Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 44
Murder in the Name of Allah them, nor art thou over them a guardian. ' (6. 108). In contrast to the established conduct of all the messengers of God mentioned in the Holy Quran by name or in general, Maulana Maududi gave himself the authority to oppress and compel God's servants so that the Jamaati Islami could eradicate injustice, mischief, disorders, disobedience and exploitation from the world'. 15. The Maulana's ambition of seizing power knew no bounds: he would go to any lengths to achieve it. He was totally obsessed with political authority and considered that the worship of God had been prescribed to train Muslims to usurp power and rule the world. For him, worship had no spiritual purpose. It was not a religious experience, a meeting ground between man and his Creator, but a ritual of self-discipline. God says: 'I have created Jinn and men that they may worship Me. ' (51. 57) The world was created for the worship of God. Worship was not created for any other purpose. But the Maulana insists:. The prayers (salat), fasting, charity (zakat) and pilgrimage have been prescribed to prepare and train us for this purpose (jihad). All the governments in the world give their armies special and specific training, their police and civil service too. In the same way, Islam also trains those who join its service - then requires them to go to jihad and establish the government of God. 16. No religion in the world preaches such a materialistic concept of worship. . But even the worship of God can become nothing more than an army drill for a person who is obsessed. . Ambition is impatient by definition, but of all ambitions power mania brooks least delay. So the Maulana would not take the straight path - it was too narrow and too long for him. And Marxism, too, will not take the long and hard route of democracy to liberate the oppressed. Instead, it adopts violence to try to overthrow the elected government of the day. . The Maulana's method of reform is no different from the Marxist ideology of violent struggle. The Maulana says: 'Stand up to reform people wherever you can. Try to replace wrong principles with correct ones. Snatch away executive and legislative powers from those who do not fear God. 17. It is surprising that a journalist of Maulana Maududi's long political experience could not understand the principle that governments should not be overthrown by force, whatever the reason. To break this basic rule is to destroy law and order. The fires of civil war would consume the very fabric of society. . Firstly, no party can be its own judge and decide its intentions are 44