In 1598, the Guru interceded on behalf of the local peasantry with Emperor Akbar to get the excessive levy of land revenue reduced. These activities of the Guru gave him a new status. It was at this time that the Guru came to be called by the Sikhs as Sacha Patshah (True Emperor).
An important step in the separate consolidation of the religion was the compilation of the Adi Granth as the sole and authentic scripture of the Sikhs. It has a significant feature. Besides the hymns of the five Gurus, it contains the hymns of Hindu and Muslim saints. The Adi Granth was formally installed at the Amritsar temple on the annual gathering of the Sikhs. From the very start it was recognized as the Sikh scripture.
In about a century after Guru Nanak, Sikhism turned from a small irrelevant sect into a mass movement. Many thousands of followers followed the teachings of the Sikh Gurus; even some prominent Muslims who enjoyed a privileged position in the Mughal state during this period embraced Sikhism. The rulers found it difficult to tolerate the growth of Sikhism and its ever-increasing popularity. The reaction of the orthodox Muslims is found in the memoirs of Emperor Jahangir, the Tuzuk-i- Jahangiri.
With the advent of the Guruship of Guru Arjan many hundreds of thousands of the native people had began to follow the teachings of Sikhism and both Hindus and Muslims were crowding into Govindwal and Amritsar (the centres of the Sikhs during the late 1500s and early 1600s) where they were soon becoming Sikhs.
The Mughal clergy, who had long chaffed at the tolerance of Akbar, grew ever more angry of the popularity and the growing following of the Sikh Gurus, but after the death of Akbar in 1605, in his son Jahangir they saw their best chance to destroy the Sikh institution. Jahangir, unlike his father was a fundamentalist Muslim who soon was influenced with the idea of turning the whole of Hindustan (as the Mughals called their kingdom in Northwest India) into an Islamic State.
From starting Prithi Chand (the eldest son of Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru) and other High priests started playing tactics against Guru Arjun Dev. Prithi Chand wanted to take possesion of the Granth compiled by the guru, in hopes that by doing this he would be able to clam the Guruship for himself. He and many others played an important role in misguiding Jahangir.
Governor Chandu Shah also became hostile of Guru Arjun Dev as Guru Arjun Dev ji rejected his proposal of marriage, for his daughter. Sikh Sangat at that time forced Guru Arjun Dev ji to not accept this proposal as they were against tactics of Chandu, whose aim was to misuse Guru Ghar after marriage.
Sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi was very much revered by Muslims. He presented himself to be Islam’s Prophet of the second millennium; the first millennium belonging to Prophet Muhammad. He asserted that his status was higher than the Sikh Gurus. This was emphatically rejected by Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Sheikh Ahmad had great influence on Jehangir. Citing the Guru’s blessings bestowed upon Prince Khusro he instigated the Emperor against Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Jehangir wrote in his biography: A Hindu named Arjan lived at Goindwal…simple minded Hindus and ignorant and foolish Muslims have been persuaded to adopt his ways… this business has been flourishing for three generations. For a long time it had been in my mind to put a stop to this affair or to bring him into the fold of Islam…
Many Muslim Rulers worked to increase the Muslim fold, by just changing their way of life they thought one becomes muslim. Did they understand the tenants of their own religion? They thought that by doing the Hajj, keeping a beard and being circumcised and by proclaiming Muhammad as the last messenger of the One Sole God of all creation, called by them Allah, one became a Muslim. Jehangir was one such tyrant ruler.
Creation of the Adi Granth: Was this the basic and main reason of the Guru’s martyrdom. Guru Arjan had collected the Bani’s of many of God’s devotees (Hindu, Muslims, Upper Caste, Lower Caste etc.) and put them into the Guru Granth Sahib, which makes one proper institution of Gurmat, which has a totally new philosophy and was against many old philosophies of Hinduism and Islam.
It is clear that the Emperor Jehangir had been misled regarding the true facts but he took no steps to find the truth about the prevailing circumstances. It appears that the situation of Guru Arjan happened to be the first important one reported to him for his decision as a test case to prove his bona fides as a saviour of the Muslims from the influences of the non-Muslims and under the circumstances, he made an error in his decision to please the fundamentalists.
The Gurus martyrdom had far-reaching consequences. It transformed the Sikhs into saint-soldiers who, from now onwards, exercised a decided influence on the subsequent history of the Punjab. Thus was the course of history changed due to one fatal mistake of Emperor Jahangir.