Maulana Abul Ala Maududi

A scholar, philosopher, jurist, journalist, Islamist and imam, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi was born on 25 September 1903, in Aurangabad in the princely state of Hyderabad, India. 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. His father's mother was related to Islamic modernist thinker Sayyid Ahmad Khan.

At an early age, Maududi was given home education. He received religious nurture at the hands of his father and from a variety of teachers employed by him. He was then admitted to eighth class directly in Madrassa Furqania, Aurangabad. There he surpassed his class mates, in all respects, despite being younger than them. He was attracted to Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, and studied in depth the fundamental concepts of Physics and Mathematics.

He joined Darul Uloom, in Hyderabad for his undergraduate studies, however these were disrupted by the illness and death of his father, and he did not graduate from the Darul Uloom. His instruction included very little of the subject matter of a modern school, such as English or other European languages. He reportedly translated Qasim Amin's The New Woman into Urdu at the age of 14, and about 3,500 pages from Asfar, a work of mystical Persian thinker Mulla Sadra.

From 1924 to 1927 Maududi was the editor of al-Jamiah, the newspaper of the Jamiyat-i Ulama (an organization of Islamic clergy), a position of "extreme importance and influence." Always interested in independence from the British, Maududi lost faith in the Congress Party and its Muslim allies in the 1920s as the party developed an increasingly Hindu identity. He began to turn more towards Islam, and believed that democracy could be a viable option for Muslims only if the majority of Indians were Muslims. Maududi spent some time in Delhi as a young man but went back to Hyderabad in 1928.

In 1932 he joined another journal (Tarjuman al-Quran) and from 1932 to 1937 he began to develop his political ideas, and turn towards the cause of Islamic revivalism and Islam as an ideology, as opposed to what he called "traditional and hereditary religion". The government of Hyderabad helped support the journal buying 300 subscriptions which it donated to libraries around India. Maududi was alarmed by the decline of Muslim ruled Hyderabad, the increasing secularism and lack of Purdah among Muslim women in Delhi.

By 1937 he became in conflict with Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and its support for a pluralistic Indian society where the Jamiat hoped Muslims could "thrive without sacrificing their identity or interests." In that year he also married Mahmudah Begum, a woman from an old Muslim family with considerable financial resources. The family provided 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.

At this time he also began work on establishing an organization for Da'wah (propagation and preaching of Islam) that would be an alternative to both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. He decided to leave Hyderabad for Northwest India, closer to the Muslim political center of gravity in India. In 1938, after meeting the famous Muslim poet Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, Maududi moved to a piece of land in the village of Pathankot in Punjab to oversee a Waqf (Islamic foundation) called Daru'l-Islam.

His hope was to make it a "nerve center" of Islamic revival in India, an ideal religious community, providing leaders and the foundation for a genuine religious movement. He wrote to various Muslim luminaries invited them to join him there. The community, like Jamaat-i-Islami later, was composed of rukn (members), a shura` (a consultative council), and a sadr (head). After a dispute with the person who donated the land for the community over Maududi's anti-nationalist politics, Maududi quit the waqf and in 1939 moved the Daru'l-Islam with its membership from Pathankot to Lahore. In Lahore he was hired by Islamia College but was sacked after less than a year for his openly political lectures.

In August 1941, Maududi founded Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) in British India as a religious political movement to promote Islamic values and practices. Maududi proposed forming a Muslim state based on Islamic law and in which Islam would guide all areas of life. This state would not be theocracy, Maududi held, but a "theodemocracy", because its rule would be based on the entire Muslim community, not the ulema (Islamic scholars).

Initially, Maududi opposed the creation of a separate Muslim state in the subcontinent. As JI Ameer (leader) he opposed the leaders of the Muslim League who sought an independent Muslim-majority state. He believed that an Islamic state is a Muslim state, but a Muslim state may not be an Islamic state unless and until the Constitution of the state is based on the Qur'an and Sunnah.

With the Partition of India in 1947, the JI was split to follow the political boundaries of new countries carved out of British India. The organisation headed by Maududi became known as Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan, and the remnant of JI in India as the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. Later JI parties were the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and autonomous groups in Indian Kashmir.

With the founding of Pakistan, Maududi's career underwent a fundamental change, being drawn more and more into politics, and spending less time on ideological and scholarly pursuits. Although his Jamaat-i Islami party never developed a mass following, it and Maududi did develop significant political influence. It played a prominent part in the agitation which brought down President Ayub Khan in 1969 and in the overthrow of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977. Maududi and the JI were especially influential in the early years of General Zia ul-Haq's rule.

His political activity, particularly in support of the creation of an Islamic state clashed with the government, (dominated for many years by a secular political class), and resulted in several arrests and periods of incarceration. The first was in 1948 when he and several other JI leaders were jailed after Maududi objected to the government's clandestine sponsorship of jihad in Kashmir while professing to observe a ceasefire with India.

In 1951 and again in 1956-7, the compromises involved in electoral politics led to a split in the party over what some members felt were a lowering of JI's moral standards. In 1951, the JI shura passed a resolution in support of the party withdrawing from politics, while Maududi argued for continued involvement. Maududi prevailed at an open party meeting in 1951, and several senior JI leaders resigned in protest, further strengthened Maududi's position and beginning the growth of a cult of personality around him. In 1957 Maududi again overruled the vote of the shura to withdraw from electoral politics.

In 1953, he and the JI participated in a campaign against the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan. Anti-Ahmadi groups argued that the Ahmadiyya did not embrace Muhammad as the last and greatest prophet (khatam-e-nubuwwat). Maududi as well as the traditionalist ulama of Pakistan wanted Ahmadi designated as non-Muslims, Ahmadis such as Muhammad Zafarullah Khan sacked from all high level government positions, and intermarriage between Ahmadis and other Muslims prohibited. The campaign generated riots in Lahore, leading to the deaths of at least 200 Ahmadis, and selective declaration of martial law.

Maududi was arrested by the military deployment headed by Lieutenant General Azam Khan and sentenced to death for his part in the agitation. However, the anti-Ahmadi campaign enjoyed much popular support, and strong public pressure ultimately convinced the government to release him after two years of imprisonment. The campaign shifted the focus of national politics towards Islamicity. The 1956 Constitution was adopted after accommodating many of the demands of the JI. Maududi endorsed the constitution and claimed it a victory for Islam.

However following a coup by General Ayub Khan, the constitution was shelved and Maududi and his party were politically repressed, Maududi being imprisoned in 1964 and again in 1967. The JI joined an opposition alliance with secular parties, compromising with doctrine to support a woman candidate (Fatima Jinnah) for president against Ayub Khan in 1965. In the December 1970 general election, Maududi toured the country as a leader in waiting and JI spent considerable energy and resources fielding 151 candidates. Despite this, the party won only four seats in the national assembly and four in the provincial assemblies.

The loss led Maududi to withdraw from political activism in 1971 and return to scholarship. In 1972 he resigned as JI's Ameer (leader) for reasons of health. However, it was shortly thereafter that Islamism gathered steam in Pakistan in the form of the Nizam-i-Mustafa (Order of the Prophet) movement, an alliance of conservative political groups united against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto which the JI gave shape to and which bolstered its standing.

In 1977, Maududi returned to the center stage. When Bhutto attempted to defuse tensions on April 16, 1977, he came to Maududi's house for consultations. When General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Bhutto and came to power in 1977, Zia-ul-Haq accorded Mawdudi the status of a senior statesman, sought his advice, and allowed his words to adorn the front pages of the newspapers. Maududi proved receptive to Zia's overtures and supported his decision to execute Bhutto. Despite some doctrinal difference (Maududi wanted sharia by education rather than by state fiat), Maududi enthusiastically supported Zia and his programme of Islamization or Sharization.

Maududi poured his energy into books, pamphlets and more than 1000 speeches and press statements, laying the ground work for making Pakistan an Islamic state, but also dealing with a variety of issues of interest in Pakistan and the Muslim world. 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.

According to at least one biographer (Vali Nasr), Maududi and the JI moved away from some of their more controversial doctrinal ideas (e.g. criticism of Sufism or the Ulama) and closer to orthodox Islam over the course of his career, in order to expand the base of support of Jama'at-e Islami.

Maulana 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.

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.

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.

But in rejecting Islam (Maududi believed) the non-Muslim struggled against truth. His very tongue which, on account of his ignorance advocates the denial of God or professes multiple deities, is in its very nature 'Muslim'. The man who denies God is called Kafir (concealer) because he conceals by his disbelief what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his own soul. His whole body functions in obedience to that instinct. Reality becomes estranged from him and he remains in the dark.

Since a Muslim is one who obeys divine law, simply having made a shahada, declaration of belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad (PBUH) as God's prophet or being born into a Muslim family does not make you a Muslim. Nor is seeking knowledge of God part of the religion of Islam. The Muslim is a slave of God, and absolute obedience to God is a fundamental right of God. The Muslim does not have the right to choose a way of life for himself or assume whatever duties he likes.

Maududi believed 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, colour, 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. Maududi 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 (PBUH) 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 prophet Muhammad (PBUH), 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.

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 unnecessary because population growth led to economic development.

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.

Although Maududi was primarily interested in cultural issues rather than socioeconomic ones, as a complete system, Islam included an economic programme, which 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, 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.

Before the economy like the government, and other parts of society could be Islamized, an Islamic revolution-through-education would have to take place to develop this virtue and create support for total sharia law. This put Maududi at a political disadvantage with populist and socialist programs because his solution was neither immediate nor tangible. Of all the Islamic laws dealing with property and money, payment of zakat and other Islamic taxes, etc., Maududi emphasised the elimination of interest on loans. According to one scholar, because in British India Hindus dominated the money lending trade.

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. Islam does not make it binding on society to provide employment for each and every one of its citizens, since this responsibility cannot be accepted without thorough nationalisation of the country's resources.

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 as 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 believed that Islam supported modernization but not Westernization. He agreed with Islamic Modernists that Islam contained nothing contrary to reason, and that it was superior in rational terms to all other religious systems. He disagreed with their practice of examining the Quran and the Sunnah using reason as the standard, instead of starting from the proposition that true reason is Islamic and accepting the Book and the Sunnah, rather than reason, as the final authority.

He also took a narrow view of ijtihad, limiting the authority to use it to those with thorough grounding in Islamic sciences, faith in the sharia, and then only to serve the needs of his vision of an Islamic state. At the same time, at least one scholar (Maryam Jameelah) have noted the extensive use of modern, non-traditionally Islamic ideas and Western idioms and concepts in Maududi's thought.

Islam was a revolutionary ideology and a dynamic movement, the Jama'at-e-Islami, was a party, the Shari'ah a complete code in Islam's total scheme of life. His enthusiasm for Western idioms and concepts was infectious among those who admired him, encouraging them to implement in Pakistan all his manifestos, programmes and schemes, to usher in a true Islamic renaissance. Maududi believed modern science was a body that could accommodate any spirit, philosophy or value system, just as radio could broadcast Islami or Western messages with equal facility.

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.

Maududi also criticized traditionalist clergy or ulama for their moribund scholastic style, servile political attitudes, and ignorance of the modern world. He believed traditional scholars were unable to distinguish the fundamentals of Islam from the details of its application, built up in elaborate structures of medieval legal schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). To rid Islam of these obscure laws Muslims should return to the Quran and Sunna, ignoring judgments made after the reign of the first four rightfully guided caliphs (al-Khulafāʾu ar-Rāshidūn) of Islam.

Maududi also believed there would be little need for the traditional roll of ulama as leaders, judges, and guardians of the community, in a reformed and rationalized Islamic order, where those trained in modern as well as traditional subjects would practice ijtihad and where Muslims were educated properly in Arabic, the Quran, Hadith, etc. However, over time Maududi became more orthodox in his attitudes, including toward the ulama, and at times allied himself and his party with them after the formation of Pakistan.

Like other contemporary revivalists, Maududi was critical of Sufism and its historical influence. But he also went on record denying any antagonism toward Sufism by himself or the Jama'at. According to at least one biographer, this change in position was a result of the importance of Sufism in Pakistan not only among the Muslim masses but the ulama as well. At that time, Maududi distinguished between the Sufism of Shaikhs like Alau'ddin Shah, which he approved of and the shrines, festivals, and rituals of popular Sufism, which he did not.

He also redefined Sufism, describing it not in the traditional sense as the form and spirit of an esoteric dimension of Islam, but as the way to measure concentration and morals in religion, saying; For example, when we say our prayers, Fiqh will judge us only by fulfilment of the outward requirements such as ablution, facing toward the Ka'ba, while Tasawwuf (Sufism) will judge our prayers by our concentration, the effect of our prayers on our morals and manners. From the mid-1960s onward, redefinition of Islam increasingly gave way to outright recognition of Sufism, and after Maududi's death the JI amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad went so far as to visit the Sufi Data Durbar shrine in Lahore in 1987 as part of a tour to generate mass support for JI.

Maududi believed that sharia was not just a crucial command that helped define what it meant to be a Muslim, but something without which a Muslim society could not be Islamic: That if an Islamic society consciously resolves not to accept the sharia, and decides to enact its own constitution and laws or borrow them from any other source in disregard of the sharia, such a society breaks its contract with God and forfeits its right to be called Islamic.

Many unbelievers agreed that God was the creator, what made them unbelievers was their failure to submit to his will, i.e. to God's law. Obedience to God's law or will was the historical controversy that Islam has awakened throughout the world. It brought not only heavenly reward, but earthly blessing. Failure to obey, or rebellion against it, brought not only eternal punishment, but evil and misery here on earth.

The source of sharia, was to be found not only in the Quran but also in the Sunnah (the doings and sayings of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH)), since the Quran proclaimed, whoever obeys the messenger [i.e. Muhammad (PBUH)] obeys Allah. Sharia was perhaps most famous for calling for the abolition of interest-bearing banks, hadd penalties such as flogging and amputation for alcohol consumption, theft, fornication, adultery and other crimes. Hadd penalties have been criticized by Westernized Muslims as cruel and in violation of international human rights but Maududi argued that any cruelty was far outweighed by the cruelty in the West that resulted from the absence of these punishments, and in any case would not be applied until Muslims fully understood the teachings of their faith and lived in an Islamic state. But in fact sharia was much more than these laws. It recognizes no division between religion and other aspects of life, in Maududi's view and there was no area of human activity or concern which the sharia did not address with specific divine guidance.

Family relationships, social and economic affairs, administration, rights and duties of citizens, judicial system, laws of war and peace and international relations. In short it embraces all the various departments of life. The sharia is a complete scheme of life and an all-embracing social order where nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking. A very large part of sharia required the coercive power and authority of the state for its enforcement. Consequently, while a state based on Islam has a legislature which the ruler must consult, its function is really that of law-finding, not of law-making. According to scholar Vali Nasr, Maududi believed that the sharia needed to be streamlined, reinterpreted, and expanded to address questions of governance to the extent required for a state to function. For example, sharia needed to make clear the relation between the various branches of government.

Though the phrase Islamic Revolution is commonly associated with the 1979 Iranian Revolution, or General Zia's Islamisation, Maududi coined and popularized it in the 1940s. The process Maududi envisioned, changing the hearts and minds of individuals from the top of society downward through an educational process or da'wah was very different than what happened in Iran, or under Zia ul-Haq. Maududi talked of Islam being a revolutionary ideology and a revolutionary practice which aims at destroying the social order of the world totally and rebuilding it from scratch, but opposed sudden change, violent or unconstitutional action, and was uninterested in grassroots organizing or socio-economic changes.

His revolution would be achieved step-by-step with patience, since the more sudden a change, the more short-lived it is. He warned against the emotionalism of demonstrations or agitations, flag waving, slogans impassioned speeches or the like. He believed that societies are built, structured, and controlled from the top down by conscious manipulation of those in power, not by grassroots movements. The revolution would be carried out by training a cadre of pious and dedicated men who would lead and then protect the Islamic revolutionary process. To facilitate this far-reaching programme of cultural change, his party invested heavily in producing and disseminating publications.

Maududi was committed to non-violent legal politics even if the current methods of struggle takes a century to bear fruit. In 1957, he outlined a new Jama'at policy declaring that transformation of the political order through unconstitutional means was against sharia law. Even when he and his party were repressed by the Ayub Khan or People's Party (in 1972) governments, Maududi kept his party from clandestine activity. It was not until he retired as emir of JI that JI and Jam'iat-e Tulabah became more routinely involved in violence.

The objective of the revolution was to be justice (adl) and benevolence (ihsan), but the injustice and wrong to be overcome that he focused on was immorality (fahsha) and forbidden behavior (munkarat). Maududi was interested in ethical changes, rather than socio-economic changes of the sort that drive most historical revolutions and revolutionary movements. He did not support these (for example, opposing land reform in the 1950s as an encroachment on property rights) and believed the problems they addressed would be solved by the Islamic state established by the revolution.

The modern conceptualization of the Islamic state is also attributed to Maududi. This term was coined and popularized in his book, The Islamic Law and Constitution (1941) and in subsequent writings. Maududi's Islamic state is both ideological and all-embracing, based on Islamic Democracy, and will eventually rule the earth. In 1955, he described it as a God-worshipping democratic Caliphate, founded on the guidance vouchsafed to us through Muhammad (PBUH). Ultimately, though, Islam was more important and the state would be judged by its adherence to din (religion and the Islamic system) and not democracy.

Unlike the Islamic state of Ayatollah Khomeini, it would not establish and enforce Islamisation, but follow the Islamisation of society. As Maududi became involved in politics, this vision was relegated to a distant utopia. Three principles underlying it: tawhid (oneness of God), risala (prophethood) and khilafa (caliphate). The sphere of activity covered by the Islamic state would be co-extensive with human life. In such a state no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private.

The Islamic state recognizes the sovereignty of God, which meant God was the source of all law. The Islamic state acts as the vicegerent or agent of God on earth and enforces Islamic law, which as mentioned above is both all-embracing and totally silent on a vast range of human affairs. While the government follows the sharia law, when it comes to a question about which no explicit injunction is to be found in the sharia, the matter is settled by consensus among the Muslims.

The state can be called a caliphate, but the caliph would not be the traditional descendant of the Quraysh tribe but (Maududi believed) the entire Muslim community, a popular vicegerency, although, there would also be an individual leader chosen by the Muslim community. Thus the state would be not a theocracy, but a theodemocracy. Maududi believed that the sovereignty of God (hakimiya) and the sovereignty of the people are mutually exclusive. Sovereignty of human beings is simply the domination of man by man, the source of most human misery and calamity. Governance based on sovereignty other than that of God's does not just lead to inferior governance and injustice and maladministration, but evil.

Therefore, while Maududi used the term democracy to describe his state, in part to appeal to Westernized Muslim intellectuals), his Islamic democracy was to be the antithesis of secular Western democracy which transfers hakimiya (God's sovereignty) to the people, who may pass laws without regard for God's commands.

The Islamic state would conduct its affairs by mutual consultation (shura) among all Muslims. The means of consultation should suit the conditions of the particular time and place but must be free and impartial. While the government follows the sharia law, when it comes to a question about which no explicit injunction is to be found in the sharia, the matter is settled by consensus among the Muslims. Maududi favoured giving the state exclusive right to the power of declaring jihad and ijtihad, establishing an Islamic law through independent reasoning, traditionally the domain of the ulama.

According to Maududi, Islam had an unwritten constitution that needed to be transformed into a written one. The constitution would not be the sharia (or the Quran, as Saudi Arabia's constitution is alleged to be) but a religious document based on conventions of the rightly guided caliphs, and the canonized verdicts of recognized jurists (i.e. the sharia) as well as the Quran and hadith.

In expanding on what the government of an Islamic state should look like in his book The Islamic Law and Constitution, Maududi took as his model the government of Muhammad (PBUH) and the first four caliphs (al-Khulafāʾu ar-Rāshidūn). The head of state should be the supreme head of legislature, executive and judiciary alike, but under him these three organs should function separately and independently of one another. This head of state should be elected and must enjoy the country's confidence, but he is not limited to terms in office. No one is allowed to nominate him for the office, nor to engage in electioneering or run for office, according to another source. Because more than one correct position could not exist, pluralism, i.e. competition between political views/parties, would not be allowed, and there would be only one party.

On the other hand, Maududi believed the state had no need to govern in the Western sense of the term, since the government and citizenry would abide by the same infallible and inviolable divine law, power would not corrupt and no one would feel oppressed. Power and resources would be distributed fairly. There would be no grievances, no mass mobilizations, demands for political participation, or any other of the turmoil of non-Islamic governance. Since the prophet had told early Muslims ‘My community will never agree on an error’, there was no need for establishing concrete procedures and mechanisms for popular consultation.

The state's legislature should consist of a body of such learned men who have the ability and the capacity to interpret Quranic injunctions and who in giving decisions, would not take liberties with the spirit or the letter of the sharia. Their legislation would be based on the practice of ijtihad (a source of Islamic law, relying on careful analogical reasoning, using both the Qu'ran and Hadith, to find a solution to a legal problem), making it more a legal organ than a political one. They must also be persons who enjoy the confidence of the masses. They may be chosen by the modern system of elections, or by some other method which is appropriate to the circumstances and needs of modern times. Since, upright character is essential for office holders and desire for office represents greed and ambition, anyone actively seeking an office of leadership would be automatically disqualified.

Originally, Maududi envisioned a legislature only as a consultative body, but later proposed using a referendum to deal with possible conflicts between the head of state and the legislature, with the loser of the referendum resigning. Another later rule was allowing the formation of parties and factions during elections of representatives but not within the legislature.

In the judiciary, Maududi originally proposed the inquisitional system where judges implement law without discussion or interference by lawyers, which he saw as un-Islamic. After his party was rescued from government repression by the Pakistani judiciary he changed his mind, supporting autonomy of the judiciary and accepting the adversarial system and right of appeal.

He was appalled at (what he saw as) the satanic flood of female liberty and licence which threatens to destroy human civilisation in the West. The rights of non-Muslims are limited under Islamic state as laid out in Maududi's writings. Although non-Muslim faith, ideology, rituals of worship or social customs would not be interfered with, non-Muslims would have to accept Muslim rule.

Islamic 'jihad' does not recognize their right to administer state affairs according to a system which, in the view of Islam, is evil. Furthermore, Islamic 'jihad' also refuses to admit their right to continue with such practices under an Islamic government which fatally affect the public interest from the viewpoint of Islam.

Non-Muslims would be eligible for all kinds of employment, but must be rigorously excluded from influencing policy decisions and so not hold key posts in government and elsewhere. They would not have the right to vote in presidential elections or in elections of Muslim representatives. This is to ensure that the basic policy of this ideological state remains in conformity with the fundamentals of Islam. An Islamic Republic may however allow non-Muslims to elect their own representatives to parliament, voting as separate electorates (as in the Islamic Republic of Iran). While some might see this as discrimination, Islam has been the most just, the most tolerant and the most generous of all political systems in its treatment of minorities, according to Maududi.

Non-Muslims would also have to pay a traditional special tax known as jizya. Under Maududi's Islamic state, this tax would be applicable to all able-bodied non-Muslim men, elderly, children and women being exempt in return from their exemption from military service, (which all adult Muslim men would be subject to). Those who serve in the military are exempted. Non-Muslims would also be barred from holding certain high level offices in the Islamic state. Jizya is thus seen as a tax paid in return for protection from foreign invasion, but also as a symbol of Islamic sovereignty.

Jews and the Christians should be forced to pay Jizya in order to put an end to their independence and supremacy so that they should not remain rulers and sovereigns in the land. These powers should be wrested from them by the followers of the true Faith, who should assume the sovereignty and lead others towards the Right Way.

Maududi's first work to come to public attention was Jihad in Islam, which was serialized in a newspaper in 1927, when he was only twenty four. In it he maintained that because Islam is all-encompassing, the Islamic state was for all the world and should not be limited to just the homeland of Islam. Jihad should be used to eliminate un-Islamic rule and establish the worldwide Islamic state.

Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam, regardless of the country or the nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which nation assumes the role of the standard-bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. Islam requires the earth not just a portion, but the whole planet, because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare programme of Islam. Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is ‘Jihad’. The objective of the Islamic jihād is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule.

Maududi taught that the destruction of the lives and property of others was lamentable (part of the great sacrifice of jihad), but that Muslims must follow the Islamic principle that it is better to suffer a lesser loss to save ourselves from a greater loss. Though in jihad thousands of lives may be lost, this cannot compare to the calamity that may befall mankind as a result of the victory of evil over good and of aggressive atheism over the religion of God.

He explained that jihad was not only combat for God but any effort that helped those waging combat (qitaal), including non-violent work. In jihad in the way of Allah, active combat is not always the role on the battlefield, nor can everyone fight in the front line. Just for one single battle preparations have often to be made for decades on end and the plans deeply laid, and while only some thousands fight in the front line there are behind them millions engaged in various tasks which, though small themselves, contribute directly to the supreme effort.

For his followers, Maududi was not only a revered scholar, politician, and thinker, but a hallowed mujaddid. Adding to his mystic was his survival of assassination attempts, while the Jama'at's enemies (Liaquat Ali Khan, Ghulam Muhammad, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Ayub Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, fell from grace or were killed. He had a powerful command of Urdu language which he insisted on using, in order to free Muslims minds from the influence of English.

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. 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.

In April 1979, Maududi's long-time kidney ailment worsened and by then he also had heart problems. He went to the United States for treatment and was hospitalized in Buffalo, New York, where his second son worked as a physician. Following a few surgical operations, he died on September 22, 1979, at the age of 75. His funeral was held in Buffalo, but he was buried in an unmarked grave at his residence in Ichhra, Lahore after a very large funeral procession through the city.