“Who is Maulana Maududi?” Maulana replies, “I am.” Abu Al Ala Maududi, the army officer, picks up the paper in his hand and starts reading. You have been sentenced to death for writing the Qadiani issue. No appeal can be made against this sentence. Yes, you can appeal to the Governor General for mercy. After this, silence prevails in the cell for some time. Maulana’s companions are also silent. Then suddenly Syed Maududi’s voice emerges. “I do not have to appeal to anyone for mercy. The decisions of life and death are not made on the ground but in the sky. If the decision of my death has been made from there, then no power in the world can save me from death. And if the decision of my death is not made from there, then no power in the world can end the rest of my life.”
Signs of displeasure are visible on the face of the army officer. He suddenly turns back and leaves. After half an hour, the guards enter the cell and say, Maududi sahab, get ready, you have to go to the gallows. Maulana reads Bismillah and stands up. Changes clothes, wears a cap and holds the Quran Majeed in his hand. And hugging his companions, he left for the gallows. Seeing this scene, everyone is used to it. Maulana Amin Ahsan Ilahi says involuntarily, I know that Maulana Maududi is a big man, but I did not know that he has such a high status and position in the eyes of God.
Court Scene, 1953
A few days pass and the circumstances change. Due to international pressure, Maulana Maududi’s death sentence could not be executed, but due to this incident, he definitely got the status of a legend.
Early life of Maulana Maududi
Syed Abu Al Ala Maududi was born in 1903 in Aurangabad, a city in Hyderabad Deccan. His grandfather belonged to Sadat, which was settled in the Chisht Maqam near the Afghan city of Hirat. The famous elder of this family was Khwaja Qutubuddin Madur Chishti. He was the Sheikh ul Shaykh of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Ajmeri. Maulana Maududi was brought up in a religious environment and learnt Urdu and Persian. He learnt Arabic Fiqa and Hadith at home and at the age of 11 he entered the Furqaniya Madrasa of Aurangabad. He gave the Maulvi examination in 1914 and was successful but at that time his family faced financial difficulties and he moved from Aurangabad to Hyderabad. Then he was admitted to the Maulvi Alim group. At that time the head of Darul Uloom was Maulana Hamiduddin Farahi who was also a teacher of Amin Ahsan Islahi but the process of education could not last more than 6 months because one day the news came that Syed Maududi’s father had suffered a stroke and in a short time he passed away. After the death of his father, Syed Maududi became concerned about the nation. He started his career as a journalist. He became the editor of the newspaper Madina of Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh and the daily newspaper Al Jamia Dili of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind. He was also associated with Jamiat Ulama Hind. In 1925, when Jamiat Ulama Hind joined Congress, Syed Maududi left the newspaper Al Jamia because he considered Congress to be against the interests of Muslims.
If there is any loss in working according to the will of the master, so be it. If life is lost, so be it. If hands and legs are broken, so be it. If there is a loss of children, so be it. If property is destroyed, so be it. Why should you be sad? If the one whose thing it is wants the loss, he has the right.
Maududi
Writings of Maulana Maududi
Anyway, during working in this newspaper, the most important turn in the life of Syed Maududi came. This was the time when the Shuddhi movement had started in India, whose aim was to convert Muslims into Hindus. So much so that Swami Shraddhanand even insulted Prophet P.B.U.H in his book, for which a Muslim killed him. This incident created a lot of uproar in the whole of India. It was said that Islam is the sword and it is the religion of oppression. Then Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar delivered a speech in Jamia Masjid, Delhi and said that if only someone could explain the issue of Islam, Jihad, in full. On this Syed Maududi wrote a book named Al Jihad Fil Islam, that too at the age of just 24. Writing such a great book at such a young age is considered a very amazing and great achievement of Maulana Maududi. And he received a lot of praise from all quarters.
Even Allama Iqbal said that this is an excellent book on the Islamic viewpoint of Jihad and its laws of peace and war and advised everyone to read that book. Syed Maududi left the newspaper and went to Hyderabad Deccan where he saw the political conditions of India and the conditions of Muslims very closely and wrote many books on it. And here in 1932, another important turn of his life came when he released a Risala Tarjuma Al-Quran. The purpose of the Risala was that the dominance of western thoughts and their methods has to be broken and the British oppression on the Muslims led to the birth of a movement, a movement which reached the establishment of a Jamaat. Till the establishment of Jamaat Islami, Jamaat Islami was based on this principle that whatever you follow, follow it but do not force it on others. Do not follow the practice which you do not consider right. But do not demand that others also do not consider it right and leave it. After this, all of you should try to establish an Islamic system together. One of the aims of this Jamaat is to invite people to follow Allah and His Prophet P.B.U.H.
In his book Tehreek E Azadi Hind Aur Musalman, he writes that, “as a Muslim, in my eyes, the question of whether India should remain a single country or be divided into 10 pieces is not important. The whole land is a single country. Man has divided it into thousands of parts. If the division till now was justified, then let there be more division in future. What harm will it do? If the one who considers me a god suffers on the breaking of this idol, then if I get even a square of a mile here where no one has authority over man except God, then I will consider a single particle of its dust more valuable than the whole of India”.
Establishment of Jamaat
On this occasion, Syed Maududi established a Jamaat in Lahore on 26 August 1939 and named it Jamaat Islam. This Jamaat says that Islam is a complete entity of life. Yes, Pakistan is formed, whose first and biggest issue is the law, that is, what should be the basis of the law of Pakistan? This is to be decided. While other Ulema were in the forefront in doing this, Maulana Maududi’s role is also very important, but after the demise of Quaid-e-Azam, in the very next month in October 1948, Maududi Sahib was arrested, this was his first imprisonment, but he was absolutely steadfast in his views. Do not step back, that is, demand for Islamic System This is the time when the effects of Syed Maududi’s have started spreading from Pakistan to the whole world. In fact, the entire Islamic world of the 20th century is directly or indirectly affected by the principles and struggle of Syed Maududi, especially the new Islamic movement. This movement is in every field, in the field of knowledge as well as in the field of practice. Maulana Maududi not only transformed the spirit of these Islamic movements but also broke the age-old concepts which were born out of the slavery of the West. It was the thought of Maududi that brought about the formation of Jamaat Islami Hind, Jamaat Islami Bangladesh, Al Nada of Turkey, Ikhwan-ul-Muslim of Egypt, Rafah of Turkey, Al Harkul Islamia of Sudan and America and in Canada, the Islamic Circle of North America was born, but what happened to Jamaat Islami, which has influence all over the world, in Pakistan? Yes, it could not achieve success in its own country, neither in the lifetime of Syed Maududi nor after that. It has many reasons.
One is that after the formation of Pakistan, a big political upheaval was created in the country, the effects of which were also seen on Jamaat Islami and that meant Syed Maududi and his like-minded people wanted to participate in the election, while the other group says that work should be done only on the reform of the system and stay away from the election politics. This group includes big names like Dr. Israr Ahmed Amin Ahsan Islahi and Irshad Ahmed Haqqani. The Ijtema agreed with the opinion of Maulana Maududi and Jamaat Islami started on the path of election politics and Dr. Israr Amin Ehsan Ilahi and Irshad Ahmed Haqqani all three Maulana leaves Jamaat-e-Islami. Thus, Maulana Mududi’s decision to take part in election politics becomes a decision on which even today there is a lot of disagreement among his followers. This decision has changed the direction of Jamaat’s movement. Earlier it was a purely Islamic revolutionary group, now it has become an Islamic national political group. Neither his Jamaat could achieve great success in Islamic politics, nor could it play the role in scholarly and reformative works which it had done in the beginning, that is, neither could the work of reforming the society be done, nor could the scholarly movement continue and Syed Maududi’s view on politics could never reach its destination through the ballot box and this happened in his lifetime. The general elections of 1970 hold great importance in the history of Pakistan, which took place at a time when Jamaat-e-Islam was a revolutionary group. Islami was at its peak. Looking at its street power, Syed Maududi had high hopes that people would vote for Jamaat Islami. But Jamaat Islami could only win four seats. The dream of Islamic revolution was shattered and Pakistan was also split into two parts.
Controversies
In 1972 Syed Maududi left the building of Jamaat Islami. Why did he bring a revolutionary movement into the political arena? Maulana Maudi was questioned till the end. He answered this in 1974 in an address by saying, “some people were saying that you should also do something or the other. But I kept telling people at that time that even if you do not get a single penny, you should not deviate from the path of truth. Do not make a false promise which you cannot fulfil. Do not do any such thing which puts you at the mercy of God that you have spoiled the morals of the community. You have made this community a rogue. You have also ruined this community. They have involved the people in lies, abuse and other moral evils. The responsibility that falls on you is to work on the path shown by Allah and His Rasul P.B.U.H. Your job is to work hard by following this path and spend your life in it. If you are negligent in this, you will be a victim”.
If we look beyond the political arena, the scholarly work of Syed Maududi is huge. After Al Jihad Fil Islam, journals like Tarjumanul Quran were started and then many books of Maulana Maududi kept coming out. Ownership, land, interest, Islam and modern economic perspective, then Tanak Hath and Tafhi Maat come out which work to remove the misunderstanding of the superiority of the West and most importantly, the Tafseer of the Holy Quran which is considered to be one of the best Tafseer of Urdu, i.e. Tafheem Quran.
The question arises that the government itself is the basic reason of the evil? Where is the root of this evil? The answer is that the root of the evil is actually the rule of man over man and there is no form of God except the rule of God over man.
Maududi
Regarding the important books of Syed Maududi, the famous scholar Ahmad Javed writes that among the books of Maulana Maududi Sahib, the four basic verses of the Quran are the most important and basic book in which his entire thought and vision of religion is understood. His series of Tafi Mat had a great impact on me because many issues in it were of my interest on which he used to write answers. Another most important book is the status of Sunnat which was probably not in the form of a book at that time but he was in a debate with Dr. Abdul Waddu and was being published in Risala. I was very impressed by this. There was a religious passion to be influenced by him but the second reason was that his
conclusion is very trustworthy, If two-three representative writings of Maududi Sahib are selected, then the four basic aspects of the Holy Quran will definitely be included in them. In fact, his most basic work is his Tafseer. One book which is perhaps less visible but is a very important and worth mentioning book is the Islamic Tahzeeb and Uskool Mubadala book, but it was a little difficult for me at that time. This book is the most difficult book of Maulana Maududi Sahib. The importance of the four basic aspects of the Quran is that the essence of all the books of Maududi Sahib is seen in it.
If not in any other, then if a person wants to study his thoughts, then it is better for him to start with this. But apart from these books, another book of Maulana which created a lot of uproar was Khilafat Malookiyat in, the view of Islam, what is Khilafat, why and how did it end and why and how did Malookiyat come after it. In this book, the answers to all these questions were given in a simple manner. This is the narration of the Hanafi school of thought. This book was completely different from the Islamic school of thought, so this book created a lot of uproar. Deoband school of thought was already critical of Syed Maududi, but after this book, Barelvi and Ahle Hadith school of thought also turned against Maulana. It can be said that this book brought Jamaat Islami to another school as a Jamaat. However, if we look beyond this, then two books of Syed Maududi played a very important role in correcting the perception of Islam of a common Muslim. Those books were Diniyat and Khutba. Such praise of Islamic worship was never seen before in Urdu language. These two books have also played a very fundamental role in Islamic movements all over the world. Then in the new era, if there is any book on political awakening in the Muslim world, then it is Syed Maududi’s Islamic Riyasat. This book includes the Islamic way of governance, the principles and etiquette of governance. It is said that Iran’s Imam Khomeini was also very impressed with this book. He was impressed and in this book Liban included his views on Wilayat Faqi which had a great impact on the people of Iran and Iraq. This means that this is the book which became the foundation of revolution in Iran. Yes, Jamaat Islami may or may not have got practical success in Pakistan but Syed Maududi’s books gave birth to many Islamic movements in the 20th century all over the world. In Pakistan Syed Maududi got only and only opposition and that too on a very large scale. Firstly, every government that came to power in Pakistan was against him. If he was arrested in 1948, he was released in 1950. If he was imprisoned in 1953, he was given death sentence which later changed to life imprisonment and he was released after about 3 years. Not only this, but in 1963, a murderous attack also took place in which Syed Maududi narrowly escaped. In 1964, his Jamaat Islami was also attacked. A ban was imposed on Syed Maud Udi and many leaders of Jamaat Islami were imprisoned for a year.
This was the attitude of the rulers. The Ulema also came out as big opponents of Syed Maududi. On one hand, his Jamaat was considered a separate sect and on the other hand, his group was also given the name of Fin-e-Maud. But despite all the opposition, Syed Maududi has the same principle. He is not answering any such accusation. Whoever considers this Jamaat and this movement a threat to himself, uses all his might against me.
And I fear that instead of spreading your invitation, you may start wasting your time and energy in my cause. It is not an easy task to defame me and by being indifferent to my cause, you keep on calling the servants of Allah towards the path of ALLAH. Then it is also said that the Islamic followers of Islam are always devoted to the path of ALLAH.
Maulana Abu AL ALA Maududi