Table Of ContentThe Secular Mind
Translated and Edited by
SAYYID ABU'L A'LA MAWDUDI
Islam and the
Secular Mind
TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY
Tank Jan
Foreword
KHURSH1D AHMAD
Introduction
ANIS AHMAD
World of Islam Trust
&
Islamic Research Academy
Karachi
Copyright © of This Translated Work Jointly Owned By:
ISLAMIC RESEARCH ACADEMY, KARACHI
and WORLD OF ISLAM TRUST, ISLAMABAD
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright owners.
ISLAM AND THE SECULAR MIND
(A Selection from “Tanqihat” and “Tafhimat” in URDU)
Mawdudi, Sayyid Abu'I A'la (1903-1979)
Translated and Edited By Tank Jan
With Collaboration of WORLD OF ISLAM TRUST
House 19- A Bhittai Road, F-7/I. Islamabad, Pakistan
Publisher: ISLAMIC RESEARCH ACADEMY
D-35. Block-5, F.B. Area, Karachi-75950
Pakistan
Tel: (92-21) 634 9840, Email: [email protected]
Contents
Acknowledgements v
Foreword (Khurshid Ahmad) vii
Transliteration Table xxi
Introduction
Secularism: A Pseudo-Religion (Anis Ahmad) 1
An Overview
Mawdudi's Critique of the Secular Mind (Tarik Jan) 21
CHAPTER ONE
Our Mental Slavery and Its Causes 49
Commentary 61
CHAPTER TWO
The Difference Between Secular and Divine Laws 67
Commentary 78
CHAPTER THREE
Updating Islam: the Faultline 87
Commentary 100
iv I Islam and the Secular Mind
CHAPTER FOUR
The Finitude of Rationalism 113
Commentary 123
CHAPTER FIVE
The Case of a Rationalist 135
Commentary 149
CHAPTER SIX
Darwinian Evolution: Theory or Law? 153
Commentary 160
CHAPTER SEVEN
History as Viewed by Hegel and Marx 191
Commentary 201
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Problem with Western Civilization 211
Commentary 224
Index 235
Acknowledgements
We GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE the
following sources of our material that
constitute this book. The order is sequential
corresponding to the chapters:
"Hamari Dhehni ghulami ke asbab," September
1934.
"Insani qanun awr ilahi qanun mein farq,"
January 1934.
Aqliat ka farayb I/' December 1934.
"'Aqliat ka farayb II/' June 1936.
"Tajaddud ka pa-i chubin," July 1933.
"Darwin ka nazariyah Irtiqa'," January-
February 1944.
"Haygal awr Marks kA falsafah-i ta'rikh/'
August 1939.
"Maghribi tahdhib ke fasid usul," May 9, 1947.
The preceding five writings which first
appeared in the monthly Tarjuman al-Qur'an, a
journal edited by Sayyid Abu'l A'la Mawdudi, are
now available in Tanqihat (Lahore: Islamic
Publications Ltd., 1999), 37th edition.
The pieces on Darwin and Hegel and Marx can
be seen in Tafhimat (Lahore: Islamic Publications
Ltd., 1995), 17th edition, while "Maghribi tahdhib
ke fasid usul" is drawn from jama'at-i Islami ki
da'wat (Lahore: Islamic Publications Ltd., 1997),
21st edition, pp. 11-26.
Tank Jan's piece on "Mawdudi's Critique of
the Secular Mind - An Overview" originally
published in the Muslim World, July 2003, a
quarterly journal of the Hartford seminary,
Connecticut, U.S.A. The present essay is a modified
version of the earlier one.
Foreword
Ummah is passing through a critical
phase of its history. This is not something
new as its entire history is characterized by
challenges and responses, crisis and re-emergence;
relapse and revival. In a sense, this was inevitable.
A message as universal and eternal as Islam can
neither avoid crisis situations nor can it escape
from phases of depression and renewal, and in
some cases even disintegration and re
consolidation. In fact, it is unavoidable in view of
the Divine arrangement for humans, which is
characterized by endowment of freedom and
discretion. Built in the Islamic scheme are elements
that are unchangeable, and as such, they constitute
reference points for the system in all times. Along
with these are elements that are flexible and
changeable while still remaining within the
Divinely laid ethos of the system.
Today's situation has many similarities with
the scenario at the beginning of the twentieth
century, albeit with some significant differences. By
the end of the nineteenth century, the Muslim
Ummah, which had played a distinguished role as
a world power for over a millennium, was then
totally overwhelmed by the forces of decay within
and the onslaughts of European imperialisms from
abroad. The power-equation changed to the utter
disadvantage of the Muslim World. It had far
reaching consequences for the entire realm of
Muslim civilization. Western Imperial powers
represented a new civilizational paradigm. The
expansionist role of the tutelary powers that
vitiated its hold on social dynamics defined its
predicament it lost its leading edge over
knowledge and technology, its economy went into
shambles, its political power eclipsed. Even
morally, culturally and intellectually it went into a
tailspin. The lowest point was the abolition in 1924
of what was left of the symbolic khilafah.
This was the context in which a number of
Muslim luminaries all over the world addressed
themselves to the crucial questions of what had
gone wrong with the Muslim Ummah? Had Islam
become irrelevant or was something wrong with
the Muslim approach to Islam, its role in history
making, in short the way the Muslims were
treating the Divine guidance? And finally how the
Ummah could reset itself along the path to revival
and reconstruction? Jamal al-din Afghani, Amir
Shakib Arsalan, Prince Halim Pasha, Sa'id Nuresi,
Muhammad Iqbal, Rashid Rada, Muhammad ‘Abduh,
Hasan al-Bannu, Abul Kalam Azad, Abu'l A'la
Mawdudi, Malik bin Nabi and a host of intellectuals
and reformers reflected on these questions and
came up with positive responses to steer the
Ummah out of decay.
In this galaxy of thinkers and reformers,
Mawdudi occupies a distinct position. Hardly
seventeen, he put his shoulders to the task of
rebuilding the Muslim Ummah in 1920. After ten
years of journalistic encounters, he decided to
begin his endeavour to reconstruct Muslim thought
and to spell out Islam as a worldview and a way of
life. His aim was to develop a roadmap for the
