The ?abad doctrine, also often referred to as ?abad -guru (lit. Word-as-Guru), is a foundational pillar of Sikh philosophy, spiritual praxis, political theology and a key concept in Sikh scripture. This book examines the passage of the concept of ?abad from premodern scriptural sources (gurbani or the 'revealed' utterances of the Guru), to its entanglement in contemporary "wars of scholarship" resulting from the emergence of Sikhism within modern knowledge system. Contemporary discourse around ?abad split into two opposed camps which reduced ?abad either to the status of ordinary language,...