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Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, born in India in 1903, became perhaps one of the most influential writers and thinkers in twentieth century Islamic politics. Even those who disagree with him are unable to escape the basic concepts and terminology which he created - for example, "Islamic movement," "Islamic politics," and "the Islamic system of life."
His basic goal was to make Islam the supreme organizing principle in the social and political life of the Muslim ummah. The concept upon which he based this was iqamat-i-deen, which literally means "the establishment of religion." According to this idea, all institutions of civil society and the state must be totally subordinated to the authority of divine law as revealed in the Qur'an and practiced by Muhammad.
Thus, it was insufficient for members of society to practice Islam in their personal lifes, no matter how devoutly and consistently. Instead, faith must manifest itself in the social, economic and political spheres of society. In practice, this meant establishing the shari'a as the basic law of the land which all citizens must follow, as well as the elimination of man-made civil law as an abomination to God's sovereignty.
It is neither for us to decide the aim and purpose of our existence nor to prescribe the limits of our worldly authority, nor is anyone else entitled to make these decisions for us. ...Nothing can claim sovereignty, be it a human being, a family, a class, or a group of people, or even the human race in the world as a whole. God alone is the Sovereign, and His commandments the Law of Islam.
Thus, no ruler who refused to fully institute Islamic law really deserved obedience. Secular rulers and their secular laws do not have authority over the believer - only God and God's laws do. Revolution is not simply a right, but is in fact a duty of every Muslim.
For this reason, Muslims must engage in jihad in order to re-create their society and ultimately the world. He even declared that jihad was a central tenet of Islam, on par with the traditional Five Pillars of Faith. Maududi became perhaps the first systematic Islamic thinker to to put jihad in such a central religious position.
In 1941, Maududi founded the Jamaat-i-Islami ("Islamic Party") to give his program an institutional form and movement. He hoped to reconstitute Indian society based upon Islamic law, although most members ended up moving to Pakistan when that new state was created in order to ensure that Pakistan was made and would stay a Muslim society.
For Maududi, Muslims lived at a time of crisis: Islam was in serious danger of being destroyed by the power of the West. Because of this, Muslims could not retreat from political life and leave matters in the hands of secular politicians - they must instead take an active part in politics to ensure the survival of Islam, and to keep secular politicians from coming to power in the first place.
Doing this was also designed to help ensure their personal survival, too. Secular rulers were corrupt and immoral - this is a consequence of preferring the laws of Man over the laws of God. Instituting Islamic law, however, would ensure that corrupt rulers would never come to power, and that therefore society would be just and equitable for all.
Fast-forward 60 years. On October 19th, 2001, the leader of the Jamaat, ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad, declared that the Pakistani government should be overthrown if it does not cease its support of Western governments against Afghanistan. According to the Jamaat, the conflict between the West and Afghanistan is not over terrorism, but over religion.
Undoubtedly the real issue - which unfortunately a few understand - is the status of testimony of the Prophethood of Muhammad. ...Intent to enslave Muslim rulers had firmly been established now when we see a vast network of Western army installations in the Middle East, which negotiate nothing besides weakening the Muslim countries in all respects. ...The Westís fathering the human rights, the emancipation of women and the like - slogans raised in the name of civility - seem malicious and reflect religious bigotry. ...Under the lucrative so-called slogans of human rights, status of women and democratic governance, etc., this group is injecting sugarcoated poison in peoples' minds and thus trying to re-shape the life-style of the Ummah. In course of time, they believe, unshakable Muslim faith on the absolute truth and the prophethood shall gradually and automatically terminate this way.
All of the above ideas have their origins in the writings of Maududi. In 1951, Maududi's works began to be published in Egypt just at the time when agitation towards increased Islamization was beginning. One of the people most heavily influenced by Maududi's ideas for recreating society through Islamic law was Sayyid Qutb.
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