I apologize I may be pronuncing as well as writing his name incorrectly. I would like to find out from this forum’s participants as to how much they know about him. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated as I have little information about this respected leader of muslim world..
Well, I am sorry to say that I despise the name Moudoodi. I think he was a sick person, who viewed the world through his fogy sense of reality. His views were biased and he was instrumental in creating an atmosphere of hatred against Ahmadis. He is considered a scholar in his own rights throughout the Islamic world, but the world only knows about his literary contribution to Islam and not about his hatred of Ahmadis. Those who admire him for his person are naive, those who value his “tafseer” without his person are mildly ignorant, those who agree with his philosophy are psychotic.
Okay... fair enough.... Like I said earlier, I am not well informed about him or his actions, Would u mind telling me what were his actions/words against Ahmadis?? is that the only reason why you have such a strong feeling for him?? what do you think of his knowledge?
I will have to refresh my memory to talk about Moudoodi. There are few facts about that person, that I don’t need to massage my head, as those facts are ever so fresh. He was, by all means, a sick person. Always looking for issues to create an atmosphere of hate. Sometimes, I wonder that a person of such a stature can act so low. It was him who organized (in the early 50’s) a conference in Karachi, where scholars from East and West Pakistan gathered to make recommendations to the newly elected parliament. The only suggestion they made was to make Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority and offer them one seat in the assembly. This they argued should be noted into the constitution. Their suggestions did not go well with the parliament at that time, but they were successful in starting a movement. Shortly after that there were small scale riots in many cities, and it wasn’t too long after that that this movement of declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslims took a mainstream position. Moudoodi’s political party (JI) spent millions of dollars on propaganda into Islamic countries depicting Ahmadis as Israeli agents (references and clippings from old newspapers available upon request). Newspapers in countries as far as Indonesia and Malaysia printed full page ads asking all ‘Muslims’ to join in boycotting Ahmadia interests, and considering them as non-Muslims.
So these were the events leading to the current day situation of Ahmadis. They have been persecuted and driven out of their homeland (now their center is in England). Their mosques defaced, their books burnt. All in the name of Allah!
I am not religious by any account. But if Allah really exists, I doubt it very much that s/he will approve of Moudoodi’s views as humane or scholarly. He is single- handedly responsible for the plight of Ahmadis, and for that I hate him. I would hate him if he did that against Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, or anyone. Asking your fellows to persecute fellow citizens makes him no different than Hitler in my opinion.
And yes that is the only reason I have such strong feelings against him. In terms of his writings, I am not a student of theology, as far as I am concerned, he can write the most sophisticated of ‘tafseers’ and that would be a lot to ‘absorb’ for me (just because my interests do not lie in heavy duty theology). I do appreciate simple and easy to understand religious works. I am sure (whatever I have read) that he is a world renowned scholar and deserves a merit. It is his other views that I find despicable. May he rest is peace.
NY Ahmadi...in your response, you yourself were commiting all the negative acts that you described Maulana Maudoodi as having had done. Well..im not here to judge, and i acknowldege the fact that i dont know much about his philosophy, but i do know that he is very revered in Pakistan, and I do believe my religious elders when they tell me that he was a very learned man, and a devout muslim. About the ahmadiya movement, i dont know much, and do not wish to know, but the basic idea behind it from what i know is the negative of the fact that Prophet Muhammad(SAW) is the last prophet. And that fact is clearly stated in the Quran, and is one of the basic tenets of Islam. So it is obvious to me that if someone doesnt believe in that, he/she doesnt believe in Islam. And i think Maulana Maudoodi didnt have to carry out all those movements in order to instill this into anyones mind. I personally dont like people who start religious-cum-politial movements, based on Islam. Islam wasnt sent for political purposes. However, i might be wrong in what i know of ahmedis. But as you said, you are not religious, and apparently dont even know how to classify Allah, hence the s/he. But anyway, you have chosen your life the way it is, and I agree that noone should use politics or religion to suppress any one in this world.
Dear Akif,
My hating a person for his views is not the same as hating everyone who follows the same religion. Hating people for following a belief is the lowest level of human behavior. No one gives a hoot about who is the last prophet or who is the first one, but if some people believe in certain way, why should that matter to others? Would my believing that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the most powerful prophet make your religion less significant?