Allama Iqbāl & Syed Maudūdi

A Comparative Study of Their Ideologies Of Government and Economy

Abstract

Regarding the system of government and economy, Allama Muhammad Iqbāl expressed his views in his poetry, articles, and letters & also presented the ideology of Pakistan for the establishment of an Islamic system of government and economy worldwide. While Maulana, in addition to his articles and books, also made practical efforts to establish Pakistan as a Welfare-Oriented Islamic Democratic state.

Iqbal paid tribute to Syed Maudūdi for writing a knowledge-filled book, “Al-Jihad fi al-Islam,” at the age of 24. At that time, Iqbāl wanted Islamic jurisprudence to be renewed in the changing context of the present era. In this regard, his eyes fell on the young religious scholar of that time, Maulana Syed Abul-Ala Maudūdi, and the area of ​​Pathankot was selected for this work. Syed Maudūdi reached there, but Iqbāl died during this time. Thus, the work of renewing Islamic jurisprudence under the supervision of Iqbāl could not be completed.

Iqbāl explained the mistakes of Western democracy. Iqbāl wanted to remove the mistakes of the Western democratic system and present the Islamic democratic system in practice to the world. Iqbāl called it; spiritual democracy. He also wanted to present the Islamic economic system to the world in comparison with capitalism, socialism, communism and mixed economy.

Syed Maududi's position was that the democratic system is not the legacy of Europe but the legacy of Islam. The Westerners have adopted this form of government in the name of democracy, which aims to establish authoritarian governments. After the establishment of Pakistan, Syed Maudūdi, along with other scholars, launched successful movements for the Islamic democratic system, which resulted in the formation of the 1973 constitution.

In the research paper under review, the Sequential Comparative Approach has been adopted to compare the theories of Iqbāl and Maudūdi on government and the economy, and, in this regard, the theories of both leaders have been examined in detail.