Where Does an Erroneous Interpretation of the Deen Take Us?

In his Quran ki Char Bunyadi Istilahen, Maulana Maududi discussed four Quranic terms: Ilah, Rabb, ibadat and deen, and sought to explain them according to his perspective. In the preface to the book, he said that the meaning of ‘most Quranic words’ in the books of linguistics and Quranic commentary written in the later period of Muslim history had been ‘extremely narrowed down’ and their real import obscured. Thus, he said that the Quranic term Ilah had been wrongly translated as Mabud, a deity to be worshipped, Rabb as Parvardigar or Sustainer, ibadat as parastish or worship, and deen as mazhab or religion. In this way, he showed that these terms had acquired a special sort of spiritual or religious meaning. In his view, what he considered as their ‘civilizational’ and ‘political’ significance had, accordingly, been rendered invisible. He considered this book of his as lifting the veil over what he believed to be the ‘true’ civilizational and political significance of these four important Quranic terms. How, according to the Maulana, did such a massive blunder take place in our understanding of these key Quranic terms? How did this blunder continue through several centuries? The Maulana had a seemingly simple answer to these questions: ‘People in the past did not understand the deen properly.’ In this way, he sought to argue for the veracity of his understanding of the deen. But this interpretation changed the very nature of Islamic history. Muslims believe that throughout Islamic history there has been