The Influence of Mawdudi's Thought on Muslims in Southeast Asia

36 Pages·2003·0.18 MB·English

I  M64’ T  M  S A
BOMT1©J9310OITTnu430hhl xRflUa2l70eeyfucIoW08 G ekMM2r0-dwnOI103Nuu,c9e0 sseHUA1l3lll ii 3aKLmmoPr fu tAWWMfboRlraooidsTwrrh llISdddCe eurL•i m[hnEV*3goin] ldLuaitmr[dy*3e] ’9s3 T •h Jouulgyh/Ot ocetno bMeur s2li0m0s3 in So utheast AsiaInfluence of
Mawdudi’s Thought on
Muslims in Southeast Asia:
A Brief Survey
M. Kamal Hassan
International Islamic University
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I
t has been asserted that “no discussion of the demand for an Islamic state
in Pakistan and no account of the contemporary resurgence of Islam
would be complete without attention to the major role played by Abu’l A‘la
Mawdudi in these movements.”1 He is regarded as “one of the most influential
and prolific of contemporary Muslim thinkers” whose “interpretive reading of
Islam has contributed greatly to the articulation of Islamic revivalist thought
and has influenced Muslim thinkers and activists from Morocco to Indonesia.
His impact is evident in the exegesis of Sayyid Qu†b of Egypt, as well as in the
ideas and actions of Algerian, Iranian, Malaysian, and Sudanese revivalist
activities.”2 It is widely acknowledged that “as one of the chief architects of this
[revivalist] movement3 . . . Mawdudi along with Sayyid Qu†b (1906–66) and
Khomeini (1900–89) was one of the twentieth century’s most important Islamic
thinkers, and an articulate spokesman for the holistic vision of Islam.4
The Islamic resurgence in Southeast Asia, which manifested as a regional
phenomenon in the seventies and gained new momentum after the Iranian
Islamic revolution of 1979, has its roots in the Islamic reformist (ˆslah) movements
of the early twentieth century when Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,
the Philippines and Cambodia were under Western colonial dominance.5 The
Islamic reformism movements, in the cases of Indonesia and Malaysia, later
joined hands with the nationalist movements in a common struggle against
Dutch rule in the case of Indonesia and British rule in the case of Malaysia.
The intellectual inspiration for anti-imperialist action and the reformist struggle
then came mainly from the writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838/
9–1897), Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849–1905) and Rashid Rida (1865–1935).6
429
T M W • V 93 • J/O 2003
The emergence of what was known in Malaysia and Indonesia as the
dakwah movement or the phenomenon of Islamic revivalism in the seventies
was in fact a continuation and a later development of the reformist Islamic
spirit of the early twentieth century.7 It was basically a response of the Muslim
intelligentsia and Islamic youth movements to the trends of Westernization,
secularization and materialism in their own countries, which they believed
were the products of secular-oriented nationalistic policies of post-colonial
ruling elite. The ideas that inspired their thinking and action were drawn from
multiple sources — local, regional and international. One of the international
sources of inspiration were Mawdudi’s ideas, which together with those of
Sayyid Qu†b, provided the intellectual underpinnings and worldview of the
Islamic resurgence.8
This brief survey attempts to trace the influence of Mawdudi’s ideas among
Muslims of Southeast Asian countries, which consist of (a) Muslim majority
countries, i.e., Indonesia (85 percent Muslims out of a population of about
213–220 million), Malaysia (55 percent Muslims out of a population of
23.3 million), Brunei Darussalam (75 percent Muslims out of a population of
345,000) and (b) Muslim minority countries, such as Singapore (15 percent
Muslims out of a population of 4.02 million), Thailand (5 percent Muslims out
of a population of 63 million), Philippines (5–6 percent Muslims out of a
population of 78.5 million), Cambodia (about 400,000–500,000 Muslims in a
population of 12 million), Myanmar (10–12 percent out of a population of
about 50 million), Vietnam (with roughly 45,000 Muslims out of a population
of 78 million) and Laos (with about 1,000 Muslims in a population of 5.5
million).9 The main focus of this survey is on the Muslim majority communities
of Malaysia and Indonesia (together constituting about 200 million Muslims),
which are the most exposed to Mawdudi’s writings among Southeast Asian
countries, available through English, Malaysian and Indonesian translations. In
addition to interviews conducted by the present writer with several students
from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, this survey also
depends on feedback provided in a questionnaire, which was distributed to
about two hundred respondents from the above-mentioned countries.10
Malaysia
Of all the Southeast Asian countries, the Muslim community in Malaysia
has been and still is the most exposed to the influence of Mawdudi’s thought.
This is because:
(1) The English translations of Mawdudi’s writings and ideas were already
available in Kuala Lumpur bookshops in the early sixties. The magazine
The Message published in Lahore and containing excerpts of the writings
of Mawdudi as well as Maryam Jameelah’s correspondence with him was
430
I  M64’ T  M  S A
readily available in at least one bookshop in Kuala Lumpur. The present
writer used to buy The Message in the mid-sixties. English being the medium
of instruction of government schools until 1970, Malay students in upper
secondary and tertiary levels of education had no problem reading and
comprehending English language materials in the sixties and seventies. This
was not the case with many Muslims in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines
or Cambodia.
(2) The Islamic resurgence of the seventies was spearheaded largely by the
younger generation of educated Muslims who were mainly English educated,
either as students of secondary schools and colleges or of the University
of Malaysia. Mawdudi’s writings, translated into English mostly by Khurshid
Ahmad and published by the Islamic Publications Ltd. of Lahore, were one
of the most important sources of Islamic education of the English-educated
Malay intelligentsia in the seventies and eighties. The writings of Sayyid Qu†b
were equally popular.
(3) As part of Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy, the existence of one opposition
political party, Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (or P.A.S.) since 1952 until today
and a non-governmental body, i.e., the Islamic Youth Movement of Malaysia
(A.B.I.M.) since 1971 until the present day has contributed to the popularity
of Mawdudi’s ideas, as both have been influenced by his thoughts in varying
degrees. Another Islamic non-governmental body, the Islah Society of Malaysia
(J.I.M.) has also perpetuated Mawdudi’s influence mainly through the
writings of “Abu ‘Urwah,” the pseudonym of the first president of J.I.M.
(4) Many Malay students studying in the U.K. and U.S.A. in the seventies and
eighties came under the influence of Mawdudi’s ideas more than students
from other Southeast Asian countries. Some of Mawdudi’s books, in
particular Towards Understanding Islam, Islamic Way of Life and Islamic
Law and Constitution have been and are still being used as textbooks or
references in Malaysian universities, including the International Islamic
University Malaysia.
A.B.I.M. played the most important role in the popularization of
Mawdudi’s ideas, which had earlier made considerable impact on the leaders
of National Union of Muslim Students of Malaysia (P.K.P.I.M.). Mawdudi’s
Islamic Way of Life was “extensively used and referred to by almost all ABIM
leaders and members.”11 Along with Mawdudi’s books, the well-known
Qur’anic commentary of Sayyid Qu†b, Fi Zilal al-Qur”an, “has been
considered one of the most important texts for exegesis in the usrah
institution.”12 The books of Fathi Yakan, Sa‘id Hawwa, ‘Abd al-Karim Zaydan
and Mustafa Mashhur — all important figures of al-Ikhwan in the Middle East
— were also highly regarded and widely distributed.13 Together they helped
to shape the intellectual framework and mindset of many A.B.I.M. leaders and
members. However, the most well-known leader of A.B.I.M. during the 1971–
82 period, Anwar Ibrahim, exposed himself to a wider range of literature,
which included the works of Western thinkers, scholars, and Oriental
431
T M W • V 93 • J/O 2003
philosophers. He also encouraged A.B.I.M. members to benefit from as many
ideas as possible.
Anwar’s appointment as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth’s (W.A.M.Y.)
representative for the Asia-Pacific region in 1973 and an executive director of
the International Islamic Federation of Students’ Organization (I.I.F.S.O.) in the
same year brought him into a wider circle of international leaders of Islamic
movements, including those representing the Jama‘at-e-Islami of Pakistan. It
should be noted that W.A.M.Y. and I.I.F.S.O. played very important roles in
translating Mawdudi’s books into Malay, Indonesian and Thai languages. The
translation of Islamic Way of Life into Malay by Wan Salim Muhammad Nur,
an A.B.I.M. member in 1975, was done under the patronage of I.I.F.S.O. The
idea of Islam, expounded by Mawdudi in those books, as constituting a
“system” of its own with distinctive “moral system,” “political system,” “social
system,” “economic system” and “spiritual system” was a novel idea, which
appealed to the educated younger generation of Muslims in Malaysia. It was a
new way of understanding Islam that made it relevant to contemporary
national and international issues.
In the same way, the idea of Islam as al-Din — and not as a “religion” in
the Western sense of the word — as well as a comprehensive “way of life” was
a novel and non-traditional way of discoursing Islam, which had tremendous
intellectual appeal to the young intelligentsia. “Islam as a complete way of life”
became the most popular slogan of the dakwah movement in the 1970s
and 80s.14 It was this new awareness of the holistic nature of Islam coupled
with their consciousness of their Islamic responsibility to bring about
change in Malaysian society, culture and polity that motivated Malay students
at home and abroad to champion the cause of Islamic revivalism and Islamic
da“wah.
Some of the pioneering leaders of A.B.I.M. had their first encounters with
Islamic revivalist thought and holistic Islamic literature in United Kingdom in
the late 1960s. Among the first of them was Abdul Wahab bin Abdullah, who
went to the U.K. on government scholarship to study economics after finishing
Form Six at Victoria Institution in 1962. In the U.K., he was exposed to the
literature of Jama‘at-e-Islami and Mawdudi’s Islamic “movement”. He returned
to Malaysia in 1967 and later became the first president of A.B.I.M., but only
for a brief period. Razali Nawawi, who was the second president of A.B.I.M.
(1971–1974) and a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Islamic law, went to
further his studies at the London School of Oriental and African Studies from
1967 to 1970. He was one of the founders of the London-based Malaysian
Islamic Study Group (M.I.S.G.), which was affiliated with the Federation
of Student Islamic Societies (F.O.S.I.S.). M.I.S.G., under his leadership,
popularized and sold many of Mawdudi’s books. Together with Dahlan Hj.
432
I  M64’ T  M  S A
Arshad and Ibrahimsa, two Malaysian students who were among the pioneers
of the Islamic youth movement in the U.K. in the sixties, Razali Nawawi
organized the study of the ideas of Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qu†b,
Dr. Said Ramadhan and Abu’l Hasan Ali al-Nadawi. While studying in Kolej
Islam Malaya in Malaysia in the early 1960s before going to al-Azhar, Razali
was already introduced to the ideas of Rashid Rida via his Tafsir al-Manar and
the writings of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun through his teacher Ustadh Abu Bakar
Hamzah and during his stay in Cairo. To him, the main reason behind the
appeal of Mawdudi’s books was the intellectual approach, which provided
intellectual satisfaction to the minds of Muslim students coming face to face
with the dominance of secular Western culture and civilization.15
After coming back to Malaysia in 1970, he and his friends in P.K.P.I.M. and
A.B.I.M. became actively involved in the dissemination of the literature of
the Ikhwan and Jama‘at-i-Islami. However, A.B.I.M., which emerged on the
Malaysian scene out of the crisis of May 13, 1969 racial riots, shaped its own
identity, character and modus operandi in the light of the unique Malaysian
socio-political context. As one researcher said:
The Islamic revivalism which emerged out of the crisis environment of
the May 13 riots and spearheaded by Anwar Ibrahim and ABIM took on
a moderate note. In those days, there were no calls for the creation of an
Islamic state or for the implementation of the syariah. In fact, according
to Anwar Ibrahim, he and his friends did not believe in the political
process or in capturing political power. They were more concerned with
‘conscientization’ . . . and critical awareness along a more progressive
outlook of the issues and problems that beset society. . . . The Islam that
ABIM propagated recognized and accepted the weakness of human
beings and their different levels of commitment to the religion.16
The period of 1971–75 Islamic revivalism, dominated by A.B.I.M., is
described by Zainah Anwar as the “first wave” in Malaysia’s Islamic revivalist
movement. In her opinion:
It was progressive in its appeal. It did not see Islam in the black and
white manner that the later dakwah adherents did. While it was critical
of the government and of government policies that it considered unjust
and oppressive, it never vociferously called for the creation of an Islamic
state. It believed in Islamizing the ummah first along a gradual,
moderate and progressive path.17
Abbas Hasan, who went to England in 1970 to study law in London,
mentioned that he was assigned by M.I.S.G. the task of distributing and selling
Islamic books published mainly by the Islamic Publications Ltd. and Sh.
Muhammad Ashraf of Lahore at the U.K. Islamic Mission at Liverpool Road. He
433
T M W • V 93 • J/O 2003
remembered meeting Mawlana Alwi, who opened a bookshop in London and
Khurshid Ahmad in 1970. The role played by the latter in the dissemination
of Mawdudi’s ideas among Malaysian students and intellectuals was most
prominent. He became the naqib (guide and supervisor) of many Malaysian
students in London, and meetings were held at Malaysia Hall. The Malay
students who came into close contact with Khurshid Ahmad and knew him
well then were Ibrahimsa, Dahlan Arshad, Wan Ismail, Syed Ibrahim, Razali
Nawawi and Zakaria Hashim.
In 1968, Razali Nawawi met Mawdudi in London. He remembered
Mawdudi telling him to learn Persian in addition to Arabic and English, which
Razali had already mastered. Another Malaysian student, Sanusi Junid, who
was studying at the London School of Economics, also met him at a London
residence. Sanusi Junid, who, after coming back to Malaysia, was involved
in the formation of A.B.I.M. in 1970 and became its first Secretary General,
recalled that Mawdudi expressed his desire that Malaysian Chinese citizens
be given more exposure to Islam to better understand it and/or embrace it.
Mawdudi also advised him to learn Chinese, as a means of inter-cultural
da“wah.18
Among the writings of Mawdudi that the Malay students were exposed to,
beside The Meaning of the Qur”an, were The Process of Islamic Revolution
(Lahore, 1967) and Nations Rise and Fall — Why? (Lahore, 1976).19 They
also read and compared the works of Abul Hassan ‘Ali al-Nadawi and
Sayyid Qu†b. They found them to be complementary. They also found
the correspondence between Maryam Jameelah and Mawdudi to be very
instructive. Back in Malaysia, they developed the A.B.I.M. usrah (study group)
curriculum to include a variety of reading materials, one of which was
Mawdudi’s The Meaning of the Qur”an, such that their understanding
and thinking about Islamic issues would not only be based on one model,
personality or group. This broad-minded, non-fanatical and non-cultish
approach contributed to the richness and adaptability of Islamic thought
and action among A.B.I.M. leaders. As for those members who had a strong
political party orientation or inclination, they were allowed to leave A.B.I.M.
to join the parties of their choice, thus preserving the non-partisan character
of the organization.
With Anwar Ibrahim’s emphasis on providing a strong intellectual base
and educational orientation, A.B.I.M. did not give top priority to political
change in Malaysia. Hence, the idea of the Islamic state was not prominent on
their agenda. A.B.I.M. leaders would rather emphasize educational, moral,
economic, social and intellectual issues. When asked what attracted them to
Mawdudi’s ideas when they were in U.K., the answer was “We were lost and
were searching for answers. Mawdudi explained why we were lost and he
434
I  M64’ T  M  S A
gave the answers we needed. Besides, his way of writing was rational,
persuasive and convincing.”20
The influence of Mawdudi’s thought on Malaysian youth and students
came through another source during what Zainah Anwar called “the second
wave” in the dakwah movement. This began in the mid to late 1970s “with the
return of hundreds of Malaysian students from England who had been
influenced by the more fundamentalist Islam of the Egyptian Ikhwan Muslimin
(Muslim Brotherhood) and the Pakistani Jama‘at-e-Islami.”21 Disgruntled with
the F.O.S.I.S. and A.B.I.M’s approaches, two more associations were formed
in 1975 by Malay students at Sussex University and the Brighton Technical
College, i.e., Suara Islam (Voice of Islam) and the Islamic Representative
Council (I.R.C.). Under the influence of Javed Ansari, a Jama‘at-e-Islami
member, the Suara Islam group believed “that the realization of the ideal
Islamic state was contingent upon the existence of a group of true Muslims
who should seize political power.”22 The I.R.C., instead, “believed in
establishing secret calls as the best means to spread its Islamic message,” with
emphasis on tarbiyah (Islamic education).23 A.B.I.M. was “criticized as a
reformist group without the qualities of a revolutionary movement.”24
Inspired by the ideology of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun and Jama‘at-e-Islami,
the Islamic revivalist organizations established by Malay students in U.K. and
in Malaysia were generally opposed to Western secular ideologies and -isms,
which included materialism, capitalism, socialism and nationalism. They were
of the view that nationalism, as a product of modern secular Western
philosophy, seriously challenged the Islamic tenet of absolute loyalty to Allah
and undermined the concept of universal Islamic brotherhood constituting a
single ummah (universal community of believers), which transcends ethnicity,
language and the nation state.25 They tended to equate nationalism with the
“asabiyyah (tribal solidarity) of the pre-Islamic period, which the Prophet
prohibited. Many A.B.I.M. leaders, however, understood that Malay
nationalism as it originated and developed in Malaysia was not similar to
Western nationalism, as Islamic values, perspectives and objectives were
incorporated, from the beginning of the period of Malay nationalist struggle,
in the nationalist political discourse. Malay nationalism, as explained by its
exponents, was a just cause which was aimed at uniting the Malays — who
are Muslims by definition — and liberating the Muslim country from British
colonialism and oppression. Loving one’s homeland (wa†an) was not against
Islamic teachings as long as it did not imply the worship of the country or blind
loyalty (“My country, right or wrong”) or committing injustices against other
people. Among A.B.I.M. leaders were those who had studied Malay history
and culture deeply enough to realize the truth in the above assertion and,
therefore, they directed their criticisms only against the “narrow” or
435
T M W • V 93 • J/O 2003
chauvinistic interpretations of Malay nationalism. Nevertheless, they urged
Malay nationalist leaders to appreciate the totality of Islam and make the Malay
people aware of the higher objectives of universal Islamic ummatism.
Many Malay students who studied in American universities in the late
1960s and 70s knew more about the writings of Mawdudi after joining the
Muslim Students Association (M.S.A.) through its local chapters. The annual
M.S.A. conventions they attended played an important role in their Islamic
intellectual development. The conventions brought them face-to-face with
many well-known scholars, members and followers of international Islamic
organizations, including Jama‘at-e-Islami. The publications of Mawdudi and
Jama‘at-e-Islami in English and Urdu were always available for them to buy at
the M.S.A. conventions. In many cities of America, groups of Pakistani or
Indian Muslim professionals used to hold religious gatherings and intellectual
discussions in their respective homes or apartments in which the works of
Mawdudi, particularly his commentary of the Qur’an (Tafhim al-Qur”an), were
studied.26 When the M.S.A. was transformed into the Islamic Society of North
America (I.S.N.A.) in the late 1970s and a new organization, the Islamic
Community of North America (I.C.N.A.), which was made up mainly of
Pakistani and Indian Muslims, also developed, the dissemination of Mawdudi’s
publications among Malaysian students became more widespread. The
number of government sponsored Malay students studying in U.S. colleges and
universities increased tremendously in the 1960s and many of them became
Islamically oriented as a result of being exposed to the literature of Islamic
movements, including Mawdudi’s. The formation of Malaysian Islamic Study
Group (M.I.S.G.) and establishment of A.B.I.M. activities in the U.S. in the
early 1980s was another factor in the strengthening of Islamic religious
consciousness and practice of Malay students abroad. The Iranian revolution
of 1979, no doubt, exposed their minds to yet another source of Islamic holistic
and religio-political discourse, while the government in Malaysia became more
worried about the potential radicalization or militancy of Islamic movements.
The present writer, who studied at Columbia University, New York, from
1968–1975, had his earliest exposure to the ideas of Mawdudi in Malaysia in
his undergraduate years and used to read Towards Understanding Islam with
his friends in the Badan Da“wah Ar-Rahmaniah (Ar-Rahmaniah Da“wah
Organization), an organization founded by Abdul Ahad in 1962. He came into
contact with Sayyid Abu’l A‘la Mawdudi for the first time in New York in the
early 1970s. It was a memorable occasion for this writer to listen in person
to the address given by Mawdudi in the packed auditorium of Columbia
University library. He remembers asking Mawdudi about the best way to
implement the Shari“ah in Malaysia. The answer Mawdudi gave to that
question was most unexpected and yet profoundly instructive and revealing.
436
I  M64’ T  M  S A
He said simply and unassumingly, “You know better the situation in your own
country.” This meant to me that the famous and respected thinker, despite his
prolific writing and wide knowledge of Islam and Muslims, did not intend that
all that he wrote in the context of the Indo-Pak subcontinent of the 1930s, 40s
or 50s as to be regarded as completely applicable in a unique multi-racial
Southeast Asian country like Malaysia, of the 1970s or beyond. He was humble
enough perhaps to imply that what he wrote and thought so abundantly
should be properly evaluated and appreciated in the socio-temporal context
of his time and milieu.
From a study of the formative stages of the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party
(P.A.S.), established in 1951, it is evident that Mawdudi’s ideas influenced the
formation of P.A.S. ideology. According to Safie b. Ibrahim, “The PAS ideology
is influenced by the Islamic movements in the Middle East, particularly in
Egypt . . .”27 and added that “the PAS ideology is not only influenced by Egypt,
because the Jama‘at-e-Islami, an Islamic political party of Pakistan and
Mashumi an Indonesian Islamic political party (now defunct) have also
influenced the PAS.”28
The understanding of the concept of Islamic state and Allah’s sovereignty
in the formative years of P.A.S. indicates a clear influence of Mawdudi’s ideas.
An important reference for P.A.S. on the concept is a book written by Budiman
Radi. According to Safie b. Ibrahim:
It seems that Budiman Radi’s Tata Negara Islam (Islamic Political
Science) is very much influenced by Mawdudi’s Political Theory of Islam
and other works by this author. Like Mawdudi, Budiman Radi, the
former Vice-Chairman of the PAS Youth Section, based his views on the
verse, ‘. . . the command is for none but God: He hath commended that
ye worship none but Him . . .’29
In addition to Political Theory of Islam, Mawdudi’s First Principles of the
Islamic State also had a strong impact on Budiman Radi’s elaboration on the
relationship between the executive, judiciary and legislature in an Islamic state.
P.A.S. had also adopted the idea of the Islamic welfare state elaborated by the
MASJUMI leaders of Indonesia in the 1950s. Veteran P.A.S. activist and Central
Executive Council member Baharuddin Abdul Latif, in his article on “Negara
Kebajikan Islam (Islamic Welfare State)” propagated “a form of economic
system applied to an Islamic state which is tantamount to a welfare state
(baldat tayyibah).”30
An academic exercise entitled “Idea of Abul A‘la Al-Mawdudi dan Hasan
al-Banna dalam Method Perjuangan Parti Pas” (The Ideas of Mawdudi and
Hasan al-Banna in the Method of the Struggle of P.A.S.) asserts that, although
P.A.S. did not simply adopt ideas of foreign thinkers, many of its leaders, in
fact, have been implementing programs which originated from the writings of
437
T M W • V 93 • J/O 2003
Mawdudi and Hasan al-Banna but creatively adjusted them to the Malaysian
context and political system.31
The writings of Mawdudi continued to be referred to, among the works
of several other Muslim scholars, by the leader of J.I.M., Ir. Shaari Sungib,
who wrote under the pseudonym of “Abu ‘Urwah” between 1987 to 1989.
His Sistem-Sistem Islam: Satu Analisis Perbandingan (Islamic Systems: A
Comparative Analysis) is full of references to Mawdudi’s Islamic Way of Life,
Ethical Viewpoint of Islam, Human Rights in Islam, Economic Problems of
Man and Its Islamic Solution, Islamic Law and Constitution and The Meaning
of the Qur”an.32 Similarly, his Konsep-Konsep Umum Islam (General Islamic
Concepts) makes many references to the views and ideas of Mawdudi.33 In his
Risalah Usrah, which lays down the worldview of the Islamic movement, he
praises the roles played by Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qu†b and Mawdudi in
continuing the process of Islamic renewal (tajdid islami). He says,
Jama‘at-e-Islami, which was founded and led [by Mawdudi], represents a
chain of tajdid efforts in the 20th century, similar to what was done by
al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun. [Mawdudi’s] accurate pen and sharp analysis of
the problems of humanity in the modern age has enabled him to explain
Islam in this century in a most effective way. His exposition of Islam in
the context of the reality faced by man in today’s world has helped to
clear many misconceptions of the Muslim ummah regarding Islam itself.
In the efforts to advance the cause of true Islamic resurgence, there is no
missionary (da“i) or Islamic association which has not been influenced
by the thought and writings of Ikhwan scholars and Mawlana
Mawdudi.34
A university lecturer in the field of Islamic civilization, Mustafa b.
Haji Daud published two books on Mawdudi, Beberapa Aspek Pemikiran
Al-Maududi (Some Aspects of Mawdudi’s Thought) in 1988 and Pemikiran
Politik dan Ekonomi Al-Maududi (Mawdudi’s Political and Economic
Thought) in 1989. He says that he wrote the books with “the aim of upgrading
one’s consciousness, realization and appreciation to understand Islam as a
complete al-Din. In this regard, Mawdudi puts more emphasis on rationalism
in explaining Islamic principles and general concepts rooted in al-Qur’an and
Sunnah.”35
He believes that in the context of the worldwide resurgence of Islam
in the late twentieth century, Muslims all over the world desire to deepen
their knowledge and intensify their internalization of Islam. The ideas of
Mawdudi, in his view, would assist them in their desire to “return to Islam.”
He admits that he was most attracted to Mawdudi’s ideas because “his great
character ought to be an example to Muslims in general and the supporters
of Islamic movements in particular. . . . His faith, God-consciousness and
438