Question

How did Akbar help in nation building? i need the answer fast and please make it a bit long

Answer 1

Despite never learning how to read or write, Akbar the Great was a
curious thinker who constantly yearned for knowledge. His son Salim, who
would later take the name of Emperor Jahangir, stated that Akbar was
“[a]lways associated with the learned of every creed and religion” and
always in “intercourse with the learned and the wise.” Throughout his
rule, Akbar invited theologians, poets, scholars and philosophers of
Christian, Hindu, Jain and Zoroastrian faiths to his court to carry out a
dialogue about religion. As his interest in other religions expanded,
Akbar amassed a library that consisted of more than 24,000 volumes of
Hindi, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri texts.
Akbar was so convinced of the commonalities among religions that he
even attempted to unite them in creating his very own religion, known as
the Din-e-Ilahi, or “the religion of God.” In borrowing ideas from
Sufism, most notably from the scholar Ibn Arabi, Akbar looked at how
major religions could be synthesized in their shared belief in the
almighty. In creating the Din-e-Ilahi and breaking away from the notion
of Islam’s superiority over all other religions, Akbar achieved his
single greatest feat: “liberating the [Mughal] state from its domination
by the [clerics],” as suggested by leading historian R.S. Sharma.
Akbar the Great’s departure from orthodoxy also appears in a letter
from 1582 to King Philip II of Spain. Rather than learning only from
Muslim scholars in his court, Akbar stated that he mingled with “learned
men of all religions, thus depriving profit from their exquisite
discourses and exalted aspirations.” Akbar added that too many people do
not investigate their religious arguments and instead blindly “follow
the religion in which [they] were born and educated, thus excluding
[themselves] from the possibility of ascertaining the truth, which is
the noblest aim of the human intellect.” In challenging people to open
their minds to knowledge outside of their own religious traditions,
Akbar insinuated that no single religion has a monopoly on the truth.
Akbar also went to great lengths to integrate non-Muslims into the
Mughal empire. After conquering the area of Rajput, he did not
forcefully convert Hindus to Islam, but accommodated their religious
demands by securing their freedom of public prayer, and allowing Hindus
to build and repair their temples. Granting Hindus the ability to freely
worship baffled many critics, including his own son Salim, who once
asked his father why he had allowed Hindu ministers to spend money on
building a temple. Akbar responded to Salim: “My son, I love my own
religion... [but] the Hindu [m]inister also loves his religion. If he
wants to spend money on his religion, what right do I have to prevent
him... Does he not have the right to love the thing that is his very
own?”
Ensuring equality for all his subjects was one of Akbar’s paramount
concerns. In abolishing the jizya, or poll tax on non-Muslims, and
allowing for conversions to and from Islam, Akbar set an example: one
did not have to be Muslim to be treated fairly in the Mughal empire.
Akbar was especially concerned with the state of Hindus, so he made sure
to participate in Hindu religious festivals and order translations of
Hindu literature into Persian, the official language of the Mughal
state. Akbar’s respect for Hindus is also recorded in his visit to hear
the songs of Mirabai, the wife of his rival Prince Bhoka Raj of Chittar.
Fearing being identified by Prince Bhoka, Akbar and his court musician
Tansen disguised themselves when they entered the temple in which
Mirabai was singing. Deeply inspired by Mirabai’s soulful music about
God, Akbar went to place a diamond necklace at the feet of Mirabai’s
statue of Lord Krishna, a Hindu God, as a sign of respect. Akbar’s
tribute to Mirabai is a symbol of his willingness to be open to
cross-cultural interaction as a means of building bridges across
religious barriers.
Akbar the Great’s tolerance of other religions is also noticeable in
his marriages to women of various faiths, most noteably Jodha Bai, a
Hindu daughter of the House of Jaipur. Akbar also took a Christian wife,
Maria Zamani Begum, who had her own chapel in one of Akbar’s palaces.
Akbar’s regard for Christianity is also visible in the Buland Darwaze, a
large gate-structure at the city of Fatehpur Sikri, on which he had
transcribed the Quranic inscription: “Isa [Jesus], son of Mary, said:
This world is a bridge. Pass over it, but build no houses on it. He who
hopes for an hour may hope for eternity. The world endures but an hour.
Spend it in prayer, for the rest is unseen.” In addition, Akbar had his
son Murad instructed in the New Testament. According to Akbar’s court
companion Abdel Kadir, Murad started his New Testament lesson by stating
“In the name of Christ” instead of the usual Islamic gesture “In the
name of God.”