The explanation of the relationship between religion and worldly life is one of the challenging contemporary discussions at a global level, one that has arrayed rejecting and acknowledging Muslim thinkers against each other. Hence, paying attention to and criticizing Muslim neo-thinkers’,viewpoints who favor secularism and reject the social rules of Islam is of utmost importance. Sayyid A&#x1E25, md Khā, n Hindī,is one of suchlike people who has accepted secularism much before other Muslim neo-thinkers. His views in this regard can be discussed under titles such as considering religion as limited to worshipping and spiritual issues, favoring secular rather than religious education and training, deeming social rules and regulations as changeable, opting for the separation of religion from politics and government, and supporting the separation of religion from economy. Sayyid A&#x1E25, md Khā, n’, s viewpoints are flawed due to several reasons, including their reliance on humanism in content and thought system as well as their inconsideration of the cultural and training principles and indices of Islam, the trans-temporality and human-needs-based nature of the social rules of Islam, the ascription of the absolute sovereignty to God and the assignment of a role to divine revelation in the application of this sovereignty in Islam, and the existence of numerous verses and narrations that regard economy and express its rules.

The present article, against the claim that Sayyid Qutb's supported theoretical and spiritual for Islamic extremism by proposing the concept of jihad, believes that by reading Sayyid Qutb's texts on his political and intellectual environment, his time shows the inaccuracy of this claim. Reading his texts for this article shows the conceptual development of defensive jihad in the political thought of Sayyid Qutb. With the transition of contemporary Islamism from a reformist to a revolutionary approach, he removed the concept of jihad from defensive jihad in its narrow sense and used it in its broadest sense. According to the author's view, the conceptual development of defensive jihad has not led to an aggressive jihad based on the idea of takfir, so he cannot be considered the intellectual and spiritual father of Islamic extremism. This article argues for this claim using an intentional hermeneutical method.

Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t ("the Ocean of Life") is a 16th century Persian text written by a Shaṭ ṭ ā rī Sufi, Shaykh Muḥ ammad Ghawth Gwaliyari (d 1563). It is originally a translation of a yogic text known as Amṛ takuṇ ḍ a ("Pool of Water of Life") which is now lost. Shaykh Muḥ ammad mentions only an Arabic version of the text named Ḥ awḍ al-Ḥ ayā t. It should be mentioned that Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t is not a literal translation of Amṛ takuṇ ḍ a or any other Hindu texts. In fact, the Hindu doctrines and practices are gathered from different Yogic, Purā nic and Tantric traditions. In Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t these Hindu materials are mixed with the teachings of Islamic mysticism. Shaykh Muḥ ammad had a good reason for translating the text. From his point of view, the techniques mentioned in the text, such as breath control, etc., were useful for his own pupils and other Shaṭ ṭ ā rī Sufis. For him, Yogis are the masters of 'ilm i djasad ("the Knowledge of Body") which is a useful knowledge for the Muslims to know. Shaykh Muḥ ammad frequently emphasizes the equality of the sayings of Hindu saints with those of Sufis. However, Muḥ ammad's sympathies with Yogis, met strong oppositions by the some of Muslim scholars for whom Yogis were nothing but the misguided pagans. So they accused Muḥ ammad of blasphemy. Although he had been finally absolved, he was under suspicion even fifty years after his death when a biographer, Ghawthi Shaṭ ṭ ā rī , in his book tried to justify Shaykh Muḥ ammad's deeds. Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t is consisted of ten chapters. In its last chapter there is a kind of cosmology similar to those of the Tantric and Purā nic. In fact, the TantricPurā nic cosmology is a syncretism of monistic view of Advaita Vedā nta school and dualistic view of Sā ṃ khya school. So, it promotes the doctrine of "Multiplicity in Unity" which is in accordance with Shaykh Muḥ ammad's thoughts. Shaykh Muḥ ammad starts his narration of creation extoling the Unconditioned Truth as the source of all things. He mentions His Sanskrit names according to Yogis' tradition. He explains creation as the manifestation of the Unconditioned Truth. The first manifestation is the Sound. The concept of cosmic Sound is an ancient concept in Hindu literature and one can trace it back to the Upaniś ads. In Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t the sound is consisted of two parts: the voice and the echo, which represent respectively the spirit (Ś iva) and the matter (Ś akti). However according to the philosophy of "Multiplicity in Unity" both are the same, two manifestations of the One. Moreover, love (Skt. kama) works as the agent or operator which stimulates voice to echo, or to manifest itself in the material world. Then the Shaykh Muḥ ammad speaks of the Water as the first mater. The primordial water is also a Vedic concept. According to Nasadiya Sukta: "Then even non-existence was not there, nor existence, There was no air then, nor the space beyond it. … Then there was neither death nor immortality nor was there then the torch of night and day. … All this was only unillumined cosmic water. That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing, arose at last, born of the power of knowledge. " (Ṛ gveda 10: 129). The next Vedic concept of the Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t's cosmology is the concept of cosmic egg or Hiraṇ yagarbha (Ṛ gveda 10: 121). This egg appears on the primordial water and the whole world come forth of it. These Vedic concepts were retold in Purā nic literature with more details and the narrator of the Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t combines different narrations of Hindu cosmology and Islamizes them in a way that his audiences can accept and digest them. The concept of the Ocean of Life is an important concept in the Baḥ r alḤ ayā t as far as it became the title of the treatise. It is briefly mentioned in the final chapter of Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t but the full-fledged story is told in Purā nas especially in the Viṣ ṇ u Purā ṇ a (I. IX. ). As the Purā na narrates the Amṛ ta, the water of life or the nectar of immortality, was produced by Viṣ ṇ u through the act of samudra manthan ("churning of the ocean"). Viṣ ṇ u firstly throws different herbs in the ocean of milk and then churns it up with a stick, so he makes Amṛ ta or the nectar of immortality for the gods. In the Tantric literature "churning of the ocean" is a symbol for the Yogi's asceticism or meditation which brings for him the deliverance from the cycle of rebirth and union with the Truth. This idea is in accordance with the Shaṭ ṭ ā rī emphasis on the invocation and meditation as the path to salvation. So Shaykh Muḥ ammad as a Shaṭ ṭ ā rī master prescribes it for his pupils. Consequently, Shaykh Muḥ ammad in Baḥ r al-Ḥ ayā t employs Islamic proofs for Hindu ideas for instance when the text speaks of the Sound as the first manifestation of the Absolut, or the love as the vital element of creation or the primeval waters as the foundation for creation Muḥ ammad brings quotations from Quran and Islamic traditions as evidences. This paper tries to trace Shaykh Muḥ ammad's narration in the Hindu literature.