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Surely the thousands of Nabi's and Rassul's that appeared before Muhammad (saws) were not preaching the exact same precepts as Islam, at least because they were sent to totally different people. Of all of these messengers and prophets, some must have been in India.

There is a well-known hadith that means "go seek for knowledge wherever it is, even in China".

What are the Islamic sources that relate to India or Hinduism in any other way than to treat them as polytheists? Did Muhammad (saws) ever say anything about this?

Thank you.

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There is no explicit mention in the Quran or Sunnah of any prophet sent to India.

However, in general, we know that prophets were sent to all nations:

And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], "Worship Allah and avoid Taghut." And among them were those whom Allah guided, and among them were those upon whom error was [deservedly] decreed. So proceed through the earth and observe how was the end of the deniers. (16:36)

The message of all prophets was strict monotheism even if they might have differed in specific laws. Allah says:

And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, "There is no deity except Me, so worship Me." (21:25)

So, the religion of Hinduism (being polytheistic) would have been opposed by all prophets. It is probably a development after the prophets.

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  • Thanks. So no single quote or citations in the Hadiths? I feel a bit sad because Advaita Vedanta is literally true actual Tawhid, with a level of detail that I find only in Ibn Arabi’s corpus. What Hindus do on top of Advaita is questionable. Even the leader of the Vedanta Society of New York recognizes it in some of his speeches. But « ‏لكم دينكم ولي دين ». I believe their first rishis could be some of « our » prophets.
    – Charaf
    Commented Mar 31, 2022 at 18:44
  • This is correct, although ahadith do exist which at least mention India such as عصابة تغزو الهند - Nasai
    – UmH ♦
    Commented Aug 29, 2022 at 5:01

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