Various pious Muslims, among them the Qadi of Bengal and the seminal Sufi personality Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, responded by declaring this to be blasphemy to Islam. According to a renowned historian Mubarak Ali, Dīn-i Ilāhī is a name not present in Akbar's period. At that time it was called Tawhid-i-Ilāhī ("divine monotheism"), as it is written by Abu Al Fazal, a court historian during the reign of Akbar.[4] So it can be said that it was not a religion in the proper sense or in comparison with the mainstream religions, as there was no compulsion in its acceptance, no reward, no punishment and no establishment of religious institutions.