Mevdûdî's understanding of religion and politics

Mevdûdî is one of the leading thinkers of contemporary Islami movements which lived in the 20th century. During his lifetime, Indian sub-continent was in a such structure that contained the schools of different religious and political ideas. In this study, we tried to act considering the religious, political, social and cultural differences in his environment while exposing his understanding of religion and politics.In our study, in order to expose his understanding of religion and politics, first of all we tried to investigate how he interpreted the religion and religious concepts. We tried to put forward his idea of religion with the concepts of god, the lord, worship, faith, monotheism, the Koran, propethood and divine inspiration which are included in religion. Also in this part, we examined his understanding of mysticism and point of view about sects.In Mevdûdî?s understanding of politics, we tried to put forward primarily his understanding of religion and politics. Then we examined his ideas that form the structure of his thought about Islamic state, caliphate and Jamâ?at-ı Islâmî which is the product of his ideology. Also in this part, we completed our study dealing with his ideas about western civilization and culture and the effects of Mevdûdî on Islamic world.Key Words: religion, politics, Islamic state, the caliphate of God, Jamâ?at-ı Islâmî