LET US BE MUSLIMS is an English version of Sayyid Mawdudi’s Urdu Khutubat. It is no ordinary book, says Khurram Murad in his introduction, for it has stirred more hearts and impelled more lives to change their course than any of his more erudite works. In these Friday congregational addresses, Sayyid Mawdudi expounds such familiar themes as Iman, Islam, the Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, Pilgrimage and Jihad. But, in an unusually beautiful, powerfully reasoned, eloquent and passionate, and yet simple and lucid style, he imparts to these very teachings a life and revolutionary ardour that recalls their original proclamation and institution. This he does mainly by restoring the vital links between life and Iman, Iman and actions, Jihad and Iman, Iman and history. Having been made whole again and placed at the centre of life, Iman, in Sayyid Mawdudi’s discourse, regains its power to change man and his world.

Originally delivered more than seven decades ago, in 1938-39, before ordinary, almost illiterate, farmers and servicemen, it meets the real and great spiritual and cultural needs of Muslims and, despite the passage of time, retains its original freshness. This translation now attempts to bring Sayyid Mawdudi’s message with some of its original charm and vigour to millions of English-speaking Muslims. It is a book that should inspire every Muslim to think and renew his commitment of Iman to Allah.

MAWLANA SAYYID ABUL A’LA MAWDUDI (1903-79), one of the chief architects and leaders of the contemporary Islamic resurgence, was an outstanding Islamic thinker and writer. He devoted his entire life to expounding the meaning and message of Islam, inviting individuals to renew their commitment to their Creator, and to organizing a movement to establish Islamic fully. In 1941, he founded Jama‘at Islami, of which he remained Amir (Chief) until 1972 and which is one of the most prominent Islamic movements of our day. He authored more than a hundred works on Islam, both scholarly and popular, and his writings have been translated into forty languages.

KHURRAM MURAD (1932-96) was formerly Director General of the Islamic Foundation. Born in 1932, he studied civil engineering at the universities of Karachi (BE 1952) and Minnesota, USA (MS 1958), and worked as a leading consulting engineer at Karachi, Dhaka, Tehran and Riyadh. He had been actively involved in the Islamic movement since 1948. Prior to his death he held the position of Na’ib Amir of the Jama‘at. His more than 30 published works in English and Urdu include Interpersonal Relations in an Islamic Movement (Urdu) and Way to the Qur’an, apart from a number of books for children. He was also the editor of the monthly Tarjumanul Qur’an and the quarterly Muslim World Book Review.