FACETS OF FAITH – Malek Bennabi and Abul A’la Maududi: The early life and selected writings of two great thinkers of the twentieth century. By M A Sherif

Facets of Faith is a comparative biography of Bennabi and Maududi that interleaves two life journeys with the historical events of the day, focussing on the first half of the twentieth century. They were politically alert even from a young age, and this account conveys how their views took shape, and were reshaped, the challenges and hurdles that came their way, and the people that inspired them. It is also a story of Muslim rallying round shared causes, whether one scholar-activist was living under French rule in Algeria, or the other in British India. However, their thought and ideas also convey the different perspectives towards understanding Islam, and in deciding the priorities facing Muslim society, while nevertheless looking to what is sacred in the religion for guidance.

This word draws on archival sources, recollections of their students and also material translated from French and Urdu to English for the first time