Mawdudi and Orthodox Fundamentalism in Pakistan Author(s): Aziz Ahmad Reviewed work(s): Source: Middle East Journal, Vol.

21, No. 3 (Summer, 1967), pp. 369-380 Published by: Middle East Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4324164 . Accessed: 29/11/2011 05:50
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MAWDUDI AND ORTHODOX FUNDAMENTALISM PAKISTAN IN

Aziz Ahmad
B

Y far the mostdynamic well organized and Islam modernist challenge

has been facingin Pakistan of the revivalist is writingsand preachings of Abul Ala al-Mawdudiand his well knit, monolithic,totalitarian and fanaticalreligio-political organization, Jama'at-i the Islami. Born in 1903, Mawdudi began his journalisticcareer in 1929, editing firstthe al-Jama'at, organof the orthodoxJam'iyyat the al-ulama-i Hind, and then startingin 1932 the Tarjumiin an al-Qur'iin, exegeticaljournalpropagating his revivalistfundamentalism religion and politics, a movement in which he and his party describeas the "IslamicRenaissance." claimsto He have attractedin 1937 the attentionof Iqbal, who was then planning to write on the codification Muslimjurisprudence. proposalseemsto have of The come to naught due to Iqbal's illness and death in the subsequentyear. DespiteMawdudi's claims,thereis verylittle in common betweenthe religious and politicalideas of Iqbal and himself, and he touchesmerelythe conservative fringe of the extensivearea of Iqbal's thought. In effect the core of Mawdudi'steachingsis exactlythe oppositeof Iqbal's. Between 1937 and 1947 Mawdudi opposed first the Indian nationalist stand of Madaniand of the theologiansof Deoband,and later the Pakistan Movementdenouncingits secularmindedleadership.In 1941 he organized his party, the Jama'at-iIslami, assumedits leadershipand has firmly retained it under the disguise of an "elective"procedure. After the creation of Pakistanhe migratedfrom Pathankotin India to Lahore in the new the countryand denounced strugglefor Kashmiras unislamic,for which he was imprisonedin 1950. In 1952-53 he aligned himself with the former anti-Pakistan group, the Ahrar, and the orthodoxtheologiansin their agitation demandingdiscriminative legislationand executiveaction against the heterodoxmessianistic Ahmadi sect; as the agitationled to mass disorders, martial law was proclaimedin Lahore in February1953 and Mawdudi sentencedto death. Mawdudiwas, however,freed and the martiallaw administration terminated the intervention the orthodoxminded Prime of by MinisterKhwaja Nazimuddinand the then Secretary General,later Prime
<Aziz AHMAD is professorof Islamicstudies in the Universityof Toronto.This articlewill form part of a larger work, Islamic Modernismin India and Pakistan,to be published by the Oxford UniversityPress this year.

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Minister, Chowdhari Muhammad Duringthemilitary Ali.' regimetheJama'at-i Islami was bannedlike other political parties from 1958; and like them it revivedagain underthe "Second in Republic" 1962. As usual the party and its leader aligned themselveswith other oppositiongroups, infiltrating their ranks, and influencingtheir political programin the directionof Islamic in orthodoxy.After a brief imprisonment 1964, Mawdudiemergedto support the candidacy Miss FatimaJinnahfor election to the office of the of Presidentof the Republicagainst Muhammad Ayub Khan, though in his writings Mawdudi had persistentlyasserted that a woman could not be appointedlegally as the head of an Islamicstate.2 The starting point of Mawdudi's Weltanschauung that the Quran is refers to man's insignificant and humble position in the universalscheme. No doubt, the Quran also refers to his being the most exalted of God's creatures. is Man, therefore, in a difficult and anamolous position.Weak and frail and vulnerableas he is, he has been entrustedwith the great and hazardousoffice of the viceregencyof God on this planet. He has been commanded live in and make use of this world. This is a destinyfrom to whichhe is not allowedto escapeascetically. mustmouldin it the human He to societyaccording the immutable, divine law of revelation.This everlasting world is thereforethe world of action,i.e., of the exteriorization divine of commandsfor the control and applicationof human society. Hereafteris the world of judgment.Islam subordinates man's actions in this world to the considerations divinejudgment the hereafter.3 of in Islam's conceptionof man and his relationship with the universeis the only one which can be called natural."As the whole creationobeys the law of God, the whole universe,therefore,literallyfollows the religionof Islam -for Islam signifies nothing but obedienceand submissionto Allah, the ' Lord of the universe." As long as the Islamiccommunity adheredto this naturallaw it remainedpure, its culturewas pragmaticand ethical. Later, as elementsborrowedfrom other religions seeped into the Islamicculture, its moral purity declined; good living and lavish architecture flourished; and the way of life becameincreasingly unislamic.Neverthelessat the core of Islamic culture throughoutthe world somethingwhich was essentially Islamic continuedpermanently Islamic societies, and has revealed itself in in momentsof crisis in Islamichistory.5
1. For an accountof the sectariananti-Ahmadi Punjabdisturbances Justice M. Munir and see, M. R. Kayani,Report of the Court of Inquiry Constituted Under Punjab Act II of 1954 to enquire into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953, Lahore,1954, p. 286; for the Jama'at-i Islami's criticismof
it, see An Analysis of the Munir Report, Karachi, 1956. 2. Mawdudi, Islamic Law and Constitution, Lahore, 1960, Passim; for his volte face see the files of the Pakistanpress, especially Dawn, Karachi,and the NawY t Waqt, Lahore, Octoberto

December 1964.

4. Mawdudi, Towards Understanding Islam, Eng. tr. K. Ahmad, Lahore, 1960, p. 3.

5. Ishlmi tabdhib, pp. 63-6.

3. Mawdudi, Isldml tahdhdib awr uske usul-u mabadl, Karachi/Lahore, 1960, p. 33.

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of The entireorganization Islamicsocietyis concentrated aroundthe person of God. Religion is thereforeidenticalwith obedience,and "Islam"with to submission His will, which has generated"naturallaws." It is for man's rationality, itself the productof a physicalprinciple,to adjustitself to these laws. Thus alone can harmonyof thought and action be achievedby the individualand by the society.6 The intellectualbasis of human moralityis imin (faith) which in its essentialbeing can be religiousor worldly. But the religious faith alone is in capableof incorporating itself the termsand requirements this-worldly of faith and not vice versa. A worldly culture based on a religious faith is thereforemore comprehensive all embracing and than a purely secularculture derivedfrom unguidedhumanrationality.7 Islamic society is based on faith in Islam, which is explained by Mawdudiin traditionaltheological terms,based on the five articlesof faith laid down in the Quranincluding the sovereignty God, the belief in prophethood, God's angels and the of in of judgment.8 day God thereforeis not only the Creator,the Provider,the Nourisher, He is also the only absolute Ruler and Legislatorfor human society.The Prophetof Islam,whose advent ends the "eraof poly-prophetism" in human history,is God's chief representative among men; and the Quranis the only sourceof the basiclaw God has prescribed the human for society.To be a memberof the Islamicsocietyone has to acknowledge and acceptthe infallibilityof the revealedlaw. Anyonewho holds that individual or collective human judgment could alter, modify, select or reject from divine injunctions guilty of an effort to supersedeand abrogatethe reis vealed law, and has therefore place in Islamicsocietyand is not qualified no of for the citizenship an Islamicstate.9 Islamiccultureis basedon a covenantbetweenGod and his creature, man. Its norms are set for all times. They are valid for all humanityirrespective
of national frontiers, race, color or language. This extensive potential of enfranchisement is there, not to multiply the number of nominal converts to Islam, but to give an opportunity to all human beings to submit to their Master and to order their lives according to His prescribed laws. Islamic universalism is not lax. It is strictly disciplined in moral code as in faith, enabling men to lead the good life in this world in preparation for the hereafter; and in this discipline Islam combines in itself all the virtues which are found individually or in isolation in other religions or cultures.10 Kufr (unbelief), the opposite of Islam, is tyranny, rebellion, ingratitude and infidelity. The inevitable consequence of this revolt is failure in realizing
6. Ibid., pp. 87-9. 7. Ibid., pp. 115, 123. 8. For Mawdudi's angelology, Tfhim

9. Ibid., pp. 139-41; Towards Understanding Islam, pp. 93-137. 10. Ishimi Tahdhib,pp. 340-7.

al-Qur'in, Pathankot, 1943; IsLMm7 tahdhyb, pp. 181-9.

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the ultimate ideals of life. An unbelievingscientistwould have no moral checksand balancesand could expose the entire humanrace to destruction An and annihilation. ideal Muslim scientistshould not lag behind any unbelieverin scientificinquiryinto the problemsand researches social and in physicalsciences,but the objectiveof his inquirywould be different,essenfor tially ethical and beneficent the humansociety.True belief in the unity of God and formulaof the attestationof faith (the kalima) inculcatesin self man broadmindedness, respect,self esteem combinedwith modestyand virtue and uprightness, humanity, patienceand perserverance, courage,inner It peace and contentment. saves man from envy, greed and meanness.Most it importantly binds man to obey and observeGod's law." Like Abul Kalam Azad and Parwiz,Mawdudidistinguishes between the revelational and the traditional(for which he prefersto use religion (din) the term shari'ahratherthan madhhab).Unlike them his conceptsof "revelational"and "traditional" religion are different,and he emphasizesthe validity of both. Din, or revelationalreligion, is based exclusivelyon the word of God and, since all His books and messengers could not but have given the same messagewithout mutualcontradiction, is also the element it commonto all religions,though later corrupted faiths other than Islam in or The by later interpolations interpretations. shari'ah,which is the traditional religion and divinely amendedcustomary law, and which prescribes ritual worship,codes of moralityand distinctions betweenright and wrong, differsin the teachingof every prophetto suit "the conditionsof his own 12 peoples and times." Though Mawdudiinadvertantly opens for himself in this conclusiona vista of correct assessmentof the historical growth of religions and the role of religion in history itself against it, he closes his eyes again to shut out the inevitable logical sequenceof the ontological reality of movementin history transforming, reforming,restricting even or the superseding role of traditional religion.Insteadhe emphasizes static the validity of Islamic canon law as unalterableand immutablefor all times to come. And here he endorsesthe stanceof the traditionalist theologians, regardingthe six collectionsof hadith as the supremesourceof the cannon law, and in agreementwith thie theologianstlhoughless dogmaticallyhe also pays a glowing tributeto the foundersof the juristicschoolsof law.'3 On jih&dhe has written extensively,again from a purely traditionalist point of view. "In jihid one takesawaylife and gives it awaymerelyin the causeof Allah. In the same way in renderingGod's rights one has to sacrifice many of those things which man has in his controllike animals,wealhi, etc."14
11. Towards Understanding Islam, pp. 19-20, 105-11. 12. Ibid., p. 152. 13. Ibid., p. 153.

14. Mawdudi,Al-Jihid fi'l Islam, Delhi, 1929; Towards Understanding Islam, p. 167.

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The ideal society in the Islamic state which he envisages is also the same which the most narrowminded of theologians would most wholeheartedly approve. It is a society based on the strict segregation of the sexes, women being restricted to an inferior role. "To preserve the moral life of the nation and to safeguard the evolution of society on healthy lines, free mingling of both the sexes has been prohibited. Islam effects a functional distribution between the sexes and sets different spheres of activity for both of them. Women should in the main devote themselves to the household duties in their homes and men should attend to their jobs in the socioeconomicspheres." Cinema, the theater and the fine arts are forbidden: "Islam does not approve of such pastimes, entertainments and recreations as they tend to stimulate sensual passions and vitiate the canons of morality."15 Between 1937 and 1939 Mawdudi turned actively to political polemics which were first directed against the nationalist theologians of Deoband and the Jam'iyyat al-ulama-i Hind and had been yielding a considerable crop of virulent attacks and counterattacks both sides.16 He assailed the "composite" on nationalist theory of these theologians on the same ground as the Muslim League that, however well intentioned the nationalism of these divines was, it exposed Muslim India to grave dangers of religio-cultural absorption into Hinduism. Later Mawdudi's party in independent India reversed this stand.17 By 1939 Mawdudi's political polemics altered their target. The threat of the disintegration of Islam in India through the misguided alliance of the rulama' to Deoband with the Indian National Congress had receded into the background with the resignation of the Congress governments in the provinces at the beginning of the World War II. The masses had been swayed, and by 1939 rallied firmly behind the leadership of Jinnah and the Muslim League, which Mawdudi turned to denounce with greater fury as "thoroughly ignorant of the sciences of religion and motivated in their political programme and orientation exclusively by the worldly socio-economic interests of the Muslims." The separatist Muslim nationalism of the secularized elite appeared to Mawdudi in no way less dangerous than the composite nationalism championed by Azad and the Deoband theologians. Between the survival of the irreligious Muslims of India, or for that matter the Muslims of Iran and Turkey, and their complete extinction there was no difference.'8 From 1939 to 1947 Mawdudi continued to attack and argue against the Pakistan Movement. A homeland for the Muslims was something very different from the "land of Islam" (dir al-Islaim). It was not for the political
15. Ibid., pp. 182-3. 16. Mawdudi, Musalmin awr mawjizda siy4si kashmakash, vols. i to iii, Pathankot,1937-39; A. S. Rahmani,Jamaat-i Islami ke da'we, khidmatawr tariqa-ikar ka j4iza, Deoband, n. d. 17. Mawdudi and Amin Hasan Islahi, Da'wat-i Ishiml, Rampur, 1956; Mawdudi, Siyasi kashmakash, pp. 4-5. iii, 18. Siyais kashmakash, pp. 607. iii,

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freedom or self determination of Muslims that he stood, but for the rule of Islam, a purely Islamic, traditionalist-fundamentalisttheocracy. Pakistan as envisaged by the Muslim League and Jinnah would be a pagan state and its rulers would not be Islamic but Pharaohs and Nimrods.'9 To call Pakistan an Islamic state would be as misleading as to call an institution of ignorance (presumably the Muslim University at Aligarh) a Muslim University, or a bank in the new state an Islamic Bank, whereas Islam forbids interest and therefore the very institution of banking, or its society modelled on paganism (presumably of the West) an Islamic society, or its forbidden creations in music, painting and sculpture Islamic arts, or its "atheism and heresy" as "Islamic philosophy." "Not a single leader of the Muslim League from Jinnah himself to the rank and file has an Islamic mentality or Islamic habits of thought, or looks at political and social problems from the Islamic viewpoint . . . . Their ignoble role is to safeguard merely the material interests 20 of Indian Muslims by every possible political manoeuvre or trickery." an orMuslims, argues Mawdudi, do not constitute a national entity but ganized community (jamrnat). Islam cannot accept the position of being only a political party; it claims for itself the unique role of being the only political party and can brook neither a rival nor a compromise. It looks at problems in a universal perspective and not in terms of individuals, nations or classes. Its objectives are permanent. It rejects a national or historical framework of operations, and does not confine itself to the given cultural or traditional data of any particular people. It draws upon the capabilities of all outstanding human individuals (who must logically be either Muslims or accept Islam) at a given moment in history to mobilize them into a movement of jihad for an Islamic revolution. It will also be their duty to work out a theory of Islamic law and constitution in an Islamic theocracy thus achieved and organized.2' This became the proclaimed stand of the Jama'at-i Islami, the political party which Mawdudi founded in 1941. Its objectives were to invite all mankind generally and (the so-called) Muslims especially for submission to God (literally Islaum), to purify their lives of all "hypocrisy and contradiction," to become sincere Muslims, so that the entire Muslim society in an Islamic state might take "one spiritual hue." The human society, including all Muslim states in the modern world, was being run by evil, wicked, vicious and sinful leaders; the Jama'at-iIslami stood for a revolution to overthrow them and to transfer theoretical and practical leadership and governance of the human community into the hands of the pious and the truly faithful. The leadership that should rule over the Muslims should be spiritually single
19. Ibid., iii, p. 25. 20. Ibid., iii, pp. 30-1.
21. Ibid., iii, pp. 40-1.

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conduct,"shouldprove morality who, by its exemplary minded,of impeccable itself superiorto the presentrulersby the qualitiesrequiredfor leadership of The organization the Jama'atshould follow or government." propaganda shouldpropaits and rationalism efficiency; members a program gradualism, of contacts. and amongtheirfriends,neighbors business gate the party's program is convergpyramidally Like fascistparties,its organization highlycentralized, obedienceto whom was binding ing on the top to a single leader (armTh), upon Muslims.22 of Mawdudi'sacceptance the principleof gradualismin politics became the main theoretical argumentin favor of the policy of politicalmaneuvers, in and opportunism Pakistan.The membersof his party had compromise of in forbiddenparticipation the administration an irrebeen theoretically ligious government;in practice they infiltratedinto its ranks to exercise pressurefrom within. Insteadof mobilizingfor the directjihVdit had proclaimed as its revolutionary motive, it entered the arena of parliamentary politics, aligning itself with variouspartiesbut remainingalways in oppoof sition, choosing its allies on considerations strategyand hardly ever of in vociferously the see-sawstrugglefor constitution piety, and it participated traditionalists. makingin close alliancewith nonfundamentalist Mawdudi'spolitical thought starts from the premisesthat the principal is derivativesourceof law and constitution the Quranand that the ultimate authorityvests in God alone, though a measureof legal and constitutional by freedomof choice,strictlylimited and circumscribed the revealedinjuncIslamicsocietyis an ideological society, bound tions,has beenallowedto man.23 by a contractof absolute submission (Islam) to the divine injunctions. in of If Shari'ah, this context,is the legal codification this contract. an Islamic or society decides to enact its own constitution, borrowslegal or constitutionalelementsfrom an extraneous its with God and source,it breaks contract The of forfeitsits right to be called "Islamic." prescriptions Islamictheological law (shari'ah) cover the individualand the collective life alike; they constitutean organicwhole and cannotbe applied or discarded bits and in
pieces.24

as The shar7'ah a sourceof law is partlyunalterableand partly flexible. are its sources; flexibleelementrestson the Quranand hadith its unalterable and ta'wil (interpretation)of the Quranand hiadith, on such traditionally as analogy (qiyas), legal speculation(ijtih&I) or acceptedjudicial sources juristicpreference (istihsiin). To be a jurist one has to be a scholar of In Arabiclanguageand literature. this apparently liberal-traditionalist gesture to the flexibilityof Islamic law, Mawdudihas tried on the one hand to
22. Ibid., ii, pp. 101-12; 171-84; Da'wat-i Ishdmi,39-69. 23. Islamic Law and Constitution,pp. 47-8. 24. Ibid., pp. 50-4.

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placatethe traditionalists, on the other to misleadthe liberalmodernists, and as his own exegeticalinterpretation the Quranis so literalistthat it leaves of hardlyany scopefor ta'w7lin the modernist sense.25 It is an articleof faith with Mawdudithat Islamiclaws are not antiquated or out of date. He does not believe in the historicalevolutionof mankind. in But he does believe, like the traditionalists, historicalcontinuityin the and the societybased on the teachingsof sense that the Islamiccommunity in the Quranand the sunnahof the Prophethas been continuously existence since"theveryfirstdayof the adventof Islam,"and in the sensethat Muslim people living in variousparts of the world share a single and identifiable religiousand culturalpersonality, sharingthe same "beliefs,modes of thinkand ing, ethicalstandards values, acts of worshipand mundaneaffairs"and a commonway of life. Like some modernists sees in the early Islamic he institutionof tribal or inter-tribal consultation(shiira) the nucleus of an ideal parliamentary system;and in the legal principleof ijmi' not so much a sanctionfor the commendable fallible consensus the jurists,but the of but matureopinion of the community's learnedelite only during a period "in which the political systemof Islam has been in operation."26 In 1948 Mawdudidecidedto supportthe principleof "gradualism" Isin in lamizinglaw and constitution Pakistan,whereasearlierin the decadehe had condemnedthe Muslim League for advancingthis same principle.His legal objectiveremained, however,"nothingshort of demolishingthe entire structure erectedby our Britishmastersand the erectionof a new one in its place"and to erasethe effectsof the "poisonous" contentand the thoroughly materialistic bias of modernseculareducation.27 The firststep in this gradualist Islamization would be to "Muslimize (convertto "real"Islam) the State (i.e. Pakistan)whichis still basedand working to according the same secularbases (sic!) on which it did duringthe British period."For this the firstprerequisites would be to acknowledge restore and of the sovereignty God over the state so that the "Government Pakistan of shall be His agent";to restorethe basicsharr'ah law, and to repeal all the others which are derived from extraneoussourcesor are repugnantto it. Acceptingthe realpolitikof gradualism, Mawdudialso alteredthe technique In of his operations. additionto the plannedrevolutionthroughan organized religious party, he acceptedthe idea of achievinghis ends by the given of parliamentary procedures election throughthe emotionallyreligiousand excitablemasses of people. "Howsoeverdeficientthe general mass of our votersmay be in respectof formaleducation, they certainly possessthe sense to decideas to what typeof peoplecan be reliedupon for a certainpurpose."
25. ibid., pp. 61-3, 75-80. 26. Ibid., pp. 85-95. 27. Ibid., pp. 101-4.

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Like the Nazis in Germany 1933, the theocratscan then safely entrench in themselvesin power, mobilize and monopolizeall media of educationand mass communication the generalindoctrination the people, and comfor of pletely overhaulthe services,removingsecularminded civil servantswhom Mawdudicompares cancerous to tissuesin the body social.And the "Hinduistic and Western semi-feudalistic semi-capitalistic of and foundations" the will stateand the society's politicalsystem haveto be demolished.28 In the visualizationof this medievalUtopia Mawdudi differs from the traditionalist 'ulamX' acknowledging shortcomings Islamiclaw (fiqh) in the of to meet the challengesof moderntimes,as its insufficiency deal with conto stitutional,internationaland criminal legal spheres as separatediciplines. These he suggestscould be modernized a certainvery limited extent by to and the studyand selectiveappreciation the modernsciencesof economics of financeand by the evolutionof an Islamiclaw of evidence,penal code, and civil and criminalcodes of procedure.For this purpose Mawdudi recommendsthe formationof an Academyof Law in Pakistan, and reformin traditional legal education.He envisagesa reformedjudicialsystemin which therewould be no place for practicing lawyerswhom he calls legal parasites. Insteadhe wouldlike to revivethe discarded mukht,rfsystemof the eighteenth law.29 century Anglo-Muhammadan Unlike traditionaljurisprudence, political philosophyof Islam is eterthe of nally perfect,and thereforeincapable any furtherevolutionor change.Unlike the communist or countries the Westerndemocracies whereslavery man of Islam repudiates by assertingthat master-slave to man is perpetuated, it relationshipis applicablein the political and social context to God and man alone. Mawdudiequatesfranklyenough his conceptof Islamicpolity with run theocracy by man only as the agent and representative God. For this of which concepthe coins the term"theo-democracy" mustacceptin theirtotality clear cut injunctions the divine law, even on such institutionsthe aboliof tion of which would be most repugnant Westernized to These intelligentsia. include the abolitionof bank and insurance injunctions interest,segregation of the sexes,veiling of women,retentionof divorcelaws which are favorable to men but unfavorable women, and cuttingoff the hands of a criminal to for theft.30The sphere of activityof the "Islamictheo-democracy" "cois extensivewith the whole humanlife"; and Mawdudiis forced to confess, from this aspect the Islamicstate bears a kind of resemblance "considered 31 to the Fascistand Communist states." But, unlikethese two modernsystems Mawdudiarguesthat the Caliphatein Islam refers to the of totalitarianism,
28. 29. 30. 31.

Ibid., pp. Ibid., pp. Ibid., pp. Ibid., pp.

107-9. 110-26. 147-52. 154-5.

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viceregency every man in relation to God and rules out a dictatorship, of a theoreticalview which is contradicted his entire conceptand practical by programfor the takeoverby an organizedparty, led by a supremeleader
(amir), himself, albeit "elected" by the party rank and file.32

The Islamic state is, accordingto Mawdudi,writing in 1959, a national fromhis earlierlip serviceto universalism, state, a view which is a departure for a final repudiation pan-Islamism. disclaimsall responsibility the and of It protectionor guardianship Muslimsliving abroad,a confirmation the of of official, though not the emotional,policy in Pakistan.Mawdudiseems to have takenthis postureto strengthen positionof his partyin the political the life of Pakistan, well as a concession the view of the orthodoxtheoloas to gians with whom he forged an alliancein 1953. This leaves him free once and for all from his earlierpretenseof universalist humanism proclaiming by that, since the Islamic state is an ideological state, its citizens must fall into two categories, necessarily Muslimsand non-Muslims. "This differentiation is essential,in view of the ideologicalnatureof the state."Of course he would not submit the protectednon-Muslimsto the humiliationsand of tortures a medievalEuropean ghetto, but providein his "theo-democratic" systemof apartheid equalitybetweenMuslimsand non-Muslims civil and in criminallaw, applying to the non-Muslimstheir own personal law as in historical Islam. They would be allowed to worship freely in their own towns and cities but would not be permittedto take out "publicprocessions of the Cross and of the idols in purely Muslim cities." The non-Muslims may repair,but not build, new templesand churches. They would pay jizya (which the Islamicstate would collect mildly, not tyrannically), which will exempt them, whether they wish it or not, from military service, as the defense of the state againstits enemiesis the responsibility the Muslim of populationonly. In other normaltaxationand in free enterprises agriculof trade and industrythere would be no discrimination ture, againstthem. No non-Muslim could be the head of state or hold a "keypost" or be a member of the parliament (shzira)of the Islamicstate.But non-Muslims couldpropose or in codification amendment their own personallaw; and they may submit representations, objectionsand suggestionsto the Muslim governmentor parliament.In freedom of expressionor consciencenon-Muslims will have equalitywith Muslims.In educationthey will be permittedto avail of their or own denominational governmentschools as they choose, but they would not be compelledto study Islam.33 Coming to the questionof the economicstructureof the Islamic state, Mawdudiquotes Harold J. Laskiin his supportto argue that the capitalist framework free enterprise, of privatepartyand motiveof profit,is bedevilled,
32. Ibid., pp. 157-60, 200. 33. Ibid., pp. 295-319.

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unlike the Islamic,by one "inhuman evil," usury,which dominatesits finanhas Communism an alternative capitalism a worse record. cial structure. as to The economicprogressof Russia comparesunfavorably with the West. A achievements would show certaingains such as balancesheet of communist in the sphereof social welfare and coordinated state planning;but they are overshadowed the tyrannyand inhumanity totalitarianism, of by corruption, of replacement a commercial a bureaucratic by oligarchyand the total loss of the freedomof the individual.This is the price the Soviet citizenhas to
pay for his daily bread and social security.34

The capitalistsystemhas not been able to solve its problems either,despite the acutenessof the communist is still unemployment challenge.There and povertyamidstplenty. In short,its tradecycle is still firmlyin the hands of the usurious banker.35 What economicpath should the Muslim society in India and Pakistan take, situated as it is in the midst of ancient Hindu paganism,Mughal feudalismand the impact of modernWestern culture?For it Islam alone can offer the best solution,a golden mean betweencapitalism and Marxism. Islam distinguishes clearly between the right and the wrong ways of productionof wealth.It prohibits of exploitation one manby anotherand frowns upon the accumulation wealth as it enjoins its followers to give away of whateverexceeds his normal necessities.36 moral philosophyof Islam, The is exactly the opposite of capitalism.Usury and interest assertsMawdudi, on money are categorically rejectedin the Quranas offensiveto God. The Muslim law of creditwithout interestis a calculatedmoral risk. Donations or charitablefoundationsin the capitalistsociety are extendedcommercial publicitywhereasIslam enjoinscharityto be anonymous. Muslim charityis controlledby the state in the form of an obligatory levy (zakat) whichis set aside exclusivelyfor social welfare. This institutionof zakit in Islam correspondsto the moderncooperative nationalinsurance national movement, and providentfund. It is meant to take care of the needy, the aged, the widow, the orphanand the sick. Accumulation wealth in the hands of a few is of in furtherdiscouraged Islamby its law of inheritance whichtendsto distribute it in an ever increasing and divide group.37 In Islamicsocietyit is the individualwho forms the basic unit. The contractis betweenGod and individualmen and women,and not betweenthe deity and an ethnic group. Therefore,the individualremainsat the center of the Islamic economicsystem,and totalitarianism state control-as in or a communist society-is repugnantto Islam, which cannot accept even the socialismwhich may developin a capitalistsociety.The law of evolutionary
34. 35. 36. 37. Mawdudi,Ishlm awr jadid mairhs nazariyyit,Lahore, 1959, pp. 63, 83. ibid., pp. ioo-o4. Ibid., pp. 112-20; argumentbased on the Quran, 4:5; 3:45; 2:27. Ibid., pp. 122-33.

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private ownershipis the law of nature since time immemorialand Islam, being the religion of nature, cannot accept any other law.38Mawdudi is thereforeopposed to agrarianreforms, though he advocatesa "classless" relationship betweenlandlordsand peasants.He regardsthe Muslimlaw of inheritance, dividing and subdividing property,as conduciveto class equalization.He is opposedto rapidindustrialization favorsa gradualreplaceand mentof men by machines avoidthe problemof unemployment. to Competitive and enterprise equalityof opportunity shouldbe the keynoteof industrial and commercial life. Government's should be confinedto mere guidanceof r6le industrialpolicy. Industries and tradesshould be subjected zakat to foreto stall the accumulation wealthin the handsof the few.39 of Zak4itin the Islamic state should guaranteesocial insuranceand ensure every citizen the minimumnecessitiesof life; and for this reasonit should be levied on incomeand accumulated capitalalike. The Jama'at-i Islami'spoliticalplatformin India is slightly differentfrom thatin Pakistan. Rejecting IndianNationalCongress's the emphasis secularon ism, nationalismand democracy, Mawdudioffers his familiar substitutes submissionto God, humanismand the "viceregency God." He advises of Hindusto searchfor these principles their scriptures they are the revelin as ationalessenceof all religions.If they fail to find them there,as it is possible thatin the courseof centuries someof the original"revealed" truthof Hindu religionmay have been lost, Mawdudiinvites them to find it in the Islamic conceptof theo-democracy. Hinduswill find it identicalwith theirown "lostRevelational heritage"which they might recognize,test and adopt for their own welfare.40
38. Ibid., pp. 141-7. 39. Ibid., pp. 151-7. 40. Ddwat-i Islami, pp. 9-25, 35.