Javed Ahmad Ghamidi
[7] Currently he is Principal Research Fellow and Chief Patron of Ghamidi Center of Islamic Learning in United States.
His father, Muhammad Tufayl Junaydi, was a landowner, involved in medicine and a committed follower of tasawwuf until his death in 1986.
In his book, Maqamat (مقامات), Ghamidi starts with an essay "My Name" (میرا نام) to describe the story behind his surname, which sounds somewhat alien in the context of the Indian Subcontinent.
He describes a desire during his childhood years to establish a name linkage to his late grandfather Noor Elahi, after learning of his status as the one people of the area turned to, to resolve disputes.
Subsequently, one of the visiting Sufi friends of his father narrated a story of the patriarch of the Arab tribe Banu Ghamid who earned the reputation of being a great peacemaker.
[15] In his arguments, there is no reference to the Western sources, human rights or current philosophies of crime and punishment.
However, if and when Muslims do happen to form a state of their own, Islam does impose certain religious obligations on its rulers as establishment of the institutions of salat (obligatory prayer), zakah (mandatory charity), and 'amr bi'l-ma'ruf wa nahi 'ani'l-munkar (preservation and promotion of society's good conventions and customs and eradication of social vices); this, in Ghamidi's opinion, should be done in modern times through courts, police, etc.
[28] Unlike Quran and Sunnah, ahadith only explain and elucidate what is contained in these two sources and also describe the exemplary way in which Muhammad followed Islam.
'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Whosoever pledges allegiance to anyone without the collective consent of the Muslims presents himself for the death sentence."
His work with Maududi continued for about nine years before he voiced his first differences of opinion, which led to his subsequent expulsion from Mawdudi's political party, Jamaat-e-Islami in 1977.
Later, he developed his own view of religion based on hermeneutics and ijtihad under the influence of his mentor, Amin Ahsan Islahi (1904–1997), a well-known exegete of the Indian sub-continent who is author of Tadabbur-i-Qur'an, a Tafsir (exegeses of Qur'an).
In fact, according to Ghamidi, even the formation of an Islamic state is not a basic religious obligation for Muslims.
[19] Despite such extraordinary differences and considering Maududi's interpretation of "political Islam" as incorrect, Ghamidi in one of his 2015 interviews said that he still respects his former teacher like a father.
[33] Amin traces the history of secessionist tendencies within the mainstream Islamism, and its ruptures, and then critically examines Ghamidi's emergence and proliferation in society as an unprecedented phenomenon.
Ghamidi argued that this was a breach of the CII's jurisdiction, since the very purpose of the council is to ensure that Pakistan's laws do not conflict with the teachings of Islam.
This event occurred when the MMA threatened to resign from the provincial and national assemblies if the government amended the Hudood Ordinance,[40] which came into being under Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization.
His television audience consists of educated, urban-based middle-class men and women between the ages of 20–35, as well as lay Islamic intellectuals and professionals.
Ghamidi's religiously oriented audience tends to be dissatisfied with the positions of traditional ulema and Western-educated secular-liberal elite, and find his interventions and ideas more sensible, moderate, and relevant.
[48] Recently, another critical book has been written by Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq (ex-Director General Shariah Academy, IIU Islamabad and professor of law at Shifa Ta'meer e Millat University, Islamabad), a student of the Islamic jurist Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, namely 'فکرِ غامدی – ایک تنقیدی جائزہ' (Ghamidi's thought – a critique).
[49] In a 2015 interview with Voice of America, Ghamidi explained his reason for departure was to safeguard the lives of people near him[50] including his neighbours who had begun to fear for their safety.
