does he do that? Firstly, he restores each part to its rightful place in Islam. Secondly, and this is his unique contribution, he restores the vital links between them which long since have snapped in our minds and lives. Iman and Islam, Dunya and Akhira, Prayer and Fasting, all are there; but each in its own orbit, each in its compartment. Indeed we have become almost habituated to treat each of them as a separate entity. So, even if each part is in its place and is not deformed, even if no foreign part has been fitted to it, to borrow his own metaphor, they do not make the ‘clock’ of Islam work because they are disconnected. He draws them together and tells us how to link them. Immediately, what was insignificant and irrelevant becomes central, the very destiny of life. Thus, despite his themes being familiar and ordinary, despite their being devoid of elaborate, elegant, oratorial dress, they make an enormous impact.
The richness, strength and range of Sayyid Mawdudi’s themes are indeed immense and profound. But we can easily trace seven such vital links which he re-establishes.
First, he links life, and remember the whole of life, with Iman. Iman becomes the centre of life, which does not accept anything less than total commitment to the One God. This Iman, for long, we have made irrelevant to real life.
Second, he links our actions with Iman, and therefore, with life. In his understanding, there can be no true Iman without actions.
Third, he links acts of ritual worship or ‘Ibādāt – in the sense of five pillars – with Iman as the seed from which they grow and with actions as the branches into which they blossom. They are the stem which must grow out of Iman and produce its crop of righteous life.
Fourth, he connects the outward form with the inner spirit; if ‘forms’ do not yield the desired fruits, they are devoid of spirit. Outward religiosity hoisted on empty hearts has no value in the sight of God.
Fifth, he links Jihad with righteous life by emphasizing its position as the pinnacle and culmination of everything God desires of us, the highest virtue – and thus with Iman and life. To be true Muslims, we must be Mujahids.
Sixth, he links history with Iman. Iman is no more a mere metaphysical and spiritual force; it is the fulcrum of history, it is the determinant of destiny. Thus history becomes crucial for Iman, and therefore for life. We can no more sit back passively; we must try, actively, to change history, that is, wage Jihad.
Seventh, he links this-world with the Hereafter, as a continuing process. Without striving to fulfil the will of God in the present life, we cannot reap any harvest in the next.
Our previous discussion about Sayyid Mawdudi’s style has already shown, to some extent, how he achieves the above task. But let us reflect a little more on some salient features of what he has said.
Iman. The question of Iman lies at the heart of Sayyid Mawdudi’s entire discourse here. It is what the whole book is about; on it everything is centred. Indeed the entire contents of this book can be summed up as an echo of just one Quranic Ayah:
O believers, believe (al-Nisā’ 4: 136).
The meaning of Iman is well-known. What has gone wrong is that it has become irrelevant or peripheral to the actual lives lived by the believers. This has come to pass because of many factors. Iman has come to be taken for granted as a birthright; it has become confined to the mere utterance of the Kalimah; it has been put into a corner of life; it has been made innocuous and ‘safe’.
All this Sayyid Mawdudi strongly refutes: Being a Muslim ‘is not something automatically inherited from your parents which remains yours for life’.14 ‘Being born in Muslim homes, bearing Muslim names, dressing like Muslims and calling yourselves Muslims is not enough to make you Muslims.’15
For, ‘no one is an Unbeliever or a Muslim simply because of his name. Nor does the real difference lie in the fact that one wears a necktie and the other a turban’.16 Similarly, ‘mere utterance of six or seven words cannot conceivably transform an Unbeliever into a Muslim, … nor can it send a man to Paradise instead of Hell’.17
There is no compulsion to recite the Kalimah. But, having recited it, Sayyid Mawdudi stresses, you have ‘no basis whatsoever to make claims like “life is mine, the body is mine, wealth is mine”. It is absurd … You have no right to move your hands and feet against His wish, nor to make your eyes see what He dislikes …’.18 Also, ‘you have no right to say, “My opinion is this, the prevalent custom is this, the family tradition is this, that scholar and that holy person say this”. In the face of Allah’s word and His Messenger’s Sunnah, you cannot argue in this manner.’19
Sayyid Mawdudi is a great iconoclast, for no idolatry can ever co-exist with true Iman. But his chief concern does not lie with idols of stone, of natural objects. It lies with the idols of self, of society and culture, of human beings which so often become gods in hearts and lives.
What is Islam? ‘To entrust yourselves completely to God is Islam. To relinquish all claims to absolute freedom and independence and to follow God’s will is Islam … To bring your affairs under God means to accept unreservedly the guidance sent by God through His Book and His Messengers.’20 But there are people who ‘obey the dictates of their own reason and desires, follow the practices of their forefathers, accept what is happening in society, never bothering to ascertain from the Qur’ān and Sunnah how to run their affairs, or refuse to accept the teachings of the Qur’ān and Sunnah by saying: “They do not appeal to my reason”, or “They are against the ways of my forefathers”, or “The world is moving in an opposite direction’”. For them Sayyid Mawdudi has this to say: ‘Such people are liars if they call themselves Muslims.’21
Each of these is a god if obeyed besides God: self; society; family or nation; men, especially the rulers, the rich, and the false thinkers. Against them Sayyid Mawdudi inveighs relentlessly: ‘To be slaves of the three idols, I say, is the real Shirk (idolatry). You may have demolished the temples of bricks and mortar, you may have broken the stone idols in them, but you have paid little attention to the temples within your own hearts. To smash these idols is the essential precondition to becoming a Muslim.’22
Because ‘with these idols in your hearts you cannot become slaves of God. Merely by offering Prayers many times a day, by ostentatiously observing Fasts, and by putting on the outward face of Muslims you may deceive your fellow beings – as well, indeed, yourselves – but you will never be able to deceive God.’23
Having defined the nature of Iman and idolatry, and the claim of Iman upon the whole person, he tells us plainly: ‘If you obey the directions of God in some matters, while in others follow your own self, desires, society or man-made laws, then you are guilty of Disbelief to the extent of your disobedience. You may be half Unbeliever, or a quarter Unbeliever or less or more.’24 To claim to be Muslims and to reserve even the tiniest territory in hearts or lives from God is sheer
