Syed Abu A’la Maududi was born in Aurangabad in the Deccan on Rajab 3, 1321/ September 25, 1903, in a respectable family known for its religious piety. His descent is traced to a renowned personage of Chisti Sufi order, Khwaja Qutb al Mawdud Chishti. Maududi’s lineage on the paternal side is traced to the Prophet (SAW). His ancestors had moved to the Indian subcontinent from Chisht at the end of the ninth century. Maududi was much impressed with his lineage. He wrote “I belong to such a family that has 1,300 years of history of guiding asceticism and Sufism.”
The young Maududi was possessed of a receptive mind and sharp intellect along with an inquisitive nature, thanks to which he was always inclined to delve into a host of serious and searching questions. He saw Islam as a complete code of life. It was a way of life, a culture and civilisation that could captivate peoples’ hearts and convince their minds easily. It encompassed all aspects of human life. He systematically presented Islam as a political system, economic system, cultural system, social system, ethical system, and so on. He uprooted the confusion that Islam was but the name of some scattered teachings. He underlined the fundamental principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah. He urged that a believer in Islam should accept it as a whole. Accepting some part of Islam and rejecting others was perversity, he maintained.
In Islam, acquisition of knowledge is an obligation and it has to be acquired in the name of and for the sake of Allah. The Quran speaks in glowing terms of knowledge and of the people endowed with it. There are a number of Hadith which greatly emphasise pursuit of knowledge and make pursuit of knowledge a duty incumbent on every Muslim. In the first five centuries of the Hijri era (7th to 12th centuries CE), Muslims exhibited an insatiable desire as well as immense capacity to learn, which led to a phenomenal efflorescence of Islamic thought. In the early period of Islam, learning of Arabic and Islamic studies was considered of vital importance. The Muslims acquired in a short period of time the knowledge of a number of civilizations – Indian, Persian, Iraqian, Greek and Roman. In the course of time, Islamic civilisation reached its zenith and made the greatest contributions and advancements in all fields of knowledge.
The Muslims believed in Tawhid, in the unity of mankind. All knowledge in their view was a confirmation of divine unity and purpose. In fact, in Islam there is no concept of science for its own sake, nor of knowledge for its own sake. Many so-called reformers believe that what the Islamic system of knowledge needed was simply the addition of western sciences to the existing curriculum. This view is based on the assumption that western sciences are value-neutral and they would not cause any harm to Islamic values. To Maududi, such educational reforms were bound to be unproductive, even counterproductive. What was needed, according to him, was to reorient the whole system of education and to Islamicise knowledge. To Islamicise, in Maududi’s view, is “to critically analyse the western humanities and sciences”, and to recast them in accordance with the teachings of Islam. It is a process of critical evaluation and appreciation as distinct from blind imitation, a process of sifting, filtering and reconstruction as distinct from wholesale rejection of western thought. The aim is to critically appraise and reformulate social sciences within the framework of Islam.
Maulana Maududi felt strongly that a genuine revival of Ummah was possible only if the education system was revamped and its faults corrected. He strongly felt that the whole system needed to be formed anew. He proposed that all educational levels – elementary, secondary and universities – need to be modified. As the intellectual direction most depended on universities, they were of the greatest concern. He argued that the existing educational system was a curious mixture of western and Islamic elements which were in mutual conflict. In the existing system, mutually opposed elements (western and Islamic) had been combined. He said that this existing dualism in Muslim education, the bifurcation into religious and mundane, must be abolished once and for all. Islam, he argued, does not permit dividing education into two watertight compartments. Hence it was necessary that the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences be redesigned and assigned new purposes consistent with Islam.
The Muslims, in his opinion, ought to rebuild their educational structure in consonance with requirements of Islam, albeit in a way that would also make it responsive to the requirements of the modern age. He talks of how a university should be:
The aim of an Islamic university in his opinion should be “to produce such righteous scholars who would be able to provide leadership to the contemporary world in all walks of life in accord with teachings of Islam.”
An Islamic university should strive to preserve Islamic culture and heritage by arresting the tide of westernisation, as manifested especially in dress, lifestyle and conduct. Islamic culture cannot be revived merely by showing respect to abstract principles and ideals; instead, these ideals must be translated into practice. Hence the first prerequisite for an Islamic university is to create an environment imbued with Islamic spirit.
It must be a residential university so that students may grow and develop in a congenial environment characterised by piety and righteousness.
Admission should be open to all Muslim students of the world.
The university must take extreme care in recruiting faculty who will be role models to their students. They should not only be experts in their respective fields but should also be good practising Muslims with a good grounding in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Needless to say, the success of the university will depend on teachers who are fully committed to Islam and observant of its teachings.
Arabic, “the language of our culture”, should be introduced as compulsory subject.
Instruction should be provided in Islamic faith, ethics, Shariah, Fiqh, Islamic history, and the like.
Humanities and sciences should be approached according to the Islamic point of view. The existing texts should be examined thoroughly and those that are deemed useful in their existing form should be taught. Courses should be merged with related disciplines of western learning. For instance, political science should incorporate with political thought of Islam.
There should be a separate department to promote research in Islamic studies which would award doctoral degrees.
The university must have an independent research centre. In pursuing research, the centre should avail the tools and skills developed by modern civilisation and should reexamine the contributions of Muslim scholars. The centre should strive to obtain the services of scholars who can produce textbooks in various disciplines that have been written in a contemporary idiom.
It is interesting that the “model university” envisaged by Maududi found its practical manifestation in many parts of the Muslim world, including the IIUM Malaysia (1983).
Maududi can duly be credited for diagnosing ills of Muslim society. May Allah give him highest ranks in Jannah and give acceptance to his everlasting charity.
Aameen

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Shaheen Suhail