The Message

This chapter presents an anthropological account of the key ideas of Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami. It first de-reifies the hegemonic portrayals of Maududi as a “fundamentalist” to see him instead as a political thinker. Central to his exposition on Islam were the use of reason, critique, and ijtihād as opposed to taqlīd. It dwells on Maududi’s educational thoughts and evaluation of past scholars—‘Omar bin Abdul Aziz, Imam Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyyah, Shayḳh Ahmad Sirhindi, and Shah Valiullah and his successors. The final section outlines Maududi’s thoughts about cosmology, human nature, and civilization to locate the objective behind the formation of Jamaat. It addresses issues such as the meanings of Allah, the message of the Qurʾān, monotheism, prophecy, jāhiliyat (ignorance), and so on. It also discusses Maududi’s citations from the New Testament and references to Christ’s life to argue how Muhammad’s message and his life resembled earlier prophets, including Jesus. Maududi held that his call for a polity resting on divine sovereignty echoed the teachings of prophets preceding Muhammad. Maududi’s invoking of God’s sovereignty was similar to that of the Protestant politician-thinker Abraham Kuyper in Holland, Catholics in Australia, as well as Bellah’s notion of civil religion.