patterns and culture of the people and which continues to this day to a considerable extent. It is only with dawn of the modern period, the rise of European colonialism, and the consequent opening up of the Indians towards migration.