Islamic Civilization: Foundational Beliefs and Principles

Author:  Syed Abu Ala Mawdudi
Translator:  Syed Akif
Publisher:  Institute of Policy Studies
Pages:  260
Binding:  Hardcover
ISBN:  978-969-448-112-8

About the Book: The study attempts to bring out the vital relationship between the concept of civilization and Islam’s underlying worldview and vision of life. It argues that the true understanding of Islamic civilization is possible only by having access to the soul of that civilization and its underlying fundamental principles – belief in God, the angels, the Prophets, the Revealed Books and the Last Day – rather than to its manifestations in knowledge, literature, fine arts or rhetoric, its social life, its notions of refined living or its system of governance. The book is a translation of Mawdudi’s “Islami Tehzib awr uskey Usul-o-Mabadi” written in the 1930s at a time when the momentum for independence was growing in British India. With a Foreword by Zafar Ishaq Ansari, this is an authoritative first complete English translation by Syed Akif, which will be of interest to students and experts alike.

About the Author: Abul A’la Mawdudi (1903-1979) was a leading Muslim intellectual and a chief architect of the Islamic revival in the twentieth century. In 1941 he founded Jama’at-i-Islami, a political party in Pakistan, which he led until 1972. He authored more than a hundred works on Islam, both popular and scholarly, and his writings have been translated into some forty languages.