(Many a military manuals have been written in the history ...)
Many a military manuals have been written in the history of man. The rules of engagement written and discussed by men from bygone eras until now have developed this study into the modern rules of war. The question of Islamic contribution and thinking on this highly important especially now in the volatile environment of the 21st century. This topic is important to understanding the dynamics of conflicts especially when Muslims are involved. Is there legitimacy in using torture tactics during war? Can Muslims tax sex slaves from the enemy? Is the targeting of civilians proper? What of the legality of child soldiers? These HOT questions and many more controversial topics are discussed in detail in this contemporary classic masterpiece of Sayyid Maududi - a renowned contemporary scholar. For a researcher, a book containing comprehensive material of this caliber was rarely available for understanding the Islamic rules of war. And to have an English translation of it is even rarer. The grand question of if Islam allows certain things or not during war becomes quite clear from this easy read.
Abul A'la Maududi was an Islamist philosopher, jurist, journalist and imam.
Background
Maududi was born on September 25, 1903 in (Mohalla Manzoor pura) Aurangabad India, then part of the princely state enclave of Hyderabad, until it returned to India in 1948.
He was the youngest of three sons of Maulana Ahmad Hasan, a lawyer by profession. Although his father was only middle-class, he was the descendant of the Chishti line of saints; in fact 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). His father's mother was related to Islamic modernist thinker Sayyid Ahmad Khan
Education
At an early age, until he was nine, Maududi was given home education, he "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 reportedly translated Qasim Amin's The New Woman from Arabic into Urdu at the age of 14, and about 3, 500 pages from Asfar, a work of Persian mystical thinker Mulla Sadra, some years later.
When he was 11, Maududi was admitted to eighth class directly in Madrasa Fawqaniyya Mashriqiyya (Oriental High School), Aurangabad, founded by Shibli Nomani, a modernist Islamic scholar trying to synthesize traditional Islamic scholarship with modern knowledge, and which awakened Maududi'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.
Mawdūdīreceived his formal education in the schools of Hyderabad, but at age 15 he was forced to leave school never to return upon the death of his father; much of his earliest instruction was conducted in the home. He never attended a traditional Muslim religious school, a fact that later brought him much criticism when he began to publish his religious views.
Career
Mawdūdī's earliest profession was journalism. At the age of 17 he became a correspondent and then editor of the newspaper Tāj in Jabalpur. In 1920 he assumed the editorship of Muslim, the publication of the Jam'īyat-i 'Ulamā, ' the organization of India's learned Muslim divines. He continued in that position until the newspaper closed in 1923 and, after an interregnum of 18 months, became editor of its replacement, the prestigious al-Jam'īyah. Mawdūdīleft journalism in 1927 to engage in scholarly writing. During this period he wrote a history of the Asafīyah dynasty of Hyderabad and a history of the Seljuk Turks, as well as a slim volume called Toward Understanding Islam which established him in India as a serious religious writer.
Mawdūdīalong with one of his elder brothers, Abū-l Khayr, was an ardent supporter of the Khilāfat and satyagrāhā movements of 1919-1921. He continued his support for the former until its collapse after the establishment of the Turkish Republic, and he was bitterly disappointed when Gandhi called off the satyagrāhā effort in 1921 in response to the events at Chauri Chaura. From that point onwards Mawdūdīcame increasingly to feel that the interests of India's two major communities, the Hindus and the Muslims, were divergent and irreconcilable.
The years of journalism also marked his first significant venture into writing on Islamic subjects in the volume The Holy War in Islam (1926), composed as a series of essays in al-Jam'īyah to refute Hindu charges that Islam was a militant and bloodthirsty religion. The principles espoused in Mawdūdī's later writing may all be found in this initial work.
In 1932 Mawdūdībecame associated with the Hyderabadi journal Tarjumān al-Qur'ān, and in the following year he assumed sole responsibility for it. It was—and remains—the principal vehicle of his views and those of the organization he later founded. At first Mawdūdīused the journal to advocate reform among Muslims, but in the late 1930s he turned to Indian politics. He opposed both the all-India nationalism of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim nationalism of the Muslim League. His own solution to India's political problem lay in urging Muslims to recognize Islam as their sole identity and to become better Muslims. His views during this period are collected in the three volumes of Muslims and the Present Day Political Struggle.
In 1941 Mawdūdīconvoked a meeting in Lahore to found a body that would put his views into practice. The organization was called Jamā'at-i Islāmī(The Islamic Society), and Mawdūdīwas elected its head or amīr. The purpose of the Jamā'at was to propagate true Islam and to train a cadre of devoted men capable of establishing an Islamic system of government and society. It was thus a religiously-based political party of fundamentalist persuasion. The organization became a major factor in Pakistani national politics.
When the Indian sub-continent was partitioned in 1947, Mawdūdīmoved with some of his followers to Pakistan, where he quickly assumed an important political role as the principal advocate of the Islamic state. He evoked the displeasure of the government and in 1948 was put in jail, where he remained for more than a year. Upon his release he resumed the agitation for an Islamic state with renewed vigor. The peak of his political influence was achieved in 1951 in connection with the controversy over the Basic Principles Report of the Pakistani Constituent Assembly. Mawdūdīacted as leader and spokesman of the Pakistani 'ulamā' in their response to the report.
Mawdūdīwas again arrested in 1953 for his alleged part in the agitation against the Ahmadīyah sect. He was sentenced to death by a military court, but the sentence was never carried out. In 1958 Pakistan came under military rule, and political parties, including the Jamā'at-i Islāmī, were banned. From that time Mawdūdī's interest turned from the Islamic state to the achievement of true democracy in Pakistan. Mawdūdīwas again arrested for his bitter opposition to the Ayyūb Khān government in 1964, and in the 1965 elections he supported the presidential candidacy of Fātimah Jinnāh against Ayyūb Khān—though it was counter to his Islamic beliefs that a woman should hold high office. Mawdūdījoined with other right wing and religious parties in 1970 to oppose the socialism of Zūlfiqār Alī Bhutto and the demands of Shaykh (Sheik) Mujīb al-Rahmān's Awami League. During the 1971 civil war that led to the emergence of Bangladesh Mawdūdīsupported the military action of the government against the Bengalis. In 1972 he resigned as amir of the Jamā'at-i Islāmī, having held the post, though not without challenge, since the inception of the organization.
Maududi 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.
He died in September 1979 in Rochester, New York, where he had gone to visit a son and to receive medical treatment for a long standing ailment.
He strove not only to revive Islam as a renewer of the religion, but to propagate "true Islam", (which he saw as) a remedy for the weakness from which Islam had suffered over the centuries. He believed that politics was essential for Islam and that it was necessary to institute sharia and preserve Islamic culture from what he saw as the evils of secularism, nationalism, women's emancipation, and communist socialism as they were the results of Western colonial imperialism and the Islamic world needed to be intellectually independent often called intellectual decolonization.
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. "
Maududi 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 solved. It pitted truth and bravery against ignorance, falsehood and evil.
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).
Maududi 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 the heaven is above 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.
Maududi believed that Islam covered all aspects of life. He said:
"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. "
Of all these aspects of Islam, Maududi was primarily interested in culture—preserving Islamic dress, language and customs, from (what he believed were) the dangers of women's emancipation, secularism, nationalism, etc. It was also important to separate the realm of Islam from non-Islam—to form "boundaries" around Islam.
"It would also be proven scientifically (Maududi believed) that Islam would "eventually . .. emerge as the World-Religion to cure Man of all his maladies. "
But what many Muslims, including many Ulama, considered Islam, Maududi did not. Maudid complained that 'not more than 0. 001%' of Muslim knew what Islam actually was. Maududi not only idealized the first years of Muslim society (Muhammad and the "rightly guided" Caliphs) but considered what came after to be un-Islamic or jahiliya—with the exception of brief religious revivals. Muslim philosophy, literature, arts, mysticism were syncretic and impure, diverting attention from the divine.
Maududi had a unique perspective on the transmission of hadith—the doings and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, that form part of the basis of Islamic law. Rather than basing judgement of the quality of a hadith on the number and reliability of the chain of transmission (known as isnad, Hadith where passed on orally before being written down) and the judgments of "generations of muhaddithin" (hadith scholars), Maududi believed in his intuition, and that "with extensive study and practice one can develop a power and can intuitively sense the wishes and desires of the Holy Prophet . .. Thus . .. on seeing a Hadith, I can tell whether the Holy Prophet could or could not have said it.
Abul A'la Maududi, condemned the religious ideas of Mughal Emperor Akbar (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.
Politics
He was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic organisation in Asia. He and his party are thought to have been the pioneer in politicizing Islam and generating support for an Islamic state in Pakistan. They are thought to have helped inspire General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to introduce "Sharization" to Pakistan, and to have been greatly strengthened by him after tens of thousands of members and sympa
thizers were given jobs in the judiciary and civil service during his administration.
According to Maududi, Islam would strike a balance between the harshness of capitalism, and the restriction on property rights of socialism. It would embodying all of the virtues of the two inferior systems, and none of their shortcomings. At the same time, Islamic economics would not be some kind of mixed economy/social democratic compromise between capitalism and socialism, but a distinct and superior system.
He believed that economic exploitation or poverty were not brought about by private wealth and property, but by the lack of "virtue and public welfare" among the wealthy, which in turn was brought about by the 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.
Unlike Islamists like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Maududi had a visceral antipathy to socialism, which he spent much time denouncing as "godless" as well as being unnecessary and redundant in the face of the Islamic state. A staunch defender of the rights of property he warned workers and peasants that "You must never take the exaggerated view of your rights which the protagonists of class war present before you. " He also did not believe in intervention in the economy to provide universal employment.
Maududi held to this position despite the popularity of populism among many Pakistanis, and despite the poverty and vast gap between rich and poor in Pakistan (which is often described an "feudal" (jagirdari) in its large landholdings and rural poverty). Maududi openly opposed land reform proposals for Punjab by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in the 1950s, going so far as to justify feudalism by pointing to Islam's protection of property rights. He later softened his views, extolling economic justice and equity (but not egalitarianism), but cautioned the government against tampering with "lawful Jagirdari", and continuing to emphasise the sanctity of private property.
Maududi 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, Maududi 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.
Views
Maududi 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". Maududi 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 Maududi 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.
Maududi 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 criticize matters relating to the general welfare of the country, " though not to vote on them.
Maududi 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. "
Quotations:
"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. "
Personality
For his votaries in Jama'at, Maududi was not only a "revered scholar, politician, and thinker, but a hallowed Mujaddid. "
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 public speaking style has been described as having "great authority". Maududi would make his argument step-by-step with Islamic edicts, rather than attempting to excite his audience with oratory.
Quotes from others about the person
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 Maududi's "version of Islam", according to scholar Eran Lerman.
Interests
Although he did not publicize the fact, Maududi was a practitioner of traditional medicine or unani tibb, 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 reportedly translated Qasim Amin's The New Woman from Arabic into Urdu at the age of 14, and about 3, 500 pages from Asfar, a work of Persian mystical thinker Mulla Sadra, some years later.
Connections
In 1937 he 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 Maududi than were other Muslims.
Maududi 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".