Princeton Reading in Islamic

· Princeton Readings in Islamic Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden. Edited and introduced by Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammed Qasim Zaman. Chapter 3: Sayyid Abu'l-A'La Maududi 1903-1979

•         80 in the opinion of the leaders of Jam’iyyat al-‘Ulama (with whom Mawdudi’s father (?) Husayn Ahmad Madani studied) colonialism, from start to end, was the cause of social and economic backwardness of Muslims in British India

o   THUS, might as well join forces with Hindus and “avowedly secular” Indian National Congress to kick British out of India

o   This congress dominated by Hindus and led by leaders such as Ghandi whose rhetoric was infused with Hindu idiom

•   80 Madani and the “nationalist” ‘ulama felt confident about the future of a postcolonial, united India in which Muslims and Hindus coexisted harmoniously

·         80 Mawdudi was skeptical about how the Muslim community would function in a Hindu-dominated India

o   Criticized Madani for his failure to grasp the sacrifice/concessions of the Muslim community that would come with the emergence of a “united nationhood”

• ·         81 Muslim League had by 1940 started calling for separate Muslim homeland, separate from India to protect Muslim interests
• ·         82-83 Mawdudi was against western style nationalism and preferred that people be properly trained in Islamic norms before a Muslim state was formed.
• ·         84 Mawdudi’s political ideology became influential on an international level and impacted South Asia a lot (he chose to live in Pakistan ultimately and was very politically active while there)

o   See his essay in Islam in Transition on the proper leader

Methodology: biography/upbringing of Mawdudi which informed his salafist standpoint; puts his upbringing in context of 20th century Indian political crisis; explains historically how Mawdudi formed salafist outlook on Hindus

Relates to: "Our Message" by Mawdudi (class reading)

To look up: Zaman, Muhammed Qasim.

·         1998. “Arabic, the Arab Middle East, and the Definition of Muslim Identity in Twentieth Century India.” Journal of the Royal Atlantic Society

·         2002. The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change.

·         2007. “Tradition and Authority in Deobandi Madrasas of South Asia.” in Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education edited by Robert W. Hefner and Zaman

Sayyid Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali Nadwi