''Towards Understanding Islam'' is a book written by

Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi Abul A'la al-Maududi (; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist, and scholar active in British India and later, following the partition, in Pakistan. Described by Wilfred C ...

which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker.E. Lerman (1981) ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 17 (4) 494-509 "Mawdudi's Concept of Islam" This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claims that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof Khurshid Ahmad. Under the subtitle ''Editor's Introduction'' in November 1979 Prof. Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including:

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(titled as इस्लाम धर्म) ,

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, Portuguese,

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, Balochi,

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and Sindhi. It is also translated in

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and

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Description

Mawdudi argues that Islam is about much more than daily rituals and habits, and that it is to be regarded as a dynamic system for the whole of life. The purpose of the book is to provide both Muslims and non-Muslims with a brief but comprehensive view of Islam.

Vali Nasr Vali Reza Nasr (, born 20 December 1960) is an Iranian-American academic and political scientist, specializing in Middle Eastern studies and the history of Islam. He is Majid Khaddouri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies ...

(1995), ''Mawdudi and the making of Islamic revivalism'', Oxford University Press, p. 27 The book also tries to provide a rational basis for Islamic beliefs.

About the author

(1903-1979), one of the chief architects of the contemporary Islamic resurgence, was a prominent Islamic thinker and writer of his time. He devoted his entire life to expounding the meaning and message of Islam and to organizing a collective movement to establish the Islamic Order. In this struggle, he had to pass through all kinds of suffering. Between (1948-1967), he was put behind bars on four occasions, spending a total of five years in different prisons in Pakistan. In 1953, he was also sentenced to death by a Martial Law Court for writing a "seditious" pamphlet, this sentence being later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1941, he founded

Jamaat-e-Islami Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist fundamentalist movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamist author and theorist Syed Abul Ala Maududi, who was inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. It is considered one of the most influential Isla ...

, of which he remained Amir until 1972 and which is one of the most prominent Islamic movements today. He authored more than one hundred works on Islam, both scholarly and popular, and his writings have been translated into more than forty languages.

References

{{Abul Ala Maududi Books by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi