Mawdûdî managed to take advantage of this state of languor in Muslims. Rendering the religion a means for political purpose, he approached politicians. He interfered with the national movement of Indian Muslims. In order to appropriate the
accomplishments of vigilant Muslims and Islamic strugglers, he produced many articles in which he played the part of national leadership and inspiration. Acting very cleverly, he took the lead of the party. Yet the real heroes who suggested the idea of Pakistan’s establishment and who worked for this purpose were numerous others led by Alî Jinnah. While Ali Jinnah was arousing in the Indian Muslims the idea of independence and inviting them to unity, Mawdûdî made demands for his personal advantages. In order to prevent disunion, a fatwâ was issued for his imprisonment. His instigation was suppressed and Pakistan became firmly established in 1366 (1947). He was freed in 1950. As the pure Muslims of the Ahl as-Sunna pursued the cause of Islam within the new
state, Mawdûdî began to busy the minds with a false religion named “Qadîânism”, and consequently in 1953, he was judged and imprisoned again; this time the term was twenty-six months. While he was in prison, a constitution defending Muslims was prepared and accepted in 1956, but as soon as he got out of the prison his articles imbuing with revolutionary ideas made a mess. He caused the constitution to be prohibited and martial law to be declared. In 1962, the new constitution was carried into effect. But Mawdûdî did not keep quiet. He caused the organization of Jama’at Islam to be closed. He was imprisoned again in the early 1964, but under the amnesty he was freed a little later. By shouting “human rights” and “justice”, he fell for the idea of raising a rebellion. He opened way to tumults in Kashmir. Indians took advantage of this and attacked Kashmir. The government met horrible and difficult situations. Dissatisfied with all these eccentricities, Mawdûdî co-operated in an underhand way with those in Saudi Arabia. He was enrolled as a member of the assembly of consultation in Medina, which had been established in order to spread anti-madhhabism in every Muslim country. Yet the hadîth, “Upon him who helps a cruel person, Allâhu ta’âlâ sends that cruel person to worry him,” manifested and he was imprisoned by those whom he wanted to approach.
Muhammad Yûsuf Banûrî (d. 1397/1977), one of the prominent scholars of Islam in Pakistan, Director of the Karachi Madrasa and the Head of the Pious Foundations of the Pakistani Madrasas, wrote in detail in his book Al-ustâd al-Mawdûdî that Abu ‘l-a’lâ Mawdûdî was anti-madhhabite and unqualified in Islam. Muhammad Yûsuf wrote:
“As an unfortunate coincidence in his youth, Mawdûdî
employed a mulhid named Niyâz Fathpûrî as his secretary, whose heretical ideas demoralized him. With the help of his secretary, he could give articles to various periodicals and make his living on writing. Then he somehow seized the directorate of the Jam’iyyat al-’Ulamâ’ al-Hind, later editing the periodical Muslim with the help of Muftî Muhammad Kifâyatullâh and Shaikh Ahmad Sa’îd ad-Dahlawî. He started the periodical Tarjumân al-Qur’ân in 1352 (1933). Later the founded the Dâr al-Islâm with his four friends, namely Muhammad Mauzîr Nu’mânî, Abu ’l-Hasan ’Alî Nadwî Luknawî, Amîn Ahsan al-Islâhî and Mas’ûd ’Âlim an-Nadwî. At last he established Al-Jamâ’at al-Islâmiyya in 1360 (1941). He wrote many articles owing to his fluent style. He won the appreciation and praise of great scholars such as Shaikh Munâzir Ahsan al-Gailânî, Sayyid Sulaimân an-Nadwî and ’Abdulmâjid Daryâbâdî. Then he began to spread his ideas, which aroused doubts in the long-sighted men of knowledge. Against his book, Shaikh Munâzir Ahsan al-Gailânî was the first who wrote criticism under the heading “A New Khârijite” in the periodical Sidq al-jadîd which was edited by ’Abdulmâjid Daryâbâdî. Then Sayyid Sulaimân an-Nadwî and Husain Ahmad al-Madanî wrote refutations against Mawdûdî.
“The reason for the heresy of Mawdûdî was that he had learned religious information from the non-authority. He had not gained any skill in the Arabic sciences. He had not attained to the suhba of real religious scholars. He was not successful in reading, writing or speaking English and Arabic. All the Arabic books that he edited were written in Urdu originally, later being translated into Arabic by Shaikh Mas’ûd ’Âlim an-Nadwî and his disciples. Because Mawdûdî’s name was written as the author on the covers of the books, the readers thought that Mawdûdî wrote them in Arabic.
“Mawdûdî is not a man of religion but a politician. He had a fluent style in the Urdu language, but the sins his books caused were much greater than their benefit. Their harm was much more. Their evils surpassed their good effects. He tried to blemish as-Sahâba especially in his Urdu books. He defamed ’Uthmân (radiy-Allâhu ’anh), the Khalîfat ar-râshid. He altered the terminology of Islam and blessed âyats. He insulted the Salaf as-Sâlihîn. All his writings openly revealed his desire for position and fame. The members of the Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, which was founded by the lâ-madhhabî, and many men of religious post in the Najd and Riyadh all love him and spread his Arabic boks
all over the world. Among them are Kusaimî, the author of Sarrâ’, and Nâsir Albânî, a mudarris at the Jami’at al-Madîna. Muhammad Zakariyya, a Pakistani man of religion, liked Mawdûdî’s writings at first, but later he wrote him a letter full of advice and published a booklet covering his heretical opinions when he sensed his heresy and deviation. Doctor ’Abdurrazzâq Hazârawî Pâkistânî translated this booklet into Arabic and published it adding his comments. Those who read it will clearly understand Mawdûdî’s opinions. Some of his opinions are fisq (immorality); some are bida’; some are ilhâd (heresy); some reveal his ignorance in Islam; and others show that he has not understood religious knowledge well. His various writings contradict one another.
“Great Muslim scholars of India of every madhhab came together at Jam’iyyat al-’Ulamâ’ in Delhi on the 27th of Shawwâl, 1370 (August 1, 1951) and reached the conclusion that Mawdûdî and his Al-Jamâ’at al-Islâmiyya caused subversive people misleading Muslims and published this fatwâ (decision) in a book and in papers.”[1] And the scholars of Pakistan passed a resolution that Mawdûdî was a heretic who tried to make others heretics; this resolution was edited once again in the Akhbâr al-Jam’iyya in Rawalpindi on the 22nd of February, 1396 (1976).
A certain group in the Muslim world propagandize Muhammad ’Abduh, Mawdûdî and Sayyid Qutb’s ideas which are against Islam, as if they were something ingenious. They introduce their rebellious ideas as a struggle of heroism. Lest the pure youngsters should fall for these tricky propagandas and false appraisals, we have conveyed the truth of the matter above. The greatest proof for the correctness of these writings, which have been derived from sources searched for a long time, and for the accurateness of the diagnosis is Mawdûdî’s own words, which are incompatible with Islam’s basic teachings and which are written in the paragraphs above. May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect Muslim children against being misled by heretical, aberrant ideas. Âmin.
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[1] Al-ustâd al-Mawdûdî, p. 7. Reproduced in Arabic by Hakîkat Kitabevi, Istanbul, 1977.