This study presents a comparative analysis of the interpretative approaches and the religious Weltanschauungs of two Islamic revivalists of Pakistan, especially in relation to jihad and the establishment of Islamic global order. Abu al-A'la Mawdudi (1903-1979) argues that the correct understanding of certain key Qur'anic terms makes it incumbent upon every Muslim to strive for the achievement of the basic objective of Islam, which is to establish an Islamic global order ( izhar-i din) to implement the Divine laws ( iqamat-i din) so that all un-Islamic (and, therefore, oppressive) "systems" of the world be replaced by the "ideal Islamic rule" (khilafat) of "the Islamic State." To strive fully to achieve this end is jihad, which may assume the form of an armed struggle (qital) when the situation so demands and Islamic conditions for it are fulfilled. Mawdudi gives various arguments to assert that this jihad is not a bane but a boon for mankind, and in it lies the only hope for mankind's prosperous existence in this world and the next. Contradicting Mawdudi's worldview, Javed Aḥmad Ghamidi (1951- ) asserts that the basic purpose of Islam as a religion is to purify the human soul to enable a person to worship and serve God as His true subject and servant. The qital done by the Prophet and his companions was essentially and for most part a form of Divine punishment against Divinely specified peoples for denying the truth of the Prophet's message and position after this truth had become evident to them. This form of jihad ended with the Prophet and his companions, and the only valid moral basis for qital now is to end oppression and injustice. Jihad (as qital) cannot be waged to propagate religion or merely to eradicate a non-Islamic "system." This study looks at the implications of these ideas and also delves into the concepts and interpretative approaches on which they are founded.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.83112 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Iftikhar, Asif |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002210800, proquestno: AAIMR12730, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds