Syed Abul Ala Maududi

Early life

Background

Mawdudi was born in the city of Aurangabad in colonial India, then part of the princely state enclave of Hyderabad. He was the youngest of three sons of Ahmad Hasan, a lawyer by profession. His elder brother, Sayyid Abu al-Khayr Mawdudi (1899–1979), would later become an editor and journalist.

Although his father was only middle-class, he was the descendant of the Chishti. His last name was derived from the first member of the Chishti Silsilah, i.e., Khawajah Syed Qutb ul-Din Maudood Chishti (d. 527 AH). He stated that his paternal family originally moved from Chisht, in modern-day Afghanistan, during the days of Sikandar Lodi (d. 1517), initially settling in the state of Haryana before moving to Delhi later on, and on his mother's side, his ancestor Mirza Tulak, a soldier of Turkic origin, moved into India from Transoxiana around the times of Emperor Aurangzeb (d. 1707), while his maternal grandfather, Mirza Qurban Ali Baig Khan Salik (1816–1881), was a writer and poet in Delhi, a friend of the Urdu poet Ghalib.

Childhood

Until he was nine, Mawdudi "received religious nurture at the hands of his father and from a variety of teachers employed by him." As his father wanted him to become a maulvi, this education consisted of learning Arabic, Persian, Islamic law and Hadith. He also studied books of mantiq (logic). A precocious child, he translated Qasim Amin's al-Marah al-Jadidah ("The New Woman"), a modernist and feminist work, from Arabic into Urdu at the age of 11. In the field of translation, years later, he also worked on some 3,500 pages from Asfar, the major work of the 17th century Persian-Shi'a mystical thinker Mulla Sadra. His thought would influence Mawdudi, as "Sadra's notions of rejuvenation of the temporal order, and the necessity of the reign of Islamic law (Shari'ah) for the spiritual ascension of man, found an echo in Mawdudi's works."

Education

When he was eleven, Mawdudi was admitted to the eighth class directly in Madrasa Fawqaniyya Mashriqiyya (Oriental High School), Aurangabad, founded by Shibli Nomani, a modernist Islamic scholar trying to synthesise traditional Islamic scholarship with modern knowledge, and which awakened Mawdudi's long-lasting interest in philosophy (particularly from Thomas Arnold, who also taught the same subject to Muhammad Iqbal) as well as natural sciences, like mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He then moved to a more traditionalist Darul Uloom in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, his father shifted to Bhopal – there Mawdudi befriended Niaz Fatehpuri, another modernist – where he suffered a severe paralysis attack and died leaving no property or money, forcing his son to abort his education. In 1919 by the time he was 16, and still a modernist in mindset, he moved to Delhi and read books by his distant relative, the reformist Sayyid Ahmad Khan. He also learned English and German to study, intensively, Western philosophy, sociology, and history for full five years: he eventually came up to the conclusion that "ulama' in the past did not endeavor to discover the causes of Europe's rise, and he offered a long list of philosophers whose scholarship had made Europe a world power: Fichte, Hegel, Comte, Mill, Turgot, Adam Smith, Malthus, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Darwin, Goethe, and Herder, among others. Comparing their contribution to that of Muslims, he concluded that the latter did not reach even 1 percent."

Journalism

Despite his initial publication on electricity in Maarif in 1918 at the age of 15 and his subsequent appointment as editor of the weekly Urdu newspaper Taj in 1920 at the age of 17, he subsequently resumed his studies as an autodidact in 1921. Notably through the influence of certain members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, he pursued subjects such as philosophical theology and the Dars-e-Nizami curriculum. Mawdudi obtained ijazahs, which are certificates and diplomas in traditional Islamic learning. However, he abstained from referring to himself as an ''alim in the formal sense, as he perceived the Islamic scholars as regressive, despite some influence from Deobandi on him:He said that he was a middle-class man who had learned through both new and old ways of learning. Mawdudi concluded that neither the traditional nor the contemporary schools are entirely correct, based on his own inner guidance.

Mawdudi worked as the editor of al-Jamiah, a newspaper of a group of orthodox Muslims, from 1924 to 1927. This time was critical and had a lot of influence.

Mawdudi, who has consistently remained committed to securing independence from Britain, began to question the legitimacy of the Indian National Congress and its Muslim allies during the 1920s, when the party adopted a more Hindu identity. He began to gravitate towards Islam, and he believed that democracy would only be viable if the vast majority of Indians were Muslims.

Mawdudi returned to Hyderabad in 1928 after spending some time in Delhi as a young man.

Political writings

Mawdudi's works were written and published throughout his life, including influential works from 1933 to 1941. Mawdudi's most well-known work, and widely considered his most important and influential work, is the Tafhim-ul-Quran (Urdu: تفہيم القرآن‎, Romanised: Towards Understanding the Qur'an), a 6-volume translation and commentary of the Qur'an which Mawdudi spent many years writing (which was begun in Muharram, 1361 A.H./February 1942).

In 1932, he joined another journal (Tarjuman al-Quran) and from 1932 to 1937 he began to develop his political ideas, and turn towards the cause of Islamic revivalism and Islam as an ideology, over what he called "traditional and hereditary religion". The government of Hyderabad helped support the journal by buying 300 subscriptions which it donated to libraries around India. Mawdudi was alarmed by the decline of Muslim ruled Hyderabad, the increasing secularism and lack of purdah among Muslim women in Delhi.

By 1937, he became in conflict with Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and its support for a pluralistic Indian society where the Jamiat hoped Muslims could "thrive ... without sacrificing their identity or interests". In that year he also married Mahmudah Begum, a woman from an old Muslim family with "considerable financial resources". The family provide financial help and allowed him to devote himself to research and political action, but his wife had "liberated", modern ways, and at first rode a bicycle and did not observe purdah. She was given greater latitude by Mawdudi than were other Muslims.

Political activity

At this time he also began work on establishing an organisation for Da'wah (propagation and preaching of Islam) that would be an alternative to both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.

At this time he decided to leave Hyderabad for Northwest India, closer to the Muslim political center of gravity in India. In 1938, after meeting the famous Muslim poet Muhammad Iqbal, Mawdudi moved to a piece of land in the village of Pathankot in the Punjab to oversee a Waqf (Islamic foundation) called Daru'l-Islam.

His hope was to make it a "nerve center" of Islamic revival in India, an ideal religious community, providing leaders and the foundation for a genuine religious movement. He wrote to various Muslim luminaries invited them to join him there. The community, like Jamaat-e-Islami later, was composed of rukn (members), a shura (a consultative council), and a sadr (head). After a dispute with the person who donated the land for the community over Mawdudi's anti-nationalist politics, Mawdudi quit the waqf and in 1939 moved the Daru'l-Islam with its membership from Pathankot to Lahore.

In Lahore he was hired by Islamiyah College but was sacked after less than a year for his openly political lectures.

Founding the Jamaat-i-Islami

In August 1941, Mawdudi founded Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in British India as a religious political movement to promote Islamic values and practices. His Mission was supported by Amin Ahsan Islahi, Muhammad Manzoor Naumani, Abul Hassan Ali Nadvi and Naeem Siddiqui.

Jamaat-e-Islami actively opposed the partition of India, with its leader Abul A'la Mawdudi arguing that the concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the ummah. The Jamaat-e-Islami saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another.

Mawdudi held that humans should accept God's sovereignty and adopt the divine code, which supersedes manmade laws, terming it a "theodemocracy", because its rule would be based on the entire Muslim community, not the ulama (Islamic scholars).

Mawdudi migrated to Lahore, which became part of the new state of Pakistan.

After the creation of Pakistan

With the partition of India in 1947, the JI was split to follow the political boundaries of new countries carved out of British India. The organisation headed by Mawdudi became known as Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, and the remnant of JI in India as the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. Later JI parties were the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and autonomous groups in Indian Kashmir.

With the founding of Pakistan, Mawdudi's career underwent a "fundamental change", being drawn more and more into politics, and spending less time on ideological and scholarly pursuits. Although his Jamaat-e-Islami party never developed a mass following, it and Mawdudi did develop significant political influence. It played a "prominent part" in the agitation which brought down President Muhammad Ayub Khan in 1969 and in the overthrow of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977. Ideas of Mawdudi and the JI were especially influential in the early years of Muhammad Zia ul-Haq's rule.

His political activity, particularly in support of the creation of an Islamic state clashed with the government, (dominated for many years by a secular political class), and resulted in several arrests and periods of incarceration. The first was in 1948 when he and several other JI leaders were jailed after Mawdudi objected to the government's clandestine sponsorship of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir while professing to observe a ceasefire with India.

In 1951 and again in 1956–1957, the compromises involved in electoral politics led to a split in the party over what some members felt were a lowering of JI's moral standards. In 1951, the JI shura passed a resolution in support of the party withdrawing from politics, while Mawdudi argued for continued involvement. Mawdudi prevailed at an open party meeting in 1951, and several senior JI leaders resigned in protest, further strengthened Mawdudi's position and beginning the growth of a "cult of personality" around him. In 1957 Mawdudi again overruled the vote of the shura to withdraw from electoral politics.

In 1953, he and the JI participated in a campaign against the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan. Anti-Ahmadi groups argued that the Ahmadiyya did not embrace Muhammad as the last prophet. Mawdudi as well as the traditionalist ulama of Pakistan wanted Ahmadi designated as non-Muslims, Ahmadis such as Muhammad Zafarullah Khan sacked from all high level government positions, and intermarriage between Ahmadis and other Muslims prohibited. The campaign generated riots in Lahore, leading to the deaths of at least somewhere between 200 and 2000 people, and selective declaration of martial law.

Beliefs and ideology

Mawdudi poured his energy into books, pamphlets and more than 1000 speeches and press statements, laying the ground work for making Pakistan an Islamic state, but also dealing with a variety of issues of interest in Pakistan and the Muslim world. He sought to be a Mujaddid, "renewing" (tajdid) the religion. This role had great responsibility as he believed a Mujaddid "on the whole, has to undertake and perform the same kind of work as is accomplished by a Prophet." While earlier mujaddids had renewed religion he wanted also "to propagate true Islam, the absence of which accounted for the failure of earlier efforts at tajdid." He was very much disheartened after the Ottoman collapse, he believed the limited vision of Muslims to Islam rather than a complete ideology of living, was its main cause. He argued that to revive the lost Islamic pride, Muslims must accept Islam as complete way of living.

Mawdudi was highly influenced by the ideas of the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya, particularly his treatises that emphasised the Sovereignty (Hakimiyya) of God. Mawdudi would stress that armed Jihad was imperative for all contemporary Muslims and like Sayyid Qutb, called for a "universal Jihad". According to at least one biographer (Vali Nasr), Mawdudi and the JI moved away from some of their more controversial doctrinal ideas (e.g. criticism of Sufism or the Ulama) and closer to orthodox Islam over the course of his career, in order to "expand" the "base of support" of Jama'at-e Islami.

Qur'an

Mawdudi believed that the Quran was not just religious literature to be "recited, pondered, or investigated for hidden truths" according to Vali Nasr, but a "socio-religious institution", a work to be accepted "at face value" and obeyed. By implementing its prescriptions the ills of societies would be solved. It pitted truth and bravery against ignorance, falsehood and evil.

The Qur'an is ... a Book which contains a message, an invitation, which generates a movement. The moment it began to be sent down, it impelled a quiet and pious man to ... raise his voice against falsehood, and pitted him in a grim struggle against the lords of disbelief, evil and iniquity.... it drew every pure and noble soul, and gathered them under the banner of truth. In every part of the country, it made all the mischievous and the corrupt to rise and wage war against the bearers of the truth.

In his tafsir (Quranic interpretation) Tafhimu'l-Qur'an, he introduced the four interrelated concepts he believed essential to understanding the Quran: ilah (divinity), rabb (lord), ibadah (worship, meaning not the cherishing or praising of God but acting out absolute obedience to Him), and din (religion).

Islam

Mawdudi saw Muslims not simply as those who followed the religion of Islam, but as (almost) everything, because obedience to divine law is what defines a Muslim: "Everything in the universe is 'Muslim' for it obeys Allah by submission to His laws." The laws of the physical universe—that Heaven is above the Earth, that night follows day, etc.—were as much a part of sharia as banning consumption of alcohol and interest on debts. Thus it followed that stars, planets, oceans, rocks, atoms, etc. should actually be considered "Muslims" since they obey their creator's laws.

Rather than Muslims being a minority among humans—one religious group among many—it is non-Muslims who are a small minority among everything in the universe. Of all creatures only humans (and jinn) are endowed with free will, and only non-Muslim humans (and jinn) choose to use that will to disobey the laws of their creator.

Mawdudi believed that those elements of divine law of Islam applying to human beings covered all aspects of life. Islam is not a 'religion' in the sense this term is commonly understood. It is a system encompassing all fields of living. Islam means politics, economics, legislation, science, humanism, health, psychology and sociology. It is a system which makes no discrimination on the basis of race, color, language or other external categories. Its appeal is to all mankind. It wants to reach the heart of every human being.

Mawdudi adopted Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyya's doctrines on apostasy, which asserted that an individual may only be considered a Muslim if his or her beliefs found an adequate representation in their acts. Describing the essential conditions of Islam and stressing the difference between a Muslims and non-Muslims; Mawdudi states: 'Islam is first of all the name of knowledge [ʿilm] and, after knowledge, the name of action [ʿamal]', that 'after you have acquired knowledge it is a necessity to also act upon it', and that 'a Muslim is distinct from an unbeliever [kāfir] only by two things: one is knowledge, the other action [upon it]'.

But in rejecting Islam (Mawdudi believed) the non-Muslim struggled against truth:

His very tongue which, on account of his ignorance advocates the denial of God or professes multiple deities, is in its very nature 'Muslim'. ... The man who denies God is called Kafir (concealer) because he conceals by his disbelief what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his own soul. His whole body functions in obedience to that instinct. ... Reality becomes estranged from him and he in the dark.

Women

According to Irfan Ahmad, while Mawdudi opposed all Western influence in Islam, "the greatest threat to morality" to him was "women's visibility" in the bazaar, colleges, theatres, restaurants. "Art, literature, music, film, dance, use of makeup by women: all were shrieking signs of immorality."

Mawdudi preached that the duty of women is to manage the household, bring up children and provide them and her husband with "the greatest possible comfort and contentment". Mawdudi supported the complete veiling and segregation of women as practiced in most of Muslim India of his time. Women, he believed, should remain in their homes except when absolutely necessary. The only room for argument he saw in the matter of veiling/hijab was "whether the hands and the face" of women "were to be covered or left uncovered." On this question Mawdudi came down on the side of the complete covering of women's faces whenever they left their homes.

Concerning the separation of the genders, he preached that men should avoid looking at women other than their wives, mothers, sisters, etc. (mahram), much less trying to make their acquaintance. He opposed birth control and family planning as a "rebellion against the laws of nature", and a reflection of loss of faith in God—who is the planner of human population—and unnecessary because population growth leads to economic development. Mohammad Najatuallah Siddiqui writes: As to the argument that family planning enables better nourishment and education of children, Mawdudi refers to the beneficial effects of adversity and want on human character.

Mawdudi opposed allowing women to be either a head of state or a legislator, since "according to Islam, active politics and administration are not the field of activity of the womenfolk." They would be allowed to elect their own all-woman legislature which the men's legislature should consult on all matters concerning women's welfare. Their legislature would also have "the full right to criticise matters relating to the general welfare of the country," though not to vote on them.

Music

Mawdudi saw music and dancing as social evils. In describing the wickedness that comes of ignoring Islamic law he included not only leaving the poor to "starvation and destitution" while wallowing in luxury, liquor and drugs, but having "a regular need" for music, satisfied with "musicians, dancing girls, drum-beaters and manufacturers of musical instruments".

Economics

His 1941 lecture "The Economic Problem of Man and Its Islamic Solution" is generally considered to be one of the founding document of modern Islamic economics. Mawdudi has been called the leader of the "vanguard of contemporary Islamic orthodoxy" in "riba and finance" and credited with laying "down the foundations for development" of Islamic economics.

However, Mawdudi believed Islam "does not concern itself with the modes of production and circulation of wealth", and was primarily interested in cultural issues rather than socioeconomic ones. Mawdudi dismissed the need for a "new science of economics, embodied in voluminous books, with high-sounding terminology and large organisation", or other "experts and specialists" which he believed to be "one of the many calamities of modern age". But since Islam was a complete system, it included (a shariah-based) economic program, comparable and superior to other economic systems. Capitalism was a "satanic economic system" starting with the fact that it called for the postponement of some consumption in favor of investment.

One of the major fallacies of economics was that it regarded "as foolish and morally reprehensible" spending "all that one earns, and everyone is told that he should save something out of his income and have his savings deposited in the bank or purchase an insurance policy or invest it in stocks and shares of joint-stock companies." In fact, the practice of saving and not spending some income is "ruinous for humanity". This led to overproduction and a downward spiral of lower wages, protectionism, trade wars and desperate attempts to export surplus production and capital through imperialist invasions of other countries, finally ending in "the destruction of the whole society as every learned economist knows".

On the other hand, socialism — by putting control of the means and distribution of production in the hands of the government – concentrates power to such an extent it inevitably leads to enslavement of the masses. Socialists sought to end economic exploitation and poverty by structural changes and putting an end to private ownership of production and property. But in fact poverty and exploitation is caused not by the profit motive but by the lack of "virtue and public welfare" among the wealthy, which in turn comes from a lack of adherence to sharia law. In an Islamic society, greed, selfishness and dishonesty would be replaced by virtue, eliminating the need for the state to make any significant intervention in the economy.

Islamic Modernism

Mawdudi believed that Islam supported modernisation but not Westernisation. He agreed with Islamic Modernists that Islam contained nothing contrary to reason, and that it was superior in rational terms to all other religious systems. He disagreed with their practice of examining the Quran and the Sunnah using reason as the standard, instead of starting from the proposition that "true reason is Islamic" and accepting the Book and the Sunnah, rather than reason, as the final authority.

He also took a narrow view of ijtihad, limiting the authority to use it to those with thorough grounding in Islamic sciences, faith in the sharia, and then only to serve the needs of his vision of an Islamic state.

At the same time, one scholar, Maryam Jameelah, has noted the extensive use of modern, non-traditionally Islamic ideas and "Western idioms and concepts" in Mawdudi's thought.

Islam was a "revolutionary ideology" and a "dynamic movement", the Jama'at-e-Islami, was a "party", the Shari'ah a complete "code" in Islam's "total scheme of life." His enthusiasm for [Western idioms and concepts] was infectious among those who admired him, encouraging them to implement in Pakistan all his "manifestos", "programmes" and "schemes'", to usher in a true Islamic "renaissance".

Mughal Empire

Abul A'la Mawdudi, condemned Mughal Emperor Akbar's belief in an individual's common spirituality (controversially known as the Din-e Ilahi, or "Religion of God") as a form of apostasy. (Contemporary scholars such as S. M. Ikram argue that Akbar's true intentions were to create an iradat or muridi (discipleship) and not a new religion.)

Mawdudi appears to be a critic of not only Western Civilisation but also of the Mughal Empire, many of whose achievements he deemed "Unislamic".

Secularism

Mawdudi did not see secularism as a way for the state/government to dampen tensions and divisions in multi-religious societies by remaining religiously neutral and avoid choosing sides. Rather, he believed, it removed religion from society (he translated secularism into Urdu as la din, literally "religionless"). Since (he believed) all morality came from religion, this would necessarily mean "the exclusion of all morality, ethics, or human decency from the controlling mechanisms of society." It was to avoid the "restraints of morality and divine guidance", and not out of pragmatism or some higher motive, that some espoused secularism.

Science

Mawdudi believed "modern science was a 'body' that could accommodate any 'spirit'—philosophy or value system—just as radio could broadcast Islamic or Western messages with equal facility."

Nationalism

Mawdudi strongly opposed the concept of nationalism, believing it to be shirk (polytheism), and "a Western concept which divided the Muslim world and thus prolonged the supremacy of Western imperialist powers". After Pakistan was formed, Mawdudi and the JI forbade Pakistanis to take an oath of allegiance to the state until it became Islamic, arguing that a Muslim could in clear conscience render allegiance only to God.

Ulama

Mawdudi also criticised traditionalist clergy or ulama for their "moribund" scholastic style, "servile" political attitudes, and "ignorance" of the modern world". He believed traditional scholars were unable to distinguish the fundamentals of Islam from the details of its application, built up in elaborate structures of medieval legal schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). To rid Islam of these obscure laws Muslims should return to the Quran and Sunna, ignoring judgments made after the reign of the first four "rightfully guided" caliphs (al-Khulafāʾu ar-Rāshidūn) of Islam.

Mawdudi also believed there would be little need for the traditional roll of ulama as "leaders, judges, and guardians of the community", in a "reformed and rationalised Islamic order" where those trained in modern as well as traditional subjects would practice ijtihad and where Muslims were educated properly in Arabic, the Quran, Hadith, etc.

However, over time Mawdudi became more orthodox in his attitudes, including toward the ulama, and at times allied himself and his party with them after the formation of Pakistan.

Sufism and popular Islam

Like other contemporary revivalists, Mawdudi was critical of Sufism and its historical influence in the early part of his life. However, as he got older, his views on Sufism changed and focused his criticism mainly on unorthodox and popular practices of Sufism that was not based on the Sharia In his youth, Mawdudi studied various sciences of Tasawwuf under the Deobandi seminary in Fatihpuri Mosque; from where he obtained an Ijazat (certificate) on the subject "gradations of mystical ecstasy" in 1926. Influenced by the Deobandi reformist doctrines and writings of past scholars like Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab; Mawdudi opposed folkish forms of excessive Sufism. Mawdudi's conception of Tasawwuf was based on strict adherence to Qur'an and Sunnah like those of the earlier Sufis. He was heavily critical of the cult of saints that developed during the medieval period of Islam, and believed that abiding by the sharia (Islamic law) was essential to achieve Zuhd and Ihsan. Most significantly, Mawdudi asserts that the very highest stage of Ihsan was to be reached through collective societal efforts that establishes a just Islamic state as what occurred during the early period of Islam in the Rashidun Calpihate.

Mawdudi would later clarify that he did not have any antagonism towards Sufism as a whole; by himself or the Jama'at. (According to at least one biographer, this change in position was a result of the importance of Sufism in Pakistan not only among the Muslim masses but the ulama as well.) Mawdudi distinguished between the Orthodox Sufism of Shaikhs like 'Alau'ddin Shah which were bounded in the Sharia (which he approved of), and the shrines, festivals, and rituals of unorthodox popular Sufism (which he did not). While praising Tasawwuf that strictly abides by the Qur'an and Sunnah, Mawdudi condemned later manifestations of Sufism, writing in Risala-i Diniyya (Treatise on Religion):"They polluted the pure spring of Islamic Tasawwuf with absurdities that could not be justified by any stretch of imagination on the basis of the Qur'an and the Hadith. Gradually a section of Muslims appeared who thought and proclaimed themselves immune to and above the requirements of the Shari'ah. These people are totally ignorant of Islam, for Islam cannot admit of Tasawwuf that loosens itself out of the Shariah and takes liberties with it. No Sufi has the right to transgress the limits of the Shariah or treat lightly the primary obligations such as daily prayers, fasting, zakat and the Hajj"

He "redefined" Sufism, describing it not in the modern sense as the form and spirit of an "esoteric dimension" of Islam, but as the way to measure "concentration" and "morals" in religion, saying: "For example, when we say our prayers, Fiqh will judge us only by fulfillment of the outward requirements such as ablution, facing toward the Ka'ba ... while Tasawwuf (Sufism) will judge our prayers by our concentration ... the effect of our prayers on our morals and manners."

Sharia

Mawdudi believed that sharia was not just a crucial command that helped define what it meant to be a Muslim, but something without which a Muslim society could not be Islamic:

That if an Islamic society consciously resolves not to accept the sharia, and decides to enact its own constitution and laws or borrow them from any other source in disregard of the sharia, such a society breaks its contract with God and forfeits its right to be called 'Islamic.'

Many unbelievers agreed that God was the creator, what made them unbelievers was their failure to submit to his will, i.e. to God's law. Obedience to God's law or will was "the historical controversy that Islam has awakened" throughout the world. It brought not only heavenly reward, but earthly blessing. Failure to obey, or "rebellion" against it, brought not only eternal punishment, but evil and misery here on earth.

The source of sharia, was to be found not only in the Quran but also in the Sunnah (the doings and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), since the Quran proclaimed "Whoever obeys the messenger [i.e. Muhammad] obeys Allah."[Quran 4:80]

Sharia was perhaps most famous for calling for the abolition of interest-bearing banks, hadd penalties such as flogging and amputation for alcohol consumption, theft, fornication, adultery and other crimes. Hadd penalties have been criticised by Westernised Muslims as cruel and in violation of international human rights but Mawdudi argued that any cruelty was far outweighed by the cruelty in the West that resulted from the absence of these punishments, and in any case would not be applied until Muslims fully understood the teachings of their faith and lived in an Islamic state.

But in fact sharia was much more than these laws. It recognises no division between religion and other aspects of life, in Mawdudi's view, and there was no area of human activity or concern which the sharia did not address with specific divine guidance.

Family relationships, social and economic affairs, administration, rights and duties of citizens, judicial system, laws of war and peace and international relations. In short it embraces all the various departments of life ... The sharia is a complete scheme of life and an all-embracing social order where nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking.

Islamic Revolution

Though the phrase "Islamic Revolution" is commonly associated with the 1979 Iranian Revolution, (or General Zia's Islamisation), Mawdudi coined and popularised it in the 1940s. The process Mawdudi envisioned—changing the hearts and minds of individuals from the top of society downward through an educational process or da'wah—was very different than what happened in Iran, or under Zia ul-Haq. Mawdudi talked of Islam being "a revolutionary ideology and a revolutionary practice which aims at destroying the social order of the world totally and rebuilding it from scratch", but opposed sudden change, violent or unconstitutional action, and was uninterested in grassroots organising, socio-economic changes, or even street demonstrations, often associated with revolutions.

His "revolution" would be achieved "step-by-step" with "patience", since "the more sudden a change, the more short-lived it is."

He warned against the emotionalism of "demonstrations or agitations, ... flag waving, slogans ... impassioned speeches ... or the like". He believed that "societies are built, structured, and controlled from the top down by conscious manipulation of those in power," not by grassroots movements. The revolution would be carried out by training a cadre of pious and dedicated men who would lead and then protect the Islamic revolutionary process. To facilitate this far-reaching program of cultural change, his party "invested heavily" in producing and disseminating publications.

Mawdudi was committed to non-violent legal politics "even if the current methods of struggle takes a century to bear fruit." In 1957 he outlined a new Jama'at policy declaring that "transformation of the political order through unconstitutional means" was against sharia law. Even when he and his party were repressed by the Ayub Khan or People's Party (in 1972) governments, Mawdudi kept his party from clandestine activity. It was not until he retired as emir of JI that JI and Jam'iat-e Tulabah "became more routinely involved in violence."

The objective of the revolution was to be justice (adl) and benevolence (ihsan), but the injustice and wrong to be overcome that he focused on was immorality (fahsha) and forbidden behavior (munkarat). Mawdudi was interested in ethical changes, rather than socio-economic changes of the sort that drive most historical revolutions and revolutionary movements. He did not support these (for example, opposing land reform in the 1950s as an encroachment on property rights) and believed the problems they addressed would be solved by the Islamic state established by the revolution.

Islamic state

The modern conceptualisation of the "Islamic state" is also attributed to Mawdudi. This term was coined and popularised in his book, The Islamic Law and Constitution (1941), and in subsequent writings.

After the creation of Pakistan, Mawdudi's "concentrated" his efforts on converting it to an Islamic state, where he envisioned Sharia would be enforced—banks that charged and gave interest would be abolished, the sexes would be segregated, hijab compulsory, and the hadd penalties (public lashing, amputation of hands and/or feet, stoning to death, etc.) for theft, alcohol consumption, adultery and other crimes.

Mawdudi's Islamic state is both ideological and all-embracing, based on "Islamic Democracy," and will eventually "rule the earth". In 1955 he described it as a "God-worshipping democratic Caliphate, founded on the guidance vouchsafed to us through Muhammad." Ultimately though, Islam was more important and the state would be judged by its adherence to din (religion and the Islamic system) and not democracy.

Unlike the Islamic state of Ayatollah Khomeini, it would not establish and enforce Islamisation, but follow the Islamisation of society. As Mawdudi became involved in politics, this vision was "relegated to a distant utopia".

Three principles underlying it: tawhid (oneness of God), risala (prophethood) and khilafa (caliphate). The "sphere of activity" covered by the Islamic state would be "co-extensive with human life ... In such a state no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private."

The Islamic state recognises the sovereignty of God, which meant God was the source of all law. The Islamic state acts as the vicegerent or agent of God on earth[Quran 24:55] and enforces Islamic law, which as mentioned above is both all-embracing and "totally silent" on a "vast range of human affairs". While the government follows the sharia law, when it comes to a question about which no explicit injunction is to be found in the sharia, the matter is "settled by consensus among the Muslims."

The state can be called a caliphate, but the "caliph" would not be the traditional descendant of the Quraysh tribe but (Mawdudi believed) the entire Muslim community, a "popular vicegerency". (Although there would also be an individual leader chosen by the Muslim community.) Thus the state would be not a "theocracy", but a "theodemocracy".

Non-Muslims

Mawdudi believed that copying cultural practices of non-Muslims was forbidden in Islam, having

very disastrous consequences upon a nation; it destroys its inner vitality, blurs its vision, befogs its critical faculties, breeds inferiority complexes, and gradually but assuredly saps all the springs of culture and sounds its death-knell. That is why the Holy Prophet has positively and forcefully forbidden the Muslims to assume the culture and mode of life of the non-Muslims.

In his commentary on Surah An-Nisa Ayat 160 he wrote

The Jews, on the whole, are not satisfied with their own deviation from the path of God. They have become such inherent criminals that their brains and resources seem to be behind almost every movement which arises for the purpose of misleading and corrupting human beings. And whenever there arises a movement to call people to the Truth, the Jews are inclined to oppose it even though they are the bearers of the Scripture and inheritors of the message of the Prophets. Their latest contribution is Communism – an ideology which is the product of a Jewish brain and which has developed under Jewish leadership. It seems ironical that the professed followers of Moses and other Prophets should be prominent as the founders and promoters of an ideology which, for the first time in human history, is professedly based on a categorical denial of, and an undying hostility to God, and which openly strives to obliterate every form of godliness. The other movement which in modern times is second only to Communism in misleading people is the philosophy of Freud. It is a strange coincidence that Freud too was a Jew.

He was appalled at (what he saw as) the satanic flood of female liberty and licence which threatens to destroy human civilisation in the West.

Mawdudi strongly opposed the Ahmadiyya sect, a sect which Mawdudi and many other Muslims do not consider as Muslim. He preached against Ahmadiyya in his pamphlet The Qadiani Problem and the book The Finality of Prophethood.

Under the Islamic state

The rights of non-Muslims are limited under Islamic state as laid out in Mawdudi's writings. Although non-Muslim "faith, ideology, rituals of worship or social customs" would not be interfered with, non-Muslims would have to accept Muslim rule.

Jihad

Mawdudi's first work to come to public attention was Al Jihad fil-Islam ("Jihad in Islam"), which was serialised in a newspaper in 1927, when he was only twenty-four. In it he maintained that because Islam is all-encompassing, the Islamic state was for all the world and should not be limited to just the "homeland of Islam" where Muslims predominate. Jihad should be used to eliminate un-Islamic rule everywhere and establish a worldwide Islamic state:

Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam, regardless of the country or the nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which nation assumes the role of the standard-bearer of

Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. Islam requires the earth—not just a portion, but the whole planet.... because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare programme [of Islam] ... Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is 'Jihad'.... the objective of the Islamic 'jihād' is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule.

Mawdudi taught that the destruction of the lives and property of others was lamentable (part of the great sacrifice of jihad), but that Muslims must follow the Islamic principle that it is better to "suffer a lesser loss to save ourselves from a greater loss". Though in jihad "thousands" of lives may be lost, this cannot compare "to the calamity that may befall mankind as a result of the victory of evil over good and of aggressive atheism over the religion of God."

He explained that jihad was not only combat for God but activity by the rear echelon in support those waging combat (qitaal), including non-violent work:

In the jihad in the way of Allah, active combat is not always the role on the battlefield, nor can everyone fight in the front line. Just for one single battle preparations have often to be made for decades on end and the plans deeply laid, and while only some thousands fight in the front line there are behind them millions engaged in various tasks which, though small themselves, contribute directly to the supreme effort.

Mystique, personality, personal life

As the Amir (Guide) of Jama'at e-Islami (JI), Mawdudi remained in close contact with JI members, conducting informal discussions every day in his house between Asr and Maghrib salat prayers, although according to some, in later years discussion was replaced by answers to members' questions with any rebuttals ignored.

For his votaries in the Jama'at, Mawdudi was not only a "revered scholar, politician, and thinker, but a hallowed Mujaddid." Adding to his mystic was his survival of assassination attempts, while the Jama'at's enemies (Liaquat Ali Khan, Ghulam Muhammad, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) "fell from grace" or were killed. He had a powerful command of Urdu language which he insisted on using, in order to "free Muslims minds from the influence of English."

In private he has been described as "strict but not rigid", taciturn, poised, composed, uncompromising and unyielding. His biographers have talked of his karamat (special gifts) and haybah (great presence)." His public speaking style has been described as having "great authority". Mawdudi would make his argument step-by-step with Islamic edicts, rather than attempting to excite his audience with oratory. Although he did not publicise the fact, Mawdudi was a practitioner of traditional medicine or unani tibb.

Family and health

Mawdudi has been described as close to his wife, but not able to spend much time with his six sons and three daughters due to his commitments to religious dawah and political action. Only one of his offspring, ever joined the JI. And only his second daughter Asma, showed "any scholarly promise".

Mawdudi suffered from a kidney ailment most of his life. He was often bedridden in 1945 and 1946, and in 1969 was forced to travel to England for treatment.

Late life

In April 1979, Mawdudi's long-time kidney ailment worsened and by then he also had heart problems. He went to the United States for treatment and was hospitalised in Buffalo, New York, where his second son worked as a physician. Following a few surgical operations, he died on 22 September 1979, at the age of 75. His funeral was held in Buffalo, but he was buried in an unmarked grave at his residence in Ichhra, Lahore after a very large funeral procession through the city. Yusuf al-Qaradawi led the funeral prayer for him.

Legacy

Described by Wilfred Cantwell Smith as "the most systematic thinker of modern Islam", he authored numerous works, which "covered a range of disciplines such as Qur'anic exegesis, hadith, law, philosophy, and history". These were originally penned in Urdu, and later translated into a number of other languages, including English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Burmese, and Malayalam. He sought to revive Islam, and, more specifically, to propagate what he understood to be "true Islam". He believed that this Islam was essential for the proper functioning of the national political order; this pivotal role provided his followers with their primary goal of bringing about the legal adoption of sharia. This was seen as entailing both the popular revival of an Islamic culture, mirroring traditional beliefs regarding widespread social norms and practices during the reigns of the Rashidun Caliphs, and the abandonment of immorality and what Mawdudi viewed as the modern evils of secularism, nationalism and socialism. He viewed these last three as foreign influences, the remnants of Western imperialism. Mawdudi was the author of the renowned Tafhim-ul-Quran

Mawdudi is regarded by many as "the most influential" of the contemporary Islamic revivalist scholars; whose efforts influenced revivalism across the Islamic World. His doctrines would also inspire the Iranian revolution and shape the ideological foundations of Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan and South Asia

In Pakistan, (where the JI claims to be the oldest religious party) it is "hard to exaggerate the importance" of that country's "current drift" toward Mawdudi's "version of Islam", according to scholar Eran Lerman.

His background as a journalist, thinker, scholar and political leader has been compared to Indian independence leader Abul Kalam Azad by admiring biographers.

He and his party are thought to have been the most important factors in Pakistan working to generate support for an Islamic state. They are thought to have helped inspire General Zia-ul-Haq to introduce "Sharisation" to Pakistan,

(Sharia laws decreed by Zia included bans on interest on loans (riba), deduction by the government of 2.5% annual Zakat tax from bank accounts, the introduction of Islamic punishments such as stoning and amputation with the 1979 Hudood Ordinances. One policy of Zia's that was originally proposed by Mawdudi, and not found in classic Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), was the introduction of separate electorates for non-Muslims (Hindus and Christians) in 1985.)

In return, Mawdudi's party was greatly strengthened by Zia with 10,000s of members and sympathisers given jobs in the judiciary and civil service early in Zia's rule.

South Asia in general, including the diaspora, including "significant numbers" in Britain, was "hugely influenced" by Mawdudi's work.

Arab world

Outside of South Asia, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb read him, according to historian Philip Jenkins. Qutb "borrowed and expanded" Mawdudi's concept of Islam being modern, Muslims have fallen into pre-Islamic ignorance (Jahiliyya), and of the need for an Islamist revolutionary vanguard movement. His ideas influenced Abdullah Azzam, the Palestinian Islamist jurist and renewer of jihad in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Iran

Mawdudi also had a major impact on Shia Iran, where Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is reputed to have met Mawdudi as early as 1963 and later translated his works into Persian. "To the present day," according to Philip Jenkins, "Iran's revolutionary rhetoric often draws on his themes."

Turkey

In Turkey, where his name is spelled Mevdudi, from the mid-1960s onward his "full oeuvre was available in Turkey within a few years" and he became an influential figure within the local religious circles.

Militant Islamist movements

Mawdudi is considered as "second to Qutb" among the intellectual fathers of contemporary militant Islamist movements. According to Youssef M. Choueiri, "all the major contemporary radicalised" Islamist movements (the Tunisian Islamic Tendency, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation, and the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria), "derive their ideological and political programmes" from the writings of Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb.

His works have also influenced the leadership of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in their ideology.

Timeline of Abul A'la Mawdudi's life

1903 – Born in Aurangabad, Hyderabad State, colonial India

1918 – Started career as journalist in Bijnore newspaper

1920 – Appointed as editor of the daily Taj, based in Jabalpur

1921 – Learned Arabic from Maulana Abdul Salam Niazi in Delhi

1921 – Appointed as editor daily Muslim newspaper

1926 – Took the Sanad of Uloom e Aqaliya wa Naqalia from Darul Uloom Fatehpuri, Delhi

1928 – Took the Sanad in Jamay Al-Tirmidhi and Muatta Imam Malik Form same Teacher

1925 – Appointed as editor Al-jameeah, Delhi

1927 – Wrote Al Jihad fil Islam

1933 – Started Tarjuman-ul-Qur'an from Hyderabad

1937 – aged 34, introduced to South Asia's premier Muslim poet-philosopher, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, by Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan at Lahore

1938 – Aged 35, moved to Pathankot from Hyderabad Deccan and joined the Dar ul Islam Trust Institute, which was established in 1936 by Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan on the advice of Allama Muhammad Iqbal for which Chaudhry Niaz Ali Khan donated 66 acres (270,000 m2) of land from his vast 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) estate in Jamalpur, 5 km west of Pathankot

1941 – Founded Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at Lahore, British India; appointed as Amir

1942 – Jamaat's headquarters moved to Pathankot

Selected bibliography

Mawdudi wrote 73 books, 120 booklets and pamphlets, and made more than 1,000 speeches and press statements. His magnum opus was the 30 years in progress translation (tafsir) in Urdu of the Qur'an, Tafhim ul-Qur'an (The Meaning of the Qur'an, also Introductions to the Qur'an), intended to give the Qur'an a self-claim interpretation. It became widely read throughout the South Asia and has been translated into several languages.

Some of his books translated into English.

Al Jihad fil Islam. Written in 1927, it was Mawdudi's first book, at the age of 24, comprising some 600 pages and hailed by Muhammad Iqbal "as the best explication of the concept of jihad in any language."

Towards Understanding Islam

Purdah & the Status of Women in Islam

The Islamic Law and Constitution

Let us be Muslims

The Islamic Way of Life

A Short History of the Revivalist Movement in Islam

Human Rights in Islam

Four basic Qur'anic terms

The process of Islamic revolution

Unity of the Muslim world

The moral foundations of the Islamic movement

Economic System of Islam

The road to peace and salvation

The Qadiani Problem