Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi - ISLAM’S POLITICAL ORDER: THE MODEL, DEVIATIONS AND MUSLIM RESPONSE

A s a normal practice, foreign words and expressions, which are often few, receive italicization in the text with a glossary at the end or in the beginning of a book. In such cases, italicized words may even look nice and do not detract from the uniformity of the text. Their excessive use, however, as in the present case, would have marred the visual landscape of the text, mutilating its uniformity.

Still another practice followed is to italicize foreign expressions and then highlight them by their meanings placed in the parenthesis. In our view, the latter form is overdone and makes no sense. It is enough if we give parenthetical expression to a foreign word without its italicization, for when it is parenthesized we succeed in expressing its foreignness. At the same time, it averts the need for a glossary at the end saving the reader the inconvenience of flipping pages over to the glossary. The transliteration key used is traditional.

This remarkable work of Mawlana Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi (1930-1970), when published, for the first time, initiated an intellectual discourse in the region. His view-point on policy measures taken by the third khalifah al-rashid invited strong criticism from the traditional ulama . The Mawlanas purpose was not to criticize the third caliph, as such, but to trace logical and historical roots of the ultimate tragedy the Ummah faced in the form of transition from Khilafah to a hereditary succession which was totally a foreign phenomenon to Islam.

We have abridged the original Khilafat wa Mulukiyat , especially chapters 4 and 5, without blunting its edge or impairing its thesis. We have taken out its appendix for we thought there was no need to defend the sources when the text spoke for itself. We hope this will augment its usefulness without detracting from the fervor and taste of the original.

Today when an ongoing debate is taking place on the nature of Islamic state, political Islam and relation between state and religion this research work of the Mawlana provides a resume of how the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), visualize modern Islamic state.

This translation, with minor abridgment, was made possible with the devotion professional excellence and cooperation of my very dear colleague, for over past forty years, Tarik Jan who not only kept the real spirit and vigor of the original work alive in his beautiful translation but also helped in making the text more elaborate for the reader.

Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmad Ph.D

May 20, 2017