When the influential Egyptian Muslim Brother and long-term resident of Qatar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, led the funeral prayers for Abu l’-Aʿla Mawdudi in November 1979, it was clear that no ordinary Pakistani was laid to rest that day. Thousands attended the ceremony along with Pakistan's military dictator Zia ul-Haq in Lahore's Gaddafi stadium. al-Qaradawi, who has been called a “global mufti” in his own right, termed his fellow Islamist to be not only a leader of the subcontinent's Muslims but rather of the entire world (tamam-i dunya ke imam). Mawdudi had distinguished himself by mastering the traditional Islamic sciences as well as directly approaching the “new sciences” and forging an Islamic system with “solid proofs.” His prolific output, according to al-Qaradawi, underlined his achievement of presenting Islamic thought in a truly “influential, successful, and clear manner.” From the Middle East to Southeast Asia, fellow activists simultaneously celebrated the legacy of Mawdudi, one of the most original and influential Islamist ideologues of the twentieth century, and deplored his demise. The international ties of his party, the Jamaat-i Islami (JI), continued to thrive, as manifested, for example, in a well-attended seminar on the future of the Muslim world held ten years later in Lahore in November 1989. This gathering at the flashy Alhamra Arts Center, located right off Lahore's Mall Road, assembled everyone who had a name in international Islamic circles.

Yet, the importance of colonial India and post-partition Pakistan for the emergence of global Islamism is usually erased from conventional, Middle East-focused histories of the phenomenon.