Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi (سيد أبو الأعلى المودودي, alternative spelling
Syed Maudoodi; often referred to as
Maulana Maududi) (
1903-
1979) was one of the most influential islamic scholar of the 20th century and the founder of
Jamaat-e-Islami (
Islamic Party), . Maulana Maududi's
philosophy,
literature, and
activism contributed to the development of
Islamic movements around the world. Maulana Maududi's ideas influenced
Sayyid Qutb of Egypt's
Jamiat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun ("Muslim Brotherhood") another leading Muslim scholar of the 20th century. Together, Maududi, along with Qutb, is considered by some to be one of the founding fathers of the global Islamic revivalist movements.
Maulana Maududi, born on Rajab 3, 1321 AH (September 25, 1903 AD) in
Aurangabad city of
Hyderabad (now
Maharashtra) state,
India. He was a sayyid, a purported descendent of the Prophet Muhammad. Among his
ancestors were many other
spiritual leaders, including a prominent
cleric of the Chishti
Sufi Order, Khawajah Qutb al-Din Maudud. Maulana Maududi's forefathers moved to South Asia from
Chisht, near
Herat in
Afghanistan, near the end of the 15th century AD. Maulana Maududi's father, Ahmad Hasan, born in 1855 AD, was a lawyer. Maulana Maududi was the youngest of his three sons.
Maulana Maududi was home-schooled before attending
Madrasah Furqaniyah, a famous high school in Hyderabad which is, despite being named "Madrassah", not an Islamic seminary. He attended college at
Darul Uloom in
Hyderabad but withdrew when his father became terminally ill. He knew enough
Arabic,
Persian,
English, and his native tongue
Urdu to continue his studies independently.
In 1918, at the age of 15, he began working as a
journalist for a leading Urdu newspaper to support himself, and in 1920, he was appointed
editor of
Taj, published in
Jabalpore city in what is now
Madhya Pradesh state,
India. By 1921, Maulana Maududi moved to
Delhi to work as editor for the
Muslim newspaper (1921-1923), and later for
al-Jam'iyat (1925-1928), publications by the
Jam'iyat-i ‘Ulama-i Hind, a political organization of Muslim scholars mainly associated with
Deoband. Under Maulana Maududi's editorial leadership,
al-Jam'iyat became the leading newspaper for South Asian Muslims.
Maulana Maududi participated in the
Khilafat Movement and
Tahrik-e Hijrat, South Asian Muslims organizations opposed to
British colonial occupation. He urged India's Muslims to migrate en masse to
Afghanistan to escape the British rule. During this period, Maulana Maududi began translating books from Arabic and English to Urdu. He also authored his first major book,
al-Jihad fi al-Islam ("Jihad in Islam") published serially in
al-Jam'iyat in 1927 and as a book in 1930.
al-Jihad fi al-Islam is still considered one of Maulana Maududi's literary masterpieces.
In 1933, Maulana Maududi became editor of the monthly
Tarjuman al-Qur'an ("Interpreter of the Qur'an"). He wrote extensively about Islam and, in particular, the conflict between Islam and external forces of
imperialism and
modernization. He interpreted Islamic solutions and presented an Islamic perspective to the everyday problems faced by Muslims under British rule, on the problems of Western military domination over
South Asia and on the influences of
Western culture on Islamic society.
Together with the philosopher-poet Allama
Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana Maududi established an academic center named
Darul-Islam in
Pathankot city of
Punjab province. The goal of the academy was to train scholars in the
political philosophy of Islam. Maulana Maududi developed a highly critical perspective of Western concepts, such as
nationalism,
pluralism and
feminism, which he viewed as imperialist tools to undermine non-Western societies and enforce Western domination over the lives of Muslims. He proposed that the Muslim world should purge itself of foreign elements and wage
jihad ("struggle") until all of humanity was united under Islamic rule. He translated the
Qur'an into
Urdu and wrote prolifically on numerous aspects of Islamic law and culture.
By 1941, Maulana Maududi founded
Jamaat-e-Islami to promote an Islamist agenda in South Asia. Maulana Maududi was elected as the Jamaat's first Ameer (President) and he was re-elected every year until 1972 when he resigned for health reasons.
Maududi strongly opposed the idea of creating
Pakistan, a separate Muslim country. But after the
independence in 1947, Maulana Maududi migrated to Pakistan. He began working to build an Islamic state and society. He relentlessly criticized the secular policies of the nascent state and berated Pakistani leaders for failing to create an Islamic political order. Maulana Maududi was arrested and imprisoned for advocating his political beliefs through his writing and speeches. In 1953, Maulana Maududi's pamphlet criticizing the
Ahmadis as un-Islamic resulted in widespread rioting and violence in Pakistan. A military court sentenced Maulana Maududi to death for sedition. He refused to apologize for his actions or to request clemency from the government. He demanded his freedom to speak and accepted the punishment of death as the will of God. His fierce commitment to his ideals caused his supporters worldwide to rally for his release and the government acceded, commuting his death sentence to a term of life imprisonment. Eventually the military government pardoned Maulana Maududi completely.
Maulana Maududi's goal was to make Islam the supreme organizing principle for the social and political life of the Muslims. The primary concept Maulana Maududi's propounded was
Iqamat-i-Deen, literally "the establishment of religion." According to this principle, society and the state are totally subordinate to the authority of Islamic law as revealed in the
Qur'an and practiced by
Muhammad. This concept is one of the main reasons why he was against the partition of India and hence the creation of Pakistan. He believed that the creation of Pakistan would cause the citizens of Pakistan to put the interest of the state above the demands of religion ie Islam.
Maulana Maududi interpreted religion to be the central frame of reference for all human activity. He did not believe that religion was simply a private choice, as it is viewed in secular societies. He believed that religion must be manifest in all social, economic and political spheres of society. In Islamic societies, this meant that
Shari'a should be the law of the land for all citizens, replacing non-Islamic civil and criminal law.
Maulana Maududi traveled extensively between 1956 and 1974 to spread his message to Muslims throughout the world. He delivered inspirational lectures to Muslim communities in
Cairo,
Damascus,
Amman,
Mecca,
Medina,
Jeddah,
Kuwait,
Rabat,
Istanbul,
London,
New York,
Toronto and many other cities. He made a pilgrimage and research expedition through
Saudi Arabia,
Jordan (including Jerusalem),
Syria and
Egypt in 1959-1960 to the locales mentioned in the Qur'an. On
September 22,
1979, Maulana Maududi died at age 76 in
Buffalo,
New York. His funeral was held in Buffalo, but he was buried in an unmarked grave at his residence (Ichra) in
Lahore after a procession thronged by teeming multitudes of followers.
Maulana Maududi is a seminal figure in contemporary Islamic thought. His critically important contributions are:
*His development of Shah Waliullah's conception of Islam as a complete, closed system and as the only universal civilization. It is on this basis that Maulana Maududi makes a distinction between Islam and Jahiliya (ignorance).
*His conceptualization of Jihad as a permanent revolutionary strategy and rejection of the view that Jihad is a defensive war for national liberation.
*His total rejection of Western epistemology and insistence on the position that no new interpretation of Islam is needed to deal with contemporary problems and challenges.
Maulana Maududi's goal was to make Islam the supreme organizing principle for the social and political life of the Muslim
ummah. The primary concept
Maulana Maududi's propounded was iqamat-i-deen, literally "the establishment of religion." According to this principle, society and the state are totally subordinate to the authority of Islamic law as revealed in the
Qur'an and practiced by
Muhammad.
Maulana Maududi believed that the entire course of Islamic history was a continuous struggle between Islam and different brands of
ignorance. Islam was not guaranteed victory in every battle, but Maulana Maududi believed that if Muslims were true to their religion, Islam would eventually triumph over ignorance. In his incrementalist vision, the construction of an Islamic state originates from within pious individuals who transform society from within. First, Islam spurs individual transformation. Pious Muslims develop communities of faith. These communities, in turn, mass into ideological movements that generate peaceful social change. The end result is an Islamic society and true Islamic state based on the will of the people.
Maulana Maududi wrote more than 120 books and pamphlets and gave over 1000 speeches (700 were recorded for wider distribution.). His main subject matter was Qur'anic exegesis (Tafsir), ethics, social studies and the problems facing the Islamic revival movement. His monumental
Urdu analysis of the Qur'an,
Tafhim al-Qur'an ("
Towards Understanding the Qur'an"), took 30 years to complete. [
1] The tome explicates the relevance of the Qur'an as a guide to solving the mundane problems in life at the level of the individual and society. Tafhim al-Qur'an has been translated into
Arabic,
English,
Turkish,
Persian,
Hindi,
French,
German,
Swahili,
Tamil,
Bengali,
Malayalam and
Kannada, and is continuously being translated into a wider variety of languages.
Maulana Maududi raised a call for freedom and Islamic revival during a period of malaise and subjugation. The
Ottoman Empire had imploded, while European and American interpretations of civilization colonized the Muslim world. Maulana Maududi called on Muslims to look inward to find strength in Islam and to struggle for a society built on more Islamic principles.
The
Shi'a generally hold a more positive view on Maududi's work, despite his being a Sunni scholar. This is because Maududi's political brand of Islam was concentrated more on issues of politics as opposed to theology, with which most of the differences between Sunnis and Shi'as are concerned. Maududi interpreted Islam as a political ideology, often ignoring theological differences in favour of political unity. (Although, the rift with the
Qadianis was more to do with matters theological than political). This was in great contrast to, for example,
Ibn Taymiya, a traditional Sunni theologian who was virulently opposed to Shi'a theology.
- Maududi has been an intensely controversial figure. Criticism has come both from secularists and from within the Islamic religious establishment. Many of the
Ulema who were involved in the founding of the Jama`at-e Islami left shortly afterwards in protest against Maududi's policies and leadership style. Both
Barelwi and
Deobandi ulama have accused Maududi of having turned Islam upside down.
- From the
Barelvii side, a representative critique is that offered by
Shaikh al-Islam Sayyid Muhammad Madani Ashrafi who authored a series of books on Maududi's misunderstanding and abuse of traditional Islamic terminology. Foremost amongst
Deobandi scholars who have written formal refutations of Maududi is Shaikh Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalwi, the late hadith scholar and influential figure in the Tablighi Jama`at. Kandhalwi's book "Fitna-e Mawdudiyyat" begins with a mention of how Maududi was expelled from his madrassah studies for insubordination. Both authors concur that Maududi's self-education led him to develop a distorted understanding of Islam. They claim Maududi and his movement urge Muslims to take up religious rituals (prayer, etc.) in order to prepare for acquiring state power, whereas some other Aalim's (professor) understanding is that the rituals of Islam are the purpose of life, and state power is a means to establishing the worship of Allah. The critics also point out that Maududi seemed to have no control over his pen and an unlimited sense of his own importance. He repeatedly denigrated the traditional ulama and the sufis, and, more grievously, defamed the prophets of Allah in his "Tafhim al-Quran" and elsewhere, and the Companions of the Prophet in "Khilafat wa Mulukiyyat."
- Secular and Muslim critics say that Maududi's political theory, like that of
Sayyid Qutb in Egypt, is more influenced by
Stalin or
Mussolini than by the
Qur'an and
Hadith and the example of seventh-century
Madina, while the majority of Muslims regard this view as completely borne out of ignorance and a hatred of Islam.
- Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, the Amir (Head) of Jamaati Islami, devoted himself to the study of theology in 1927. Despite his great learning, immense knowledge and forceful style of Urdu, his critics â€" especially ulema of the Deoband and Lucknow schools â€" say that his lack of training in theological discipline was his great weakness. He criticized the
Jamiyat Ulamai Hind for its composite nationalist theory which exposed Muslim India to the serious dangers of religio-cultural absorption into
Hinduism, yet simultaneously attacked
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim nationalism as no less dangerous than Congress nationalism. There was no difference to him whether the irreligious Muslims of India survived in the form of Pakistan or not (Musalman or Mau Judah Siyasi Kashmakash (Muslims and present political tussle) , Pathankot, 1946, 6â€"7).It is in the tradition of medieval
Christianity, and not of Islam, that Maulana Maudoodi developed the original ideals of Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad and the Khairi brothers' Hukumati Ilahiyya.
St Augustine,
Martin Luther,
John Calvin and
Thomas Hobbes provided him with the non-Islamic concepts of orthodoxy, dogma and heresy â€" and also with the rhetoric of intolerance age.
Dr.
Haider Maudoodi, the son of Maulana Maudoodi, has openly denounced the actions of Jamaati Islami, the very same Jamaat his father formed and a Jamaat that is following his example to the letter. He stated in The Nation on 1/27/99 that his father would not allow his children to go near Jihad, but would sell this idea to millions of others; he would never allow any of his children to read any of his 80 books. While Jamaati Islami was encouraging an uprising by Kashmiri's against the Indian occupation, Haider Maudoodi stated, "Islam does not allow them taking up arms against the State" and praised Pakistani's for not allowing religious extremists like Jamaati Islami members from attaining many seats in the
National Assembly of Pakistan.
"My father though he could only use the people who came to him. But in his old age, he did get a taste of his medicine. When he was on his deathbed, these Maulana's treated him as dirt."- Maududi was a key source of the
extremism which caused the persecution of
Ahmadis in Pakistan, and the passage of highly problematic "blasphemy" and
"Hudood" laws that have led to many human-rights violations being committed against
religious minorities and women. This fact is well documented in the Pakistani newspapers of the time.
*
Life Of Maulana Maudodi*
The Meaning of the Qur'an (
Arabic:
Tafhim al-Qur'an)
*
Islamic Way of Life*
Khutabat: Fundamentals of Islam*
Caliphs and Kings (Arabic:
Khilafat wa Mulukiyyat)
Human Rights in Islam*
Al-Hijab*
Economic System of Islam*
Human Rights in Islam*
Introduction of Islam*
Rights of Non Muslims in Islamic State*
Social System of Islam*
System of Government under the Holy Prophet*
Economic Problem of Man and its Islamic Solution*
Islamic Law and its Introduction in Pakistan*
Qadiani Problem*
Towards Understanding Islam*
Jamaat-e-Islami *
IslamismRelated groups and personalities
*
Khurshid Ahmad*
Ikhwan ul-Muslimum, or the
Muslim Brotherhood*
Sayyid Qutb*
Hasan al-Banna*
Yusuf al-Qaradawi*
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam*
Amin Ahsan Islahi*
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi*
Dr. Israr AhmedIslam-related topics
*
Qur'an*
Shari'a*
Hadith*
Quick list on Islam*
Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama'at-i Islami of Pakistan*
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi*
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi's complete works in urdu*http://www.muhammad.net/ebooks/ - online books
*http://www.maududi.org/ - Official Site of Syed Abulala Maududi (RA)
* Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza.
Mawdudi & The Making of Islamic Revivalism. Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0195096959
*
Maulana Maududi and the King Faisal Prize by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
*
Syed Abul-A`la al-Maududi*
Tafheem ul Qur'an*
Chapter Introductions to the Qur'an*
Writings of Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi*
PWHCE biography*
Lectures of Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi*
Correspondence with Mariyam Jameela
