Maulana Maududi’s Islamic Revivalism far away from Western secularism, modernism, and nationalism

 

Islamic Revivalism of Maulana Maududi

Life of Maududi

Syed Abul A’la Maududi was born on 25 September 1903 at Aurangabad, India, and died on 22 September 1979 at Buffalo, New York. He was an influential and revivalist Islamic scholar of the 20^th century who decolonized the entire western political theory. In his whole life, he contributed and promoted Islam in different ways. Maududi showed the practical way of Islam and how it could solve the problems of today’s Muslims in Islamic terminology. He started his mission during the colonial era when the Muslim states were suppressed under their shadow. 

His Political Thoughts

Maulana Maududi established Jam’at-i-Islami in 1941in the Indian subcontinent with the primary objective of Iqamat-i-Din or Islam in every aspect of life, which means he tried to revive Islam at that time. He believed that the formation of the Islamic political system is far away from Western secularism, modernism, and nationalism, core supporter of separate land for Islam and Muslims. He gave the foundation bases of Islamic political, economic, cultural, and social system, which can be found in his literature. He also highlighted the constitutional principles of Islam which Holy Qu’ran gave. His works were translated into various languages as he attracted students, intellectuals and politicians from all around the world. He was the only person who conferred the Saudi Arabian King Faisal International Award for his service to Islam in 1979. Shahbaz Ahmad Cheema wrote about Maududi's political thought. 

"Contemporary revivalism is not a homogenous phenomenon; it has different shades of thoughts and resorts to multiple kinds of strategies for materializing its goals. But this is not to suggest that there is no common ground among the contemporary revivalists.”

His contribution

Maududi’s prolific contribution was a tafsir “Tafhim al-Quran.” He wrote his first magnum opus in 1928, a noble masterpiece on Islamic War, namely, Al-Jihad fi al-Islam, in 1932 he started his own journal named “Tarjumanul Quran” it was another step for Islamic revivalism. he wrote numerous works in Islamic disciplines; Qur’anic exegesis, hadith, law, philosophy, and history in Urdu language but later translated into English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Burmese, Malayalam, and other languages.

 

References

Cheema, S. A. (2013). Problematizing the Religious Basis of Maududi's Political Theory. Studies on Asia, 52-82.

Dr. Thameem Ushama, D. N. (2006). Sayyid Mawdudi's Contribution Towards Islamic Revivalism. IIUC Istudies, 93-104.