The Hadith Scholar Muhammad al-Gondalwi’s Criticisms, in Tanqid al-Masa’il, of al-Mawdudi’s Writings on the Interpretation of Islam
The hadith scholar Muhammad al-Gondalwi (1315–1405 AH) wrote Tanqid al-Masa’il in Urdu, criticising some of al-Mawdudi’s writings.
He explained his reason for writing the book:
“The primary purpose of human creation is worship. God says: ‘I created jinn and human beings only to worship Me.’ (56) [al-Dhariyat: 56.] This is the purpose of sending prophets and revealing heavenly scriptures. Whoever errs in understanding this question misunderstands faith and unbelief and other distinct realities. This intellectual error also produces deviation in the practical system, through which the Mu‘tazilah and Kharijites regarded all major sinners as eternally confined to the Fire. Some went to the extreme of saying that anyone not holding this belief must be fought. Others went further, saying that anyone not fighting them is also an unbeliever.
Such an error in understanding changes the organisation of human effort. I therefore considered it necessary to clarify this matter so that ordinary people, and even their elite who are really like ordinary people, should not fall into this error.” [1]
Al-Gondalwi, may God have mercy on him, explained that Shaykh al-Mawdudi followed the philosophers in misidentifying the meaning of worship, confusing the “end” with the “means”, and that many other errors in his writings followed. He said:
“Shaykh al-Mawdudi established, as he claimed, the following logical connection between Islam’s pillars and particulars:
- Islam is a political and economic system.
- All acts of worship are a training curriculum for establishing that system.
- God alone is the ruler and the One entitled to obedience.
Following this logical connection, al-Mawdudi understood Islam as follows:
- A deity means an object of worship.
- Worship means obedience.
- Obedience means complying with a ruling. Sovereignty belongs exclusively to God.
- This creed is the centre of the system arranged by the prophets, peace be upon them. Consequently, the true purpose of their mission is ‘establishing divine government’.
- The original act of worship is ‘establishing divine government’. The pillars of Islam, being ritual forms, are not real worship but training curricula for that original worship.” [2]
Al-Mawdudi explicitly wrote things agreeing with the philosophers’ account of the purpose of worship, the sending of messengers, the revelation of scriptures and other matters. He said:
“Islam aims primarily to produce a body of righteous people who will build human civilisation upon foundations of goodness and flourishing.” [3]
“To build this civilisation and social order on earth, God sent His messengers in succession.” [4]
“I wish briefly to impress upon your minds that Islam’s call to affirm God’s oneness and worship Him was not a call to a religious belief like other religious beliefs. It was, in reality, a call to social revolution.” [5]
“…Similarly, Islamic acts of worship were regarded as purely devotional, although they are means of strengthening the intellectual and moral foundations upon which Islam built its social system.” [6]
Al-Gondalwi pointed to such philosophical statements in al-Mawdudi’s writings and said:
“The philosophers regard acts of worship as serving civilisation and social order. Their end is social life, which can exist only through allocating affairs and tasks. To avoid excess and deficiency and preserve moderation and balance, it needs a law that must come from God, and it needs worship to create awareness of God.” [7]
Al-Gondalwi examined and discussed these points in al-Mawdudi’s writings in light of the Qur’an and Sunnah, then emphasised his influence by the philosophers:
“Shaykh al-Mawdudi considers, as his logical and philosophical connection requires, Islamic acts of worship – prayer, fasting, Hajj, zakat, remembrance and Qur’an recitation – training curricula for another original act of worship: ‘establishing divine government’. This view is borrowed from atheist philosophers. Abu Ali Ibn Sina stated explicitly in al-Isharat, as did other philosophers in their books, that acts of worship serve civilisation and social order.
Shaykh al-Islam, the hadith master Ibn Taymiyyah, refuted this lowly view in al-Radd ‘ala al-Mantiqiyyin:
‘The point here is to note that, even supposing the soul were perfected by knowledge alone, as they claim, although that is false, the soul has two faculties: a theoretical faculty of knowledge and a practical faculty of will. Both must be perfected through knowing and worshipping God. Worship combines love of Him with humility before Him. No soul becomes complete except through worshipping God alone without partner.
Worship consists of knowing Him, loving Him and being His servant. For this God sent the messengers and revealed the divine scriptures, all calling to worship God alone without partner.
These people make the purpose of the worship commanded by the messengers the reform of the soul’s character to prepare it for the knowledge they claim is its perfection,
or the reform of the household and civic life, which is practical wisdom.
They thus make worship mere means to what they claim as knowledge. Consequently, they consider it no longer binding upon someone who has attained the objective, as the atheistic Ismailis do, along with those who have entered atheism, wholly or partly, while affiliating themselves with Sufis, theologians, Shi‘ah or others.’ [8]
Ibn Taymiyyah’s statement means that the doctrines of philosophers, atheists, Ismailis and others regard worship as a means to attain knowledge through unveiling or to reform household and civic life.
His statement, ‘Consequently, they consider it no longer binding upon someone who has attained the objective’, does not describe everyone’s doctrine. Some also require worship after the objective has been attained. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said in Madarij al-Salikin, 1/52: ‘Some require maintaining regular devotions and duties without neglecting them.’”
Source
Da‘wat Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah wa-Atharuha ‘ala al-Harakat al-Islamiyyah al-Mu‘asirah wa-Mawqif al-Khusum minha, by the researcher Shaykh Salah al-Din Maqbul Ahmad, Dar Ibn al-Athir, Kuwait, second edition, 1416 AH – 1992, 1/258–263.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Gondalwi, whose name is also rendered al-Jondalwi or al-Kondalwi, was the subject of a biography by his student Professor Asim ibn Abd Allah al-Qaryuti in Kawkabah min A’immat al-Huda wa-Masabih al-Duja, p. 19 onwards. He described him as “the jurist, Qur’anic commentator, hadith scholar and transmitter, legal theorist, ascetic, learned mufti, shaykh and imam Abu Abd Allah Muhammad A‘zam ibn Fadl al-Din al-Jondalwi. He was born in Gondlanwala, a village three miles west of Gujranwala in Pakistan, on a Thursday in Ramadan 1315 AH, corresponding to 1897.” Al-Qaryuti wrote at length about him, praised him highly and recorded his death on 14 Ramadan 1405 AH, corresponding to 4 June 1985, aged nearly ninety.
His published Arabic books include Irshad al-Qari ila Naqd Fayd al-Bari, a collection of his observations compiled and supplemented by his student Abd al-Mannan ibn Abd al-Haqq al-Nurpuri. Fayd al-Bari fi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari is by Shaykh Muhammad Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri (d. 1352 AH/1933). Another is Majmu‘ Rasa’il fi al-‘Aqa’id wa-l-Usul li-l-Imam al-Muhaddith al-Hafiz Muhammad al-Kondalwi, collected and edited by Hafiz Shahid Rafiq. This collection contains the treatise Tanqid al-Masa’il.
…….
Notes
[1] Tanqid al-Masa’il, pp. 15–16, Gujranwala, Pakistan edition.
[2] Ibid., pp. 34–36.
[3] Al-Tafsir al-Siyasi li-l-Islam, p. 108, quoting Nazrah Fahisah ‘ala al-‘Ibadat al-Islamiyyah by al-Mawdudi, 1/75.
[4] Mujaz Tarikh Tajdid al-Din wa-Ihya’ihi, p. 32.
[5] Tanqid al-Masa’il, pp. 34–35, quoting al-Mawdudi’s Tafhimat, p. 68.
[6] Ibid., p. 35, quoting al-Mawdudi’s Al-Muslimun wa-l-Sira‘ al-Siyasi fi al-‘Asr al-Hadir, p. 3.
[7] Ibid., pp. 16–17.
[8] See Majmu‘ Fatawa Shaykh al-Islam, 9/136, Logic.