Abu-l A'la Mawdudi (1903-1979) was a Muslim writer and religious and political leader in the Indian sub-continent. He was the founder and head of the fundamentalist religio-political party, the Jama'at-i Islami.

Mawdudi, usually referred to as Mawlana Mawdudi because of his religious learning, was born in Awrangabad in the present Hyderabad state of India into a family with a strong religious and traditional Muslim culture. His father, Ahmad Hasan Mawdudi, was an advocate who for several years during Mawdudi's childhood renounced his profession and gave himself over to mystical exercises. Mawdudi received his formal education in the schools of Hyderabad, but at age 15 he was forced to leave school never to return upon the death of his father; much of his earliest instruction was conducted in the home. He never attended a traditional Muslim religious school, a fact that later brought him much criticism when he began to...