two Dins, for he can obey only one at a time. ‘In reality you are followers only of that being’s Din whom you are actually obeying. Is it not then utter hypocrisy to call that being your ruler and to claim to belong to his Din whom you do not obey.’ Further, ‘is it not meaningless to assert that you have faith in this Shari‘ah when all your affairs are conducted in violation of this Shari‘ah and in fact you follow another Shari‘ah?’37
Obviously, thirdly, this situation is unacceptable. For ‘how can Allah’s Din accept to co-exist with any other Din, when no other Din admits of such partnership. Like every other Din, Allah’s Din, too, demands that all authority should genuinely and exclusively be vested in it’.38
Fourthly, because the lordship of man over man is the root cause of all corrupt rule on earth, it is our duty to ‘stand up and fight against corrupt rule; take power and use it on God’s behalf. It is useless to think you can change things by preaching alone’.39
History: Iman is squeezed out of life once we begin to take history as merely an interplay of material forces. Sayyid Mawdudi puts Iman back at the centre of history, just as he installs it at the centre of heart and life. It becomes the fulcrum by which the scales of destiny are tipped: ‘You are Muslims and yet are wallowing in ignominy! You are Muslims and yet are slaves! This situation is as impossible as it is for an object to be black and white.’40
Further, ‘it is impossible for a people to possess God’s word and yet suffer disgrace and ignominy, live under subjugation, be trampled on and kicked around, and carry the yoke of slavery on their necks, being led by the nose like animals’.41
How does, then, this come to happen? Sayyid Mawdudi has absolutely no doubt. ‘If it is an article of faith with you’, he argues, ‘that God is not unjust and obedience to God can never result in disgrace, then you will have to concede that there is something wrong in your claim to be Muslims’.42 In this respect Muslim conduct towards the Qur’ān is very crucial. ‘If a people possess Allah’s Book and still live in disgrace and subjugation, they are surely being punished for doing injustice to Allah’s word. The only way to save yourselves from Allah’s anger is to turn back from this grave sin and start trying to render His Book its due.’43
Although we had to quote from the text very extensively, it was necessary to show clearly the principal threads that run through Sayyid Mawdudi’s discourse in this book. The above discussion clearly demonstrates how they make his contribution distinctive and unique.
These threads underline the crucial and radical importance of Sayyid Mawdudi’s discourse summoning Muslims: Let us be Muslims. Everything which has either lost its original meaning or has been emptied of its true intent becomes redefined. But the most remarkable thing, as we said, is that he connects all of them together again. That is why while he says nothing very different from what others are saying, his impact has been tremendous. For, thus connected, Iman regains its original power to change man and his world.
IV
Anyone who reads Sayyid Mawdudi’s discourses will find no difficulty in understanding the true intent and purpose of what he embraces and expounds. One may disagree with it, or find it uninspiring, but he cannot deny that Sayyid Mawdudi is talking the same language and conveying the same message as do the Qur’ān and the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him.
But some have taken exception to what he says. He has replied to them in his Preface to the eighth reprint which is included herein. But we may still find it useful to compare his discourses with the Qur’ān and Hadith. For it is their light which radiates through his words.
Let us first look at the Qur’ān.
True Iman which resides in hearts, shapes lives, and finds acceptance with God is always differentiated from outward, legal Iman. ‘The Bedouins say, “We believe.” Say: you do not believe, rather say, “We have surrendered”, for [true] faith has not yet entered their hearts’ (al-Ḥujurāt 49: 15). Similarly mere verbal professions of faith, which are contradicted by actions, are rejected. ‘O Messenger, let not those grieve you who vie with one another in Disbelieving, from among those who say, “We believe”, with their mouths, but their hearts believe not’ (al-Mā’idah 5: 41).
Hence even believers are often called upon ‘to believe’, that is, to attain true faith. ‘O believers, believe in God and His Messenger, and the Book He is sending down upon His Messenger, and the Book He sent down before’ (al-Nisā’ 4: 136). Or, ‘Believe in God and His Messenger, and spend out of that in which we have made you vicegerents …’ (al-Ḥadīd 57: 7).
The link between Iman and actions is clearly manifest in the way both are almost always bracketed together: al-ladhīna āmanū wa ‘amilu ’ṣ-ṣāliḥāt (those who believe and do righteous deeds). Or, one only has to read those Ayahs which describe the demands and conditions of true Iman by saying: in kuntum muminīn (if you are believers).
The bond between true faith and ritual worship, on the one hand, and a life lived totally in worship, which leads to justice and compassion in society, on the other, is firmly established in many places: ‘Have you seen him who denies Judgement. That, then, is he who pushes away the orphan; and urges not to feed the needy. Woe, then, unto those praying ones who are unmindful of their Prayer, those who want to be seen, and who refuse [even] small kindnesses’ (al-Mā‘ūn 107:1 – 5).
Thus the claim of Iman upon the whole of life, its nature as a bargain, as a total commitment, is fully established. ‘O believers, enter wholly into Islam [self-surrender unto God]’ (al-Baqarah 2: 208). For ‘the only [true] way in the sight of God is Islam’ (Āl ‘Imrān 3: 19). Therefore ‘whoso desires a way other than surrender unto God, it will never be accepted from him’ (Āl ‘Imrān 3: 85).
Jihad, as Sayyid Mawdudi has argued, now becomes integral to Iman. The Qur’ān makes it the criterion by which the truthfulness of Iman is to be judged. ‘The believers are those only who [truly] believe in God and His Messenger, and then they doubt not; and who struggle hard with their wealth and their lives in the way of God; it is they who are the truthful ones’ (al-Ḥujurāt 49: 15).
The Akhira as the harvest of what we sow in Dunya is such a recurring and predominant motif in the Qur’ān that it hardly needs to be repeated here.
But that, according to the Qur’ān, history (Dunya, in a sense) itself is a crop of beliefs and actions, of Iman and taqwā, of ṣabr (steadfastness and patience) and istighfār (seeking forgiveness) is not always well understood. ‘Had the people of cities believed and been conscious of Us, We would indeed have opened up for them blessings from heaven and earth’ (al-A‘rāf 7: 96). And, ‘Ask forgiveness from your Lord, then turn towards Him in repentance; He will loosen the sky over you in abundance, and He will increase you in strength unto your strength’ (Hūd 11: 52). Also, ‘Had they established the Torah and the Gospel, and what has been sent down to them from their Lord, they would have partaken of all the blessings from above them and from beneath their feet’ (al-Mā’idah 5: 66).
Turning to the Hadith we find there the same themes propounded in the same manner.
We have only to open any collection of Hadith
