adoration of man, His Majesty in his practical wisdom has commanded
that it be put an end to with ignorant people of all stations and also
that it shall not be practiced even by his trusted servants on public
court days. Nevertheless if people upon whom the star of good fortune
has shone are in attendance at private assemblies and receive
permission to be seated, they may perform the prostration of gratitude
by bowing their foreheads to the earth and so share in the rays of
good fortune. So forbidding prostration to the people at large and
granting it to the select the Emperor fulfils the wishes of both and
gives the world an example of practical wisdom."

The desire to unite his subjects as much as possible finally impelled
Akbar to the attempt to equalize religious differences as well.
Convinced that religions did not differ from each other in their
innermost essence, he combined what in his opinion were the essential
elements and about the year 1580 founded a new religion, the famous
Dîn i Ilâhi, the "religion of God." This religion recognizes only one
God, a purely spiritual universally efficient being from whom the
human soul is derived and towards which it tends. The ethics of this
religion comprises the high moral requirements of Sufism and Parsism:
complete toleration, equality of rights among all men, purity in
thought, word and deed. The demand of monogamy, too, was added later.
Priests, images and temples,--Akbar would have none of these in his
new religion, but from the Parsees he took the worship of the fire
and of the sun as to him light and its heat seemed the most beautiful
symbol of the divine spirit.[44] He also adopted the holy cord of the
Hindus and wore upon his forehead the colored token customary among
them. In this eclectic manner he accommodated himself in a few
externalities to the different religious communities existing in his
kingdom.