ABSTRACT
Mawdudi’s salafi credentials rest in his return to the frameworks of a set of paradigms that existed during what he perceives as Islam in its original, ‘pristine’ condition. This may be termed his golden age narrative or his transhistorical perspective and are important for Mawdudi declares them to be his ‘four sources’ for what would be his Islamic constitution. This chapter will consider in some more detail these paradigms in an attempt to determine how accurate Mawdudi is in perceiving them in this manner. Inevitably the conclusions that will be drawn are obvious, for utopia by its – and human beings by their – very nature is that which is non-existent. However, a great deal can be revealed by adopting a more critical-historical approach to these paradigms in understanding where Mawdudi and other similar revivalist movements go astray.
