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Martyrdom
King
Jahangir started to force Hindus to join the Muslim religion. He already
had a hatred for the Sikhs. He was looking for an excuse to abolish the
Sikh religion.
Jahangir’s
younger son Khushro started a rebellion against his father on March 6,
1606. He started his movement in Agra and made his way towards Lahore.
Khushro had a lot of respect for Guru Arjun Saheb. On the way, he stopped
in Tarn Taran and ate Langar (meal from free kitchen) from the Guru’s
Sikhs.
He
then continued to Lahore where he was forced to retreat. He fled towards
Kabul and faced a defeat at Fatehbad. He and his companions were taken as
prisoners.
That
visit of Khushro to Tarn Taran provided the excuse Jahangir was looking
for. Jahangir gave Murtaza Khan, the commander of Lahore orders to May 20th
1606.
Guru
Arjun Saheb knew what was about to happen, so he appointed his son
Guru Hargobind Saheb the sixth guru on May 15th
1606. Murtaza Khan went to
Amritsar
and arrested Guru Arjun Saheb on May 22, 1606 and brought him back to
Lahore.
Chandu
took the Guru into his custody and gave him one last chance to change his
mind and accept the marriage proposal for his daughter. He said that he
could convince Jahangir not to kill him.
Then
Guru Arjun Saheb was said that he would be spared his life if he embraced
Islam or added hymns in praise of the prophet Mohammed in the Adi Granth
Saheb. The Guru refused to do either of these.
When
the Guru refused, he was tortured according to Islamic law. On the first
day he was tortured by having to sit on hot sand
all day. The second day he was put in a pot of boiling hot water.
On the third day he was seated on a hot metal plate while hot sand was
poured over his head.
Through all of this torture the Guru sat calmly, meditating on God.
This did not please Chandu who on the fifth day ordered that the Guru sit
in the cold water of the Ravi river all day. Finally on May 30th
1606 Guru Arjun Saheb became the first
martyr
in the Sikh religion.
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