Maulana Maududi’s Writings

Maulana Maududi’s Writings pious civilizational system cannot be established unless the reigns of political power are snatched from those who are immoral and sinful, and come into the hands of the pious. The Purpose of Worship In the political interpretation of Islam, worship or ibadat acquires a certain definite political meaning and status, as is evident in the statement below in Maulana Maududi’s book Khutbat: Prayer, fasting Haj and zakat, which God has made a duty for you and has appointed as pillars of Islam—all these things are not, as in the forms of worship in other religions, mere rituals and offerings and customs that you perform and God is happy with you. Rather, the fact of the matter is that they have been made into a duty to prepare you for a lofty purpose and to train you for an important task. This aim is to wipe out the rule of human beings and to establish the ruler-ship of the one God. To be ready to sacrifice one’s everything and make efforts for this purpose even at the cost of one’s life is called jihad. Prayer, fasting, Haj and zakat are all for preparing for this particular purpose. In his book Islami Ibadat Par Tahqiqi Nazar (‘An Analytical Perspective on Islamic Worship’), Maulana Maududi wrote about what he regarded as the purpose of congregational prayers in Islam as follows: