Background
Mawdudi, Sayyld Abu Al-Ala was born in 1903 in Aurangabad, Indiad- 1979.
Mawdudi, Sayyld Abu Al-Ala was born in 1903 in Aurangabad, Indiad- 1979.
Educated at home, loca madrasah and self-educated.
Journalist and writer, and founder ° Jamati-Islami which campaigned for the re-establishment of an Islamic w°rld order or society.
Although Mawdudi started his political life as a fervent opponent of a separate Islamic state such as Pakistan, he later came to appreciate the need and desirability of such a state; yet throughout his "writings he represents nationalism as a pernicious and un-Islamic idea. The basis of Islam in his view is the acknowledgement of God as the sole source °f authority, and anything else such as the law of fhe state or the will of the people is no more than ■dolatry. The community, he held, needs to return l° the early ideas of the Prophet and his four successors and where there is the need to 'ncorporate new developments to take account °f changing circumstances, this should be done by using reason within the context of Islam rather than using Islam within the context of reason. Islam is essentially rational, and there is no need to look beyond it to find how to adapt traditional ■ailes to suit modem circumstances. Mawdudi’s notion of the Islamic polity is as a theocracy governed by a man who is the agent and representative of God: all will go well with the slate provided that it is ruled by those who are knowledgeable in the way of the Prophet and the mst four caliphs. Although human beings are Weak and fragile creatures, they also represent God on earth, and they arc obliged to carry out mvine commands in their organization of society. 1 here is no scope for political life outside religion, and to be a member of Islamic society one has to acknowledge and accept the perfection and inality 0f the sharia, the revealed law. Mawdudi nas had an important influence upon the Islamic ^orld, and his works have been much translated. i*'s basic doctrine, that society should be founded °n the principles of Islam and nothing else, has Played an important role in intellectual life in the Islamic world.