Syed Abul A'la Maududi (Urdu: ابو الاعلی مودودی‎ – alternative spellings of last name Maudoodi, Mawdudi, also known as Abul Ala Maududi; (1903-09-25)25 September 1903 – 22 September 1979(1979-09-22)) was an Islamist philosopher, jurist, journalist and imam.[2] His numerous works were written in Urdu, but then translated into English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Burmese and many other languages.[3] He strove not only to revive Islam as a renewer of the religion,[4] but to propagate "true Islam", (which he saw as) a remedy for the weakness from which Islam had suffered over the centuries.[5] He believed that politics was essential for Islam and that it was necessary to institute sharia and preserve Islamic culture from what he saw as the evils of secularism, nationalism, socialism, and women's emancipation.[6]

He was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic organisation in Asia.[7] He and his party are thought to have been the pioneer in politicizing islam and generating support for an Islamic state in Pakistan.[8] They are thought to have helped inspire General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to introduce "Sharization" to Pakistan,[9] and to have been greatly strengthened by him after 10,000s of members and sympathizers were given jobs in the judiciary and civil service during his administration.[10] He was the first recipient of the Saudi Arabian King Faisal International Award for his service to Islam in 1979.[11] After his death his Gayby Salat al-Janazah in Mecca, making him the second person in history whose prayer was observed in the Kaaba, succeeding King Ashama ibn-Abjar.[3][7]


Contents
1 Early life
1.1 Background1.2 Childhood1.3 Education1.4 Journalism1.5 Political writings2 Political activity
2.1 Founding the Jamaat-i-Islami2.2 After founding of Pakistan3 Beliefs and ideology
3.1 Qur'an3.2 Islam
3.2.1 Hadith3.3 Women3.4 Economics
3.4.1 Socialism and populism3.5 Islamic Modernism3.6 Mughal Empire3.7 Secularism3.8 Science3.9 Nationalism3.10 Ulama3.11 Sufism and popular Islam3.12 Sharia3.13 Islamic Revolution3.14 Islamic state
3.14.1 "Failure" of Western democracy3.15 Non-Muslims3.16 Jihad4 Mystique, personality, personal life
4.1 Family and health4.2 Late life5 Legacy6 Timeline of Abul A'la Maududi's life7 Selected bibliography8 See also9 References
9.1 Citations9.2 Sources10 Further reading11 External links
Early life[edit]Background[edit]Maududi was born in (Mohalla Manzoor pura) Aurangabad India, then part of the princely state enclave of Hyderabad, until it returned to India in 1948.

He was the youngest of three sons of [12] Maulana Ahmad Hasan, a lawyer by profession. Although his father was only middle-class, he was the descendant of the Chishti line of saints; in fact his last name was derived from the first member of the Chishti Silsilah, i.e. Khawajah Syed Qutb ul-Din Maudood Chishti (d. 527 AH).[13] His father's mother was related to Islamic modernist thinker Sayyid Ahmad Khan.[14]

Childhood[edit]At an early age, until he was nine, Maududi was given home education, he "received religious nurture at the hands of his father and from a variety of teachers employed by him."[13] As his father wanted him to become a maulvi, this education consisted of learning Arabic, Persian, Islamic law and hadith.[15] He reportedly translated Qasim Amin's The New Woman from Arabic into Urdu at the age of 14,[16] and about 3,500 pages from Asfar, a work of Persian mystical thinker Mulla Sadra, some years later.[17]

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry[4][Note 1] (French:*[ة‘جƒtwan dة™ sة›جƒtة›ة،zypeتپi]; 29 June 1900*– 31 July 1944) was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist, and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the U.S. National Book Award.[6] He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

Saint-Exupéry was a successful commercial pilot before World War II, working airmail routes in Europe, Africa and South America. At the outbreak of war, he joined the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air), flying reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. After being demobilised from the French Air Force, he travelled to the United States to persuade its government to enter the war against Nazi Germany. Following a 27-month hiatus in North America, during which he wrote three of his most important works, he joined the Free French Air Force in North Africa, although he was far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health. He disappeared over the Mediterranean on a reconnaissance mission in July 1944, and is believed to have died at that time.

Prior to the war, Saint-Exupéry had achieved fame in France as an aviator. His literary works – among them The Little Prince, translated into over 250 languages and dialects – posthumously boosted his stature to national hero status in France.[7][8] He earned further widespread recognition with international translations of his other works. His 1939 philosophical memoir Terre des hommes—Man and His World became the name of an international humanitarian group, and was also used to create the central theme of the most successful world's fair of the 20th century, Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[9]


Youth t


Birthplace of Saint-Exupéry in the Presqu'île section of Lyon, on the street now named after him, in blue at lower left.
Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon to an aristocratic Catholic family that could trace its lineage back several centuries. He was the third of five children of the Countess Marie de Fonscolombe and Count Jean de Saint Exupéry (1863–1904) .[10][11][Note 2] His father, an executive of the Le Soleil (The Sun) insurance brokerage, died of a stroke in Lyon's La Foux train station before his son's fourth birthday. His father's death had sadly affected the entire family, transforming their status to that of 'impoverished aristocrats'.[13]

Saint-Exupéry had three sisters and a younger blond-haired brother, François, who at age 15 would tragically die of rheumatic fever contracted while both were attending the Marianist College Villa St. Jean in Fribourg, Switzerland, during World War I. Saint-Exupéry attended to his brother, his closest confidant, beside François' death bed, and later wrote that François "...remained motionless for an instant. He did not cry out. He fell as gently as a [young] tree falls", imagery which would much later be recrafted into the climactic ending of The Little Prince. At age 17, now the only "man" in the family following the death of his brother, the young author was left as distraught as his mother and sisters, but he soon assumed the mantle of a protector and took to consoling them.[14]