The Nature of the Error of the Political Interpretation of Islam

The Nature of the Error of the Political Interpretation of Islam In brief, his understanding of the deen can be said to be a political interpretation of Islam. I am aware that no single word can fully represent a complex phenomenon, but the picture of the deen that emerges from Maulana Maududi’s writings can be said to approximate what I term as a ‘political interpretation of the deen’. In the Maulana’s attempted comprehensive interpretation of the deen, the political aspect appears as the focal point of the totality of the deen. From this perspective, the reality of belief and prophethood cannot be understood without taking politics into account. Nor can the true significance of worship be comprehended apart from its supposed political underpinnings. Nor, too, according to this perspective, can one progress on the spiritual path or understand the meaning of the Prophet’s ascension (miʿraj) if these are sought to be understood without taking into account their supposed political dimensions. It is as if without politics, the deen of Islam is so utterly empty and so totally incomprehensible that, in the words of Maulana Maududi, it is bereft of ‘more than threefourths’ of its components.