Against the “Triangle of Calamity”: Abul a’La Maududi and the Construction of an Islamic Alternative to Western Modernity

Waqar Ahmad, Ph.D Student in University of Peshawar
Danishwar Danishwar, Graduate Student Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology PeshawarPeshawar
Muhammad Riaz, University of Peshawar

This paper examines the political thought of Abul A'la Maududi (1903-1979) as a systematic critique of Western modernity from the vantage point of the colonized world. Moving beyond portrayals of Maududi as either a traditionalist or a mere fundamentalist, this paper argues that his work constitutes a sophisticated theoretical project to deconstruct Western political order and reconstruct an alternative modernity rooted in Islamic concepts. The paper centers on Maududi’s formulation of the “triangle of calamity” (musallas-e-zalam) that he believed shadowed modern humanity: secularism, nationalism, and democracy. For Maududi, this trinity was not the pinnacle of human progress but a set of interconnected pathologies born of Europe's specific historical experience. He viewed secularism as the source of moral anarchy, nationalism as a divisive force shattering human brotherhood, and popular sovereignty as a tyranny of the majority displacing divine guidance. The paper’s core argument is that Maududi’s proposed alternatives—divine sovereignty (Hakimiyyat-e-Ilahiya), popular vicegerency (Khilafat-e-Naas), and universal human brotherhood (Akhwat-e-Insaniya)—were not a call to return to a pre-modern past. Instead, they represent a deliberate attempt to construct a different kind of modernity. His concept of “Theodemocracy” exemplifies this hybrid intellectual labor, offering limited popular sovereignty operating within divine law as an Islamic resolution to the modern tension between authority and freedom. By reading Maududi against the grain, this paper makes two contributions. First, it recovers his thought as a form of anti-colonial resistance that challenged the “civilizing mission” on philosophical grounds. Second, it analyzes his project as a concrete example of the hybridization of political concepts in the postcolonial world, synthesizing Islamic jurisprudence with modern political categories. Understanding this foundational critique is essential for grasping political Islam’s ongoing negotiation with democratic institutions in the Global South today.

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 Presented in Session 131. Islamic Political Thought, Sovereignty, and Alternative Modernities