(This is only an extract from the article and not the whole one. Only one book is presented here as described by Mr. Paracha.)
The books listed and reviewed below, all authored by Pakistanis, went on to construct socio-political narratives of large sections of Pakistan’s polity, and also abetted in the shaping of policies of the various governments since the inception of the country in August 1947.
Risala-e-Diniyat
Abul Aala Mawdudi (1932)
[English translation: Towards Understanding Islam (1959)]
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Pakistan emerged as a Muslim-majority state in 1947. But its Muslim majority was (and still is) made up of a number of Islamic sects and sub-sects. Relations between these sects/sub-sects have historically been strained by a number of theological, ritual and political tensions. These strains were largely unresolved at the time of Pakistan’s creation.
It was the state and an elite group from the new country’s intelligentsia who took it upon themselves to define the Islam that was to prevail in Pakistan. Though this political and intellectual elite was steeped in and inspired by the ‘modernist’ and reformist strands of Islam that had emerged in South Asia from the mid-19th century onwards, it pragmatically allowed the proliferation of a strand of the faith envisioned and propagated by an Islamic scholar who was (ironically) against the creation of Pakistan.
Abul Ala Mawdudi was a prolific author and Islamic scholar who had opposed the creation of Pakistan. He had denounced the concept of the Muslim Nationalism that had led to Pakistan’s birth, and was suspicious of the religious credentials of the country’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Yet, it was a book by Mawdudi, Risala-e-Diniyat, that became the basis of how the state of Pakistan wanted to teach Islam to young Muslims in schools. The book was authored by Mawdudi in 1932 and briefly deals with Islamic history, the Quran and what Islam as a faith constitutes in everyday life.
Till the late 1950s, Islamiat (or the study of Islam) was an optional subject in Pakistani schools. Parents were mostly expected to teach their children (about Islam) at home.
Consequently, it was Mawdudi’s Risala-e-Diniyat that found the most favour among urban middle-class parents. However, in the 1970s, portions of this book were incorporated into Islamiat text books by the populist government of Z.A. Bhutto. By then, the subject had become compulsory in schools.
Eventually, from 1977 onwards, the book was entirely absorbed into Islamiat textbooks mainly during the conservative regime of General Ziaul Haq (1977-88).
Professor Khurshid (an economist and member of the Jamat-i-Islami), authored the book’s first English translation (Towards Understanding Islam).
One of the most interesting aspects of Risala-e-Diniyat is how, by explaining Islam as an ‘all-encompassing faith’ (that also had a political side), Mawdudi exhibits the initial development of a theory that he would be considered a pioneer of, and that would become to be known as ‘Political Islam.’Risala-e-Diniyat was also frequently handed out to young soldiers and officers by General Ziaul Haq when he was made the Chief of Army Staff by Z.A. Bhutto in 1976.
In Risala-e-Diniyat, apart from dealing with the basic tenants and history of Islam, Mawdudi also outlines the generalities of what evolved to become Political Islam – a subject/theory he would go on to explore in a more complex and intellectual manner in his future writings.
The book is often criticised by certain sections of the intelligentsia for being a ‘restrictive interpretation of Islam that threatened the pluralistic fabric of Pakistani civil society …’
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