Correspondence with Maulana Abu A’la Maududi

Respected Maulana, if I know myself—and perhaps the greatest reality a person can know in this world is his own self—then I would say that your perception of me is completely opposite to the facts. It is far from the truth to think that I am caught up in ‘arrogant pride’ and have such a strong aversion to the viewpoint I criticized that I have sunk to ‘debating for the sake of argument,’ to the point that my ability for ‘self-critique’ might now be questionable. While I am not shocked by your disagreement with my perspective, your remarks are surprising because, upon self-reflection, I find my inner state to be completely opposite to what, unfortunately, you have assumed. This is something I can state with the utmost certainty about myself. I remember very well that four months ago, when it was decided in Delhi that I should send a copy of my writing to you for comments, several of my colleagues advised me against sending the entire text. They suggested that I only send the portions containing the theoretical and scholarly discussions, or even, as Maulana Abu’l Lais proposed, that I prepare a separate questionnaire with my questions in a purely inquisitive tone regarding the relevant verses, and send that instead. They believed that since Maulana Maududi is not personally familiar with you, he might misunderstand your intentions when reading the whole text. However, I did not