Abul A'la Maududi

Imam
Amir
Allamah
Shaykh al-Islam
Abul A'la Maududi
ابو الاعلیٰ المودودی‎
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi
Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami
In office
26 August 1941 – October 1972
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byMian Tufail Mohammad (in Pakistan)
Abul Lais Islahi Nadvi (in India)
Abdur Rahim (in Bangladesh)
Burhanuddin Rabbani (in Afghanistan)
TitleFirst Amir and Imam of Jamat-e-Islami
Shaykh al-Islam
Allamah
Sayyid
Mujaddid of 20th century
Personal
Born(1903-09-25)25 September 1903
Aurangabad, Hyderabad Deccan, British India
Died22 September 1979(1979-09-22) (aged 75)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
ReligionIslam
DenominationModern Sunni
LineageDirect descendant of Islamic prophet Muhammad, through Husayn ibn Ali and Moinuddin Chishti
JurisprudenceHanafi
MovementJamaat-e-Islami
Organization
Founder ofJamaat-e-Islami
Websitejamaat.org

Abul A'la al-Maududi (Urdu: ابو الاعلیٰ المودودی, romanized: Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; (1903-09-25)25 September 1903 – (1979-09-22)22 September 1979) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist, and scholar active in British India and later, following the partition, in Pakistan.[1] Described by Wilfred Cantwell Smith as "the most systematic thinker of modern Islam",[2] his numerous works, which "covered a range of disciplines such as Qur'anic exegesis, hadith, law, philosophy, and history",[3] were written in Urdu, but then translated into English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Burmese, Malayalam and many other languages.[4] He sought to revive Islam,[5] and to propagate what he understood to be "true Islam".[6] He believed that Islam was essential for politics and that it was necessary to institute sharia and preserve Islamic culture similarly as to that during the reign of the Rashidun Caliphs and abandon immorality, from what he viewed as the evils of secularism, nationalism and socialism, which he understood to be the influence of Western imperialism.[7]

He founded the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.[8][9][10] At the time of the Indian independence movement, Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to oppose the partition of India.[11][12][13] After it occurred, Maududi and his followers shifted their focus to politicizing Islam and generating support for making Pakistan an Islamic state.[14] They are thought to have helped influence General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to introduce the Islamization in Pakistan,[15] and to have been greatly strengthened by him after tens of thousands of members and sympathizers were given jobs in the judiciary and civil service during his administration.[16] He was the first recipient of the Saudi Arabian King Faisal International Award for his service to Islam in 1979.[17] Maududi was part of establishing and running of Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia.[18]

Maududi is acclaimed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Circle of North America, Hamas and other organizations.

  1. ^ Zebiri, Kate (February 1998). "Seyyed vali Reza Nasr: Mawdudi and the making of Islamic revivalism". Review. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 61 (1): 167–168. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00016189. S2CID 161170329.
  2. ^ Smith, Wilfred Cantwell (1957). Islam in Modern History. Princeton University Press. p. 233. ISBN 0-691-03030-8.
  3. ^ Saeed, Abdullah (2006). Islamic Thought: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-415-36408-9.
  4. ^ Adams, Maududi and the Islamic State 1983, p. 99
  5. ^ Nasr, Mawdudi and Islamic Revivalism 1996, p. 140
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SVRN1996: 138 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Nasr, Mawdudi and Islamic Revivalism 1996, p. 49
  8. ^ Haqqani, Husain (2016). Pakistan between mosque and military. India: Penguin Group. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-670-08856-0.
  9. ^ Martín, Richard C. (2004). Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World. Granite Hill. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-02-865603-8.
  10. ^ Jackson 2010, pp. 64–65
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oh2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference NG336 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gupta2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Adams, Maududi and the Islamic State 1983, p. 99: "Mawdudi was, until his death in 1979, but especially to the time of his resignation as Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1972, the best known, most controversial, and most highly visible of all the religious leaders of the country."
  15. ^ Devichand, Mukul (10 November 2005). "How Islam got political: Founding fathers". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 8 November 2014. Maududi made plenty of enemies in his lifetime – but his most significant domestic impact came after his death. Pakistan's military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq put some of Maududi's ideas into practice in 1979, turning Islamic "sharia-based criminal punishments into law.
  16. ^ Jones, Owen Bennett (2003). Pakistan: Eye of the Storm. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0-300-10147-8. ... Zia rewarded the only political party to offer him consistent support, Jamaat-e-Islami. Tens of thousands of Jamaat activists and sympathizers were given jobs in the judiciary, the civil service and other state institutions. These appointments meant Zia's Islamic agenda lived on long after he died.
  17. ^ "Service to Islam". King Faisal's Prize. Archived from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  18. ^ Encyclopaedia Dictionary Islam Muslim World, etc. p. 873. Retrieved 29 February 2020. From 1956, the discussion of the role of Islam in the constitution, died down and Maududi, until restricted by ill-health in 1969, traveled widely outside Pakistan. He was a particularly frequent visitor to Saudi Arabia, where he took part in both the establishment and the running of Medina's Islamic university and the World Muslim League.