Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Syed Maududi's attitude towards Sufism was critical but respectful. Our attitude towards Sufism determines the answer to the complex question of our identity in matters personal and political – our view of religious/secular other. Syed Moududi’s views helped determine views of millions towards Sufism and call for attention and clarification.     Syed Moududi’s attitude towards Sufism was critical but respectful. Certain ambivalence in his attitude shows he was not quite clear on key claims of Sufism or didn’t reflect in depth on them.     Let us first note how Syed Moududi concedes, in principle, traditional understanding of Tasawwuf as spirit or interior dimension of Islam. He writes in Towards Understanding Islam that Fiqh and Tasawwuf complement each other and noted that, “What concerns itself with the spirit of conduct is known as Tasawwuf ” and “the true Islamic Tasawwuf is the measure of our spirit of our obedience and sincerity, while Fiqh g over...

Reading Eric Voegelin on Sacred Oriented Politics. We live in a world where Syed Maududi remains a presence to contend with. One is either for him or against him – there is no option of ignoring him. There remains certain ambivalence with regard to his central ideas amongst mainstream Ulema, and some intellectuals. Ambivalence may be underlined by noting sharply divided estimates of him by Hasan Askari, and his student Saleem Ahmed, two great traditionalist critics of Pakistan. Askari was quite critical of Syed Maududi and a fan of Bhutto, while for Saleem Ahmed converse was true. (Muslim religious/intellectual communities similarly remain divided in their views of revivalist theology and politics). It appears that Maududi would be better understood in relation to the thoughts of the best of his contemporaries in political philosophy and religion. One such illustrious contemporary was Eric Voegelin who shared Maududi’s commitment to the Sacred infused life and public sphere, distrust...