“Maulana Maududi and the Political Thought of Jamaat-e-Islami”

To understand the history of Muslim political thought in the twentieth century, certain names inevitably come to the fore—Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Ruhollah Khomeini, and in South Asia, most prominently Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. Of these four, Maududi stands out as the only figure who did not confine himself merely to theoretical writings; he directly formulated a comprehensive framework for an organised political-religious movement. The practical manifestation of his thought is still visible today in the structures of Jamaat-e-Islami across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and various Middle Eastern countries.

Maududi’s ideas were not simply theological; they constituted a full-fledged political theology. Central to his worldview was the conviction that modern nation-states, democracy, secularism, and nationalism are all man-made constructs and therefore fundamentally incompatible with Islam. In his view, true sovereignty does not reside with humans; the right to legislate belongs solely to Allah. Consequently, constitutions, parliaments, and state structures created by humans were, in his eyes, illegitimate or even kafir (unbelieving) systems.

This philosophy later became the intellectual foundation for Islamist politics, inspiring movements such as Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim Brotherhood, and, indirectly, organisations like the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Maududi created a political approach that, while operating within modern nation-states, rejects their ideological legitimacy even as it seeks access to their power structures. In theory, democracy is haram, yet in practice, adherents have participated in elections from the outset, becoming MNAs, MPs, and even ministers.

This duality renders their politics opaque to the general public. Outwardly, they may appear as democratic parties or religious movements, but inwardly they pursue a radically different state vision. The purpose of this work is to lift the veil on this confusion, clarifying their goals, ideals, and political strategies in historical context, so as to understand what this movement truly seeks and why it poses profound challenges for modern society.

Table of Contents

Maududi’s Childhood and Western Education

Influence of Marx, Hegel, and Communism

Congress, Gandhi, and National Politics

Muslim Identity and the Seeds of Partition

The Birth of Jamaat-e-Islami: A Religious Cadre Organisation

Islam versus Jahiliyyah – Maududi’s Binary Worldview

Sufism: “Islam’s Greatest Enemy” in Maududi’s Eyes

“Census Muslims” and “Born Muslims”

Democracy and Secularism: The ‘Haram’ State System

Restrictions on Education, Culture, and Daily Life

India as Darul Kufr versus Pakistan as an Islamic Laboratory

“Invitation” to Hindus from an Islamic State

Jamaat-e-Islami: The Realities of Cadre Politics

Participation in Democracy: Ideals versus Reality

Intellectual Foundations of Extremism without Direct Violence

Islam’s Historical Plurality versus Maududi’s Monolithic Islam

Dangers of Transforming Religion into a Political Instrument

Why Maududi’s Vision of the State Fails

Why This Philosophy Has Not—and Will Not—Succeed

The Future of Islam: The Only Sustainable Path

Conclusions

References

Additional Sources

Maududi’s Childhood and Western Education
Maulana Maududi was born in 1903 in Aurangabad, Hyderabad. His ancestors were affiliated with the Mughal and Nizam courts. His father, Ahmad Hasan, initially adhered strictly to Westernised thought but later gravitated towards Sufism, creating a dual environment of religious observance and modern education during Maududi’s childhood.

He studied at the Oriental High School and later became acquainted with the intellectual currents of Aligarh, where his teacher was the British Islamic scholar Thomas Arnold, who taught comparative readings of Western philosophy and Islam. Young Maududi initially believed that Western civilisation was superior to Muslim societies, whose backwardness he attributed to religious conservatism. He later referred to this phase as “an age of ignorance.”

Influence of Marx, Hegel, and Communism
A little-known yet significant historical fact is that Maududi, at one stage, was openly attracted to Marxism and maintained close intellectual engagement with communist circles. His mentor was Delhi-based communist leader Abdul Sattar Khairi, who represented the Moscow-oriented Bolshevik Propaganda Committee in India. This was not merely personal; it constituted a full ideological engagement in which young Maududi regularly engaged with socialist literature, revolutionary theory, and materialist interpretations of history.

Maududi’s family also reflected Marxist influence: his brother-in-law, a Marxist academic, had translated Karl Marx into English. This allowed Maududi to study Marx, Hegel, conflict-driven historical analysis, class struggle, and revolutionary social change in depth. Although he later publicly rejected Marxism as only partially true, he admitted, “Marx saw half the truth; to see the whole truth, he would have had to read the Qur’an.” He retained the concepts of struggle and revolution but recast them in religious terminology, positioning them within an Islamic framework.

The result was the creation of a dualistic worldview—Islam versus Jahiliyyah, Truth versus Falsehood, Haq versus Batil—where history was no longer defined by class struggle but by a cosmic battle between right and wrong, and revolution became a religious duty. This binary vision later resonated through thinkers like Sayyid Qutb and the broader Islamist intellectual milieu, transforming Islam from a spiritual faith into a revolutionary political ideology.