Maulana Maududi’s Writings

the Truth spread among the public. They regard this as threatening to destroy their lordship. ‘That is why’, he contended, ‘the true believer is compelled to take to war so that he can remove the hurdles in the path of establishing Divine Government’. The Concept of the Goal of Life A natural result of the political interpretation of Islam was that the goal towards which a believer had to strive came to be understood in essentially political terms. In this understanding of the goal of a believer, acquiring political power became of fundamental importance. Thus, in his book Tehrik-e Islami ki Akhlaqi Bunyaden (‘The Ethical Foundations of the Islamic Movement’), Maulana Maududi contended, ‘The ultimate aim of our struggle is bringing about change in political leadership’. ‘This is to say’, he explained, ‘that the final stage that we want to attain in this world is the end of the rule of godlessness and immorality and the establishment of the system based on a pious leadership. We regard this struggle as a means to acquire the pleasure of God, in this world and in the Hereafter.’ ‘It is this,’ he wrote, ‘that we have made our goal.’ He bemoaned the fact that many Muslims failed to appreciate ‘the importance of this issue in the deen.’ The ‘final basis’ for progress as well as decline in human affairs, he contended, was the question of who wielded political power. Without