Disclaimer: A lot of things mentioned below are confusing and make no sense whatsoever. We spent over a week trawling through Rampal’s website and tweets of his devotees. This is all we could figure out before giving up to preserve some sanity.
If you have seen ‘Quran’, ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Prophet’ trending on Twitter recently and wondered why, hold your horses.
It has been because one Sant Rampal, who’s currently in jail serving life term for murder of four women. His followers have declared him the new prophet of Islam and is rewriting Islamic history while sitting in jail.
Many Rampal devotees claimed that Rampal, accused of sedition, murder, waging war against state government and rioting amongst others, is the ‘last’ prophet.
According to Rampalians, Kabir is the real Allah and Rampal is the last prophet. Prophets are individuals sent by God to serve as examples of ideal human behaviour. Of these, Prophet Muhammad is widely believed to be the last prophet of Islam. Muslims believe their holy book, Quran was revealed to him directly by god.
Rampal’s website states that Muslims believe in Quran Sharif as narrated by ‘Kaazis and Mullahs’ for ages. Rampal states that Muslims do not understand the Quran properly. Rampal says that Allah is actually Kabir, who is the ‘complete God’. He cites various Ayats wherein it is ‘proven’ that Allah is none other than Kabir. In fact, the ‘Allah’ in Allahu Akbar is none other than Kabir, he states.
As per Rampal, Allahu Akbar alias Allah Kabir met Prophet/Hazrat Muhammad about 1400 years ago.
As Prophet Muhammad was a ‘pious man’, Allah Kabir showed him the ‘Satlok’, Rampal says. Allah Kabir also met Taimur Lang, founder of Mughal dynasty and ‘blessed him’ because of which he became a ‘great conquerer’ from a poor shepherd. Rampal also states how Allah Kabir blessed Sikander Lodhi after he suffered burn injuries. Upon healing, Lodhi became an Allah Kabir follower as only he was worthy of worship, he says.
Rampal believes that Allah Kabir also gave ‘salvation mantras’ to Sheikh Farid, the 12th century Punjabi Muslim preacher. As per Rampal, ‘Allahu Akbar Kabir’ brought Mecca to a place where Rabia Basri, a pious and devout Muslim woman was sitting and ‘liberated her’.
Rampal says that Rabia born in ‘Kalyug’ was actually ‘Deepika’ born in Satyug. Deepika was wife of a saint named ‘Gangadhar’ and increased her ‘karma’ by raising ‘KavirDev’, a divine child. Because of that, she was born as Muslim in Kalyug. In ‘Kalyug’, Rabia worshipped Allah Kabir. When Rabia was 55-60 years old, Rampal says, she went for Islamic pilgrimage Hajj. He says that because of righteousness from previous birth as Deepika, when she saw a thirsty dog near a well in desert, she gave her water.
After the good deed, as she moved ahead towards Mecca, she heard an ‘Akashvani’ where she was informed the mosque at Mecca had flown 60 miles for her.
But this is about what Rampal thinks about popular Muslim figures. His devotees, however, believe he is the only saviour.
Rampalians, the devotees of ‘Sant’ Rampal, have taken it upon themselves to let the world know that Rampal is the true prophet of Islam. In fact, Rampalians are claiming Muslims don’t know real Allah. Here is one of the many posts by Rampalians informing Muslims they don’t know real Allah.
Twitter user Momos Wale, amongst many, has been tweeting similar things about the Quran and Muslims.
Rampalians believe Rampal is the last prophet, the one who came after Prophet Muhammad. Except, he believes in Kabir as God, not Allah.
In fact, Rampalians have challenged radical Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik. They have also gone a step further to claim that Naik has ‘succumbed’ to the knowledge Rampal possesses and has ‘run away’.
Rampal propagates that Allah is actually Kabir and that he is not formless.
Islam, however, believes that Allah is neither spiritual or a material being and that no vision can grasp him. Islam does not endorse idolatry and hence, there are no pictures or idols of Allah. This is why drawing up caricature or cartoon or image of Allah as well as Prophet Muhammad is blasphemy, which some Islamists punish with death.
Rampal, however, claims Allah is not formless and Kabir is actually the true Allah.
Rampalians also say that Allah prohibits animal slaughter and Muslims should turn vegetarian.
Interestingly, goat slaughter on Bakri Eid is one of the intrinsic rituals followed by Muslims.
Rampal on Christianity
It is not just Allah who is Kabir, but even Jesus is an avatar of Kabir as per Rampal.
As per Rampal, it was not Jesus but Kabir (from Allah Kabir fame) who rose in place of Jesus from the dead after crucification. “He was not Jesus who rose from the tomb, but he was complete God Kabir who appeared as Jesus to keep the faith of the followers intact. Otherwise, all those followers would have lost faith in God. They would have become an atheist,” the website claims. Per him, as per Bible also only Kabir is true god.
“God Kabir met Jesus and took his soul to Satlok. On their way, God Kabir made him see his ancestors David, Moses, Abraham, etc. in the Pitra Lokas. Then God took him to Satlok. But Jesus did not have faith in Lord Kabir. He did not believe him to be complete God, but he admitted that God is one. When he came back from Satlok he preached about one God and talked about salvation. After the crucifixion, he only pleaded God to forgive his children for all the harsh deeds,” Rampal preaches.
The only inconsistency here is that earlier, Rampal had asserted that in place of Jesus, it was Kabir who resurrected.
Who is Kabir
Kabir is a 15th century poet and mystic who is widely believed to be born to a family of Muslim weavers. As per the book The Bijak of Kabir, he was quite critical of Hinduism as well as Islam as religion. However, owing to his teachings, he has been revered by people of both the religions. His legacy has been carried forward by his disciples through ‘Kabir Panth’ (The path of Kabir).
Founded centuries after his death, the community has almost 10 million members. One such member is ‘Sant’ Rampal.
Who is ‘Sant’ Rampal
Born in 1951 as Rampal Singh Jatin in Punjab, the 69-year-old self-styled godman is currently lodged in Hisar central jail for murder charges.
Before becoming a ‘godman’, Rampal worked as a junior engineer in Haryana Government’s irrigation department. However, in 1996 he quit his job.
Previously he was reportedly a devout Hindu was earlier referred to as ‘Jagatguru Rampal Ji’ by his followers. But after meeting one Swami Ramdevanand, he ‘abandoned’ Hinduism only to claim himself as successor of Kabir.
In 2006, a violent standoff between his followers and police resulted in death of five women and a child and over 200 were injured. He was arrested in November 2014. He has been charged with sedition, murder, attempt to murder, waging war against the state government, rioting, illegal detention and others.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Haryana Police conducted search operation at Satlok Ashram in Barwala after his arrest. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered. Besides this, petrol bombs, acid syringes, a chilli grenade and a pregnancy test strip were also recovered from his ashram. The police had believed that Rampal had a well-armed force of at least 300 “commandos” which were possibly trained by retired Army and police personnel including some former officers from elite units such as National Security Guard and Special Protection Group.
Rampal now claims to be successor of Kabir, who he claims is actually Allah, the Islamic god as well as Jesus.
