The emir is obliged by the party constitution to consult an assembly called the shura. As a vanguard party, its fully-fledged members ( arkan) are intended to be leaders and devoted to the party, but there is also a category of much more numerous sympathizers and workers ( karkun). JI was and is strictly and hierarchically organised in a pyramid-like structure, working toward the common goal of establishing an ideological Islamic society, particularly though educational and social work, under the leadership of its emirs (commanders or leaders). Maududi saw his group as a vanguard of Islamic revolution following the footsteps of early Muslims who gathered in Medina to found an Islamic state. Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi, Maulana Naeem Siddiqui, Maulana Muhammad Manzoor Naumanai and Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (although he left after a few years) were among the founders of Jamat e Islami along with Syed Abul Ala Maududi.

Seventy-five people attended the first meeting and became the first members of the movement. JI began as an Islamist social and political movement. Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in colonial India on 26 August 1941, at Islamia Park in the city of Lahore, before the Partition of India. Mawdudi believed politics was 'an integral, inseparable part of the Islamic faith, and that the Islamic state that Muslim political action seeks to build' would not only be an act of piety but would also solve the many (seemingly non-religious) social and economic problems that Muslims faced. He supported what he called 'Islamization from above', through an Islamic state in which sovereignty would be exercised in the name of Allah and Islamic law ( sharia) would be implemented. His thought was influenced by many factors including the Khilafat Movement Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's ascension at the end of the Ottoman Caliphate and the impact of Indian Nationalism, the Indian National Congress and Hinduism on Muslims in India. Jamaat-e-Islami's founder and leader until 1972 was Abul A'la Maududi, a widely read Islamist philosopher and political commentator, who wrote about the role of Islam in South Asia. SOURCE: Encyclopedia of Islam & the Muslim World (2004)

1.6 Successful long march against Bhutto's government.

Since the early 1980s, it has also developed close links with Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir and acted as the vanguard of the armed insurgency in Kashmir. However, in 1975, it established Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh with Abbas Ali Khan ( Joypurhat) as the first ameer. In 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, JI opposed the independence of Bangladesh. During the early years of the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami's position improved and was became seen as the 'regime's ideological and political arm', with party members at times holding cabinet portfolios of information and broadcasting, production, and water, power and natural resources (although none remained long in their positions). Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan came under severe government repression in 1948, 1953, and 1963.

Other wings of Jamaat include Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, founded in 1953, Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir founded in 1974, and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, founded in 1975. In 1947, following the partition of India, the Jamaat split into two organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (the Indian wing).

At the time of the Indian independence movement, Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to oppose the partition of India. Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in Lahore, British India in 1941 by the Muslim theologian and socio-political philosopher, Abul Ala Maududi, who was widely influenced by the Sharia based reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. : 70 Although it does not have a large popular following, the party is quite influential and considered one of the major Islamic movements in Pakistan, along with Deobandi and Barelvi (represented by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan respectively). JI is a vanguard party: its members form an elite with 'affiliates' and then 'sympathizers' beneath them. JI strongly opposes capitalism, communism, liberalism, and secularism as well as economic practices such as offering bank interest. Its objective is the transformation of Pakistan into an Islamic state, governed by Sharia law, through a gradual legal, and political process. Jamaat-e-Islami ( JI Urdu: جماعتِ اسلامی, 'Islamic Congress'), or Jamaat as it is simply known, is an Islamist political party which is based in Pakistan and it is the Pakistani successor to Jamaat-e-Islami, which was founded in colonial India in 1941. The logo used on Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan's Facebook page.

Taleem ul quran 2005