A response to al-Mawdudi’s view of Islam’s practical pillars
(Prayer, zakat, fasting and Hajj)
Shaykh Abd al-Salam ibn Abd al-Karim Al Burjis, may God have mercy on him
The shaykh says:
“On the other hand, al-Mawdudi, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood’s call or that of Jamaat-e-Islami, has been greatly exalted. One scarcely finds anyone criticising him today. In reality, he has innovations, errors and adherence to philosophers that oblige us to lower his standing and warn against his writings.
“I shall limit myself to one issue he treated most badly: Islam’s practical pillars, prayer, zakat, fasting and Hajj.
“Let us see how al-Mawdudi discussed them.
“What is his view of these pillars?
“Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi’s book Al-Mawdudi: His Merits and Faults quotes his statements on this subject. Before presenting them, it should be understood that al-Mawdudi sees the original and greatest worship as establishing the Islamic state.
“With this understood, al-Mawdudi says, as quoted by al-Kandhlawi: ‘This is the purpose for which prayer, fasting, zakat and Hajj were imposed in Islam. Calling them acts of worship does not mean that they themselves are the worship. It means they prepare a person for the original worship. These, meaning prayer, fasting, zakat and Hajj, are a necessary training course for it,’ that is, for the original worship.
“He also says: ‘You think standing facing the prayer direction with the right hand over the left, bowing with the hands on the knees, prostrating on the ground and reciting specified words, these actions and movements, are worship in themselves. You think fasting from the beginning of Ramadan to the beginning of Shawwal, hunger and thirst from morning to evening, is worship. You think circumambulating the Ka‘bah is worship. In short, you have called the outward aspects of certain actions worship, and when someone performs these actions in their forms and shapes, you think they have worshipped God. In truth, the worship for which God created you and which He commanded you to perform is something else.’
“So he says. God is sufficient for us and the best disposer of affairs.
“He says: ‘If you asked what prayer and fasting are, the answer would be: these acts of worship were imposed by God to prepare for the greater worship which you must practise throughout your lives in every time and circumstance.’
“He also says: ‘The meaning of worship in your minds is fundamentally wrong. You regard abstaining from food and drink from before dawn until sunset as fasting, and regard that as worship. But you do not know that hunger and thirst are not worship’s essence, only its form.’
“After quoting such statements, Shaykh al-Kandhlawi says: ‘These are examples I have presented. Al-Mawdudi’s writings are full of this style, and I do not wish to say anything against him.’
“He then says: ‘But I ask: is this the meaning of God’s Book and His Messenger’s Sunnah, peace and blessings be upon him, that these acts of worship are not intended in themselves but merely means preparing a person for the greater worship, and otherwise have no benefit? The Book and Sunnah emphasise the five pillars as they emphasise nothing else. Yet al-Mawdudi emphasises other things, diminishing these pillars’ importance and regarding them as unintended while other things are intended, making them subordinate and other things primary.’
“He goes on: ‘Do you not realise that treating one particular element as Islam’s fundamental aim has led members of this group increasingly to disparage the Islamic pillars and those concerned with performing them?’
“These final words are, by God, true. Thus, when one of us gives a sermon on monotheism and speaks extensively about it, they say: ‘Why are you speaking about monotheism while Muslims are being slaughtered on every side?’ They constantly strike a sensitive chord by accusing people of becoming absorbed in particulars, criticising those who discuss questions of Islamic law. Yet they never criticise someone who spends all or most of their time following newspapers and magazines and listening to political news from here and there, intending to understand contemporary reality.
“They truly possess a spirit of disparaging the Islamic pillars and those concerned with performing them, whether they realise it or not.
“What I would add to al-Kandhlawi’s words is that the thought al-Mawdudi presented is not new. Its banner was previously carried by the philosophers’ leader and greatest idol, Ibn Sina, in his Isharat. He maintains that worship was prescribed only as a means to establish civilisation on earth. Shaykh al-Islam refuted this.
“How can a reasonable person claiming Sunni foundations dare praise someone of this character? How dare they make him a renewer of religion? Glory be to God!”
From the lecture “They are the enemy, so beware of them,” published in Shaykh Abd al-Salam ibn Burjis’s Collected Writings and Editions, in the collection Lectures Concerning Religious Teaching and Teachers, pp. 142–145. Clip:
He also said, may God have mercy on him:
“The truth is that their attitude is not confined to ‘particulars’ but extends to ‘universals.’
“This grants them, for argument’s sake, that their criterion for ‘particulars’ and ‘universals’ is what certain Mu‘tazili scholars and those influenced by them established: that foundations concern doctrinal questions and branches practical questions, or that foundations are definitive questions and branches conjectural ones.
“Yet examining their conduct and circumstances, indeed some of their writings, shows that their ‘universals’ amount merely to involvement in politics and gathering people to establish an Islamic state, whether Rafidi, secular or devoted to tombs. The important thing is the name, not the reality.
“If you want to recognise the truth of what I have said, that they discard and belittle ‘universals’ when these conflict with their aim, look at their shameful position towards the Rafidi Khomeinist state. (1)
“Look at their defence of the tomb-devoted, ‘polytheistic’ state in Afghanistan. (2)
“Look at their praise for the secular ‘Turabi’ state in Sudan.
“Do these actions not discard ‘universals,’ just as they discarded ‘particulars’ by forbidding criticism of shaving beards, letting garments trail below the ankles and image-making?
“Why, then, hide behind the unfortunate ‘particulars,’ when both they and ‘universals’ are in the same trap?
“Further evidence is that Shaykh al-Mawdudi, one of their leading figures, regards Islamic acts of worship, prayer, fasting, Hajj, zakat, remembrance and reciting the Qur’an, as training courses for another original worship: ‘establishing divine government.’ This follows from his logical and philosophical linkage.
“This view is taken from the unbelieving philosophers. Abu Ali Ibn Sina in the Isharat, and other philosophers in their books, expressly state that ‘acts of worship serve culture and civilisation.’ (3)
“Hence Shaykh Muhammad al-Kandhlawi said in Al-Mawdudi: His Merits and Faults, p. 49: ‘…members of this group have increasingly disparaged the Islamic pillars and those concerned with performing them…’”
The Necessity of Attending to the Prophetic Practices, pp. 126–128, Dar al-Nawadir al-Qayyimah edition.
(1) Reflections on the Book “For Religious Teachers Only,” by our brother Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Ajami, may God have mercy on him, p. 53.
(2) The Road to the Mother Group, by Uthman Abd al-Salam Nuh, pp. 154–155, al-Manar edition.
(3) From the hadith scholar Muhammad al-Gondalawi’s response to al-Mawdudi, Tanqid al-Masa’il, quoted by our brother Shaykh Salah Maqbul in The Call of Shaykh al-Islam and Its Influence on Contemporary Trends, p. 136, Indian edition.
See also Abu al-A‘la al-Mawdudi: His Life and Doctrinal Thought, by Hamad al-Jammal, p. 300, Dar al-Madani edition.