The early mystic records (mulfuzat and maktubat), contain no mention of conversion of the people to Islam by these saints. - Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi

Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, an Indian scholar of Islam, also discusses Sufi involvement in the martial jihad. In his A History of Sufism in India , he devotes part of a chapter to consideration of “warrior saints.” Concerning the role of Shaykh Jalal of Sylhet (d. 1347) in the Islamization of Bengal, Rizvi relates that Shaykh Jalal’s pir blessed him that he might have success in waging war against unbelievers in the Abode of War “in the same way as he had directed him towards success in the higher (spiritual) jihad ” and then commanded a large number of his own followers to accompany Shaykh Jalal. Rizvi writes that the expedition of these Sufi s under the command of Shaykh Jalal was not peaceful and that they gained many spoils from their military victories. Regarding Shaykh Jalal’s efforts to convert the local population of the territories he had brought into the Abode of Islam, Rizvi relates that he would leave Sufi saints in each territory to propagate the faith. Rizvi’s discussion of Shaykh Jalal’s conquest of Bengal emphasizes the complementary nature of the different aspects of jihad, which Sufi s and Muslim scholars writing in Islamic languages discuss repeatedly and extensively.

Oh Kings! Mala a'la urges you to draw your swords and not put them back in their sheaths again until Allah has separated the Muslims from the polytheists and the rebellious kafirs and the sinners are made absolutely feeble and helpless.

The two greatest Chishti Mashaikh of the medieval period were Muin-ud-din Chishti and Nizam-ud-din Auliya. Rizvi rightly says that Shaikh Muin-ud-din Chishti “was neither a missionary nor a miracle monger. He did not work among the masses…” In the Fawaid-ul-Fuad, a biographical memoir on Shaikh Nizam-ud-din Auliya, there is mention of conversion of only two Hindu curd-sellers. Similarly during the reign of Iltutmish, Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and Qazi Hamid-ud-din Nagori were two prominent saints in Delhi but no proselytizing activity is attributed to them.