Abū l-Aʿlā Maudūdī

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Sayyid Abū l-Aʿlā Maudūdī

Abū l-Aʿlā Maudūdī ( Urdu ابو الاعلىٰ مودودی, also written Mawdudi, born September 25, 1903 in Aurangabad , Maharashtra , India ; † September 22, 1979 in Buffalo , New York) was an Indian- Pakistani journalist and one of the most important thinkers of a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam in the 20th century. He turned against laicism in particular and advocated theocratic concepts . His ideas influenced Pakistan's politics and became the program, particularly in Pakistan , but also in India, Sri Lanka , United Kingdom and the United States acting Jama'at-i Islāmī, JI .

biography

Maudūdī grew up as a member of a highly respected Sunni family in Aurangabad. His anti-British father tried to keep his son away from European cultural influences as long as possible and to bring him closer to the Indo-Muslim tradition through private lessons . After the death of his father, Maudūdī decided to pursue a career as a journalist. With his brother he went to Delhi to get in touch with reformists and supporters of the independence movement. In 1919 he came to Jabalpur to write for the reformist magazine al-Tāj (The Crown) . He supported the Khilafat movement , which campaigned for the continued existence of the caliphate after the end of the First World War . After '' al-Tāj '' stopped publishing, he returned to Delhi.

There he published the magazine al-Jamʿīyat , which was the organ of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind ("Organization of Indian Scholars") . The collapse of the Khilafat movement in 1924 plunged him into a deep intellectual crisis. Therefore, in 1928, he retired to Hyderabad for contemplation and writing . In the course of the following years he developed his decisive reformist positions. They said that contemporary Islam must be purged of pernicious Western ideas. It must be made clear that Islam itself is a complete plan for society and life that gets by without outside help. Furthermore, the breaking off of all relations with the Hindus was a prerequisite for real purification and a return to the "true" religion.

In 1932 he bought the journal Tarjumân al-qurʾân ("interpreter of the Koran ") , which served him as a forum for his reformist ideas until his death.

The beginning discussion about a future secular, Indian-Hindu state and about a state of its own for the Muslim population induced Maududi to become politically active and in August 1941 to found the reformist party Jamaat-e-Islami . Initially the headquarters was in Pathankot , but after the partition of India the party was split into two independently operating organizations, with Maudūdī taking over the chairmanship of the Pakistani party in Lahore . His reformist activism also brought him to prison for a certain time in the years 1948–1950 and 1953–1955. He was sentenced to death, but then pardoned and released. In 1970 Maudūdī resigned from his party's chairmanship after it had achieved a devastating result in the elections. Nevertheless, he was involved in 1977 in the attempt of the Jamāʿat-i islāmī to overthrow the government of Zulfiqar 'Ali Bhutto (1928–1979).

1977 coup , General Zia ul Haq to power, the regime promoted the Islamization of Pakistan. It was the only regime that Maududi considered politically worthy of support.

Maududi died on September 22, 1979 in a hospital in Buffalo , New York. Throughout his life he was convinced that the political struggle in Pakistan would lead to a theocracy or a democratic caliphate that would be able to implement broad social reforms.

In 1979 he received the first King Faisal Prize for services to Islam.

ideology

Contribution to the politics of Pakistan

Although Maududi rejected nationalism based on the European model, he campaigned for the idea of ​​an Islamic state based on religion, not on a particular nationality. After 1947 , the year the state of Pakistan was founded, he exerted a great influence on Pakistan's future ideological orientation for a long time. It was thanks to him that Pakistan's first constitution ( 1956 ) defined it as the task of the state to build an Islamic state in which all laws were based on the Koran and the Sunna .

The jihad

Maududi's ambition is to establish an Islamic state. The most important means of achieving this goal is jihad . Prayer , fasting , alms tax, and pilgrimage all serve to prepare for jihad. He calls on the Muslims to fight: “Go out and fight! Remove the people who have rebelled against God from their leadership positions and establish the caliphate. ”This struggle must also be fought at the risk of one's life:

“If you believe in the correctness of Islam, you have no choice but to use all your strength to let it prevail on earth. Either you can do it or you sacrifice your life in this fight. "

According to Maududi, killing others is also to be accepted:

“The greatest sacrifice for the cause of God is made in jihad, because in this struggle people not only give up their own lives and possessions, but also destroy the lives and property of others. But, as stated earlier, one of the tenets of Islam is that we should take less loss to protect ourselves from greater harm. What does the loss of a few human lives, even if it be a few thousands or more, mean in relation to the calamity that would befell mankind if evil prevailed over good and aggressive atheism prevailed over the religion of God? "

According to Maududi, jihad is limited by the basic principles of Islam; Jihad must be done in the name of God, not for the self-enrichment of individuals or nations. To a certain extent, it respects the religions recognized in Islam (essentially the other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity) and recognizes the right to practice religion of conquered peoples, but only to the extent that the rules of conduct and values ​​of these religions do not contradict Muslim law. There is no religiously based right to democratic self-determination of people or to state enforcement of human rights (since only made by humans and not commanded or granted by God). Jihad is therefore not a means of forced Islamization, but rather serves to establish a truly Islamic state that enables all Muslims to live "in full accordance" with their religion. This “complete agreement” necessarily implies that - for example, democratically legitimized - compromises between Islamic law and the legal concepts of other religions, insofar as these are incompatible with Islamic law, are not possible in an Islamic state in the sense of Maududi.

The Islamic State

Maududi believed that only an Islamic state can produce a truly Islamic society. Judgments and laws made by people that are not based on God's will are misguided and corrupt society. In his writings he outlines an Islamic state based on four basic sources:

  1. The Koran
  2. The Sunnah
  3. The conventions of the four rightly guided caliphs
  4. The rules of the great legal scholars

According to Maududi's idea, rule in a state can only come from God. He calls his form of government "The Republican Caliphate". However, he includes a representative body of God, such as B. from the office of the Pope. Rather, Maududi says: "God has promised those of you who believe and do what is right that he will appoint them as successors (substitutes)" (Koran 24:55). It thus also excludes a dynastic caliphate or a caliphate that is reserved for a certain class, since the right to rule is derived from correct belief and action. He calls his form of government a democratic caliphate, since the human ruler does not rule autocratically, but is bound by the laws of God. The essential difference to western democracies is the fact that the principles of the caliphate are determined by the divine order and are therefore unchangeable: the people are not the sovereign, although they have the right to overthrow a ruler who rules against Sharia law. Maududi therefore regards the Islamic caliphate as a democratic system, rejecting western forms of democracy for Islamic states. "Democracy" does not mean here, as in Greek, the (sovereign) "rule of the people", but that the people have a duty to ensure that Islamic law is respected, even at the state level.

The executive

At the head of the state is the caliph. He is supported by a so-called consultation council ( Majlis-e Shura ). Both the leader and the members of the Consultative Council must meet the following conditions:

  1. You have to be Muslim .
  2. You must be men.
  3. They must be in full possession of their spiritual powers and be adults.
  4. You must be a citizen of the Islamic State.

The right to vote is exclusive to the country's Muslim citizens.

Citizenship

Maududi distinguishes between two types of citizens: Muslims and dhimmis .

It is up to the Muslims to shape the state according to Islamic rules. They have the right to elect the head of state and the consultative council, and they can hold key positions in the state. National defense is also one of their tasks.

Maududi defines “dhimmis” (protected persons) as those non-Muslim citizens who are loyal and obedient to the Islamic State. Their life, property and culture, religious beliefs and honor are under the protection of the state. In civil and economic matters, non-Muslims should be given equal status with Muslims. Non-Muslims have no right to vote. Except for key positions, they can pursue any type of employment. They are exempt from the duty of national defense.

Works

  • Tafhim-ul-Quran ( To Understand the Quran )
  • [Rasāʾil-ō-masāʾil] Rasail wa Masail * [Islām kā niẓām-i ḥayāt] Islam Ka Nizam Hayat, dt .: Live as a Muslim
  • [Ḫuṭabāt] Khutabat
  • [Ǧihād fī sabīli 'llāh] Jihad fi Sabilillah ( Jihad in Islam (Engl.) [1] )
  • Lecture on Islamic constitutional law , Marrakech 1952. In: Andreas Meier Hg., The political mission of Islam. Programs and Criticism between Fundamentalism and Reforms. Original voices from the Islamic world. Peter Hammer Verlag , Wuppertal 1994, ISBN 3872946161 , pp. 185–193 (with the introduction of the ed.)
  • The Moral Foundations of the Islamic Movement. Lahore 1976

literature

  • Freeland K. Abbot: Maulana Maududi and Quranic interpretation . In: The Muslim World 48, 1958, 1, ISSN  0027-4909 , pp. 6-19.
  • Charles J. Adams: The ideology of Mawlana Mawdudi . In: Donald Eugene Smith (ed.): South Asian politics and religion . Princeton University Press , Princeton NJ 1966, pp. 371-397.
  • Aziz Ahmad: Islamic modernism in India and Pakistan. 1857-1964 . Oxford University Press , London 1967, ( Royal Institute of International Affairs ), pp. 208-223.
  • Sayed Riaz Ahmad: Maulana Maududi and the Islamic state . People's Publishing House, Lahore 1976.
  • John L. Esposito (Ed.): Voices of Resurgence Islam . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1983, ISBN 0-19-503340-X .
  • Thomas J. Moser: Politics on God's Path, On the Genesis and Transformation of Militant Sunni Islamism . Innsbruck University Press IUP, Innsbruck 2012, pp. 61–79. ISBN 978-3902811677
  • Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr: Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1996, ISBN 0-19-509695-9
  • FCR Robinson: Mawdūdī, Sayyid Abu 'l-Aʿlā. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Second Edition . Brill, Leiden 2008.
  • Erwin IJ Rosenthal: Islam in the modern national state . Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1965, pp. 137-53, 221-272.
  • Andreas Meier: The Political Mission of Islam. Programs and Criticism between Fundamentalism and Reforms. Original voices from the Islamic world. Peter Hammer Verlag , Wuppertal 1994, again 2000, ISBN 3872946161 ; therein Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi: God's sovereignty instead of popular sovereignty, pp. 185–193

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Robinson, FCR "Mawdudī, sayyid abu'l-aʿlā" Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, CE Bosworth, E. van Donzel and WP Heinrichs. Brill, 2008.
  2. ↑ Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi: Living as a Muslim. Karlsruhe 1995, p. 253 online ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
  3. ↑ Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi: Living as a Muslim. Karlsruhe 1995, p. 260.
  4. ↑ Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi: Living as a Muslim. Karlsruhe 1995, p. 268.
  5. ↑ Sayyid Abu-l-A'la Maududi: Weltanschauung und Leben im Islam , Munich 1994, p. 156f.
  6. ↑ Maududi, Jihad in Islam ( Memento of August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Maududi: Let us be Muslims and The Islamic Way of Life
  8. ↑ Maududi's draft state is taken from his following book: S. Abul A'la Maududi: First Principles of the Islamic State. Lahore 1997
  9. ^ Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi: God sovereignty instead of popular sovereignty. In: The Political Mission of Islam. Programs and criticism between fundamentalism and reforms, original voices from the Islamic world. Wuppertal 1994, p. 193
  10. ↑ a b c Maududi: The Islamic Way of Life online


personal data
SURNAME Maudūdī, Abū l-Aʿlā
ALTERNATIVE NAMES al-Maudûdî, Abû l-A'lâ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian-Pakistani thinker and politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Aurangabad , Maharashtra , India
DATE OF DEATH 22nd September 1979
Place of death Buffalo , New York , USA