Wikipedia's first sentence called it “book written by sayyid abul ala maududi”. Today it says “book written by sayyid abul ala maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major t”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “English 1980 Edition”. It now reads “1932 book by Abul A'la Maududi English 1980 Edition”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker. This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claims that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof Khurshid Ahmad . Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in Urdu , under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the South Asia adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including: English , Arabic , Hindi (titled as इस्लाम धर्म) , Persian , German , French , Italian , Turkish , Portuguese , Swahili , Indonesian , Japanese , Malayalam , Tamil , Pashto , Balochi , Bengali , Gujarati and Sindhi . It is also translated in Telugu , Kannada , Marathi and Albanian ." E.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1272514563.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi . This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claim that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof. Khurshid Ahmad , M.A., L.L.B., who is a scholar of Islam based in London. Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in Urdu, under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, German, French, Italian , Turkish, Portuguese, Swahili, Indonesian and Japanese. It is also translated in Telugu, Kannada, and Marathi.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 313190791.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
English 1980 Edition Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker. This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claim that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof Khurshid Ahmad . Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in Urdu , under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the South Asia adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including: English , Arabic , Hindi , Persian , German , French , Italian , Turkish , Portuguese , Swahili , Indonesian , Japanese , Malayalam , Tamil , Pashto , Balochi , Bengali , Gujarati and Sindhi . It is also translated in Telugu , Kannada and Marathi .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 659497215.
The opening as it stood in 2020
English 1980 Edition Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker. This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claim that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof Khurshid Ahmad . Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in Urdu , under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the South Asia adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including: English , Arabic , Hindi , Persian , German , French , Italian , Turkish , Portuguese , Swahili , Indonesian , Japanese , Malayalam , Tamil , Pashto , Balochi , Bengali , Gujarati and Sindhi . It is also translated in Telugu , Kannada , Marathi and Albanian .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 849156517.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
1932 book by Abul A'la Maududi English 1980 Edition Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker. This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claims that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book is by Prof Khurshid Ahmad . Kurshid Ahmad tries to introduce the book: "Originally written in 1932 in Urdu , under the title Risala-e-Diniyat, the book was intended as a textbook for students of the higher classes and for the general public. It served an important need and became a popular Islamic reader. Most of the schools and colleges of the South Asia adopted it as a textbook in theology and made its study a part of their curricula. It has been translated into many of the world's languages, including: English , Arabic , Hindi (titled as इस्लाम धर्म) , Persian , German , French , Italian , Turkish , Portuguese , Swahili , Indonesian , Japanese , Malayalam , Tamil , Pashto , Balochi , Bengali , Gujarati and Sindhi . It is also translated in Telugu , Kannada , Marathi and Albanian .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1153360499.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “book written by sayyid abul ala maududi”. Today it says “book written by sayyid abul ala maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major t”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “English 1980 Edition”. It now reads “1932 book by Abul A'la Maududi English 1980 Edition”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
book written by sayyid abul ala maududi
Now
book written by sayyid abul ala maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major t
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
