SAYYID QUTB
Sayyid did not advocate for terrorism but rather for the upholding of social justices and human rights through practice of true Islam and jihadism. This paper will evaluate the life of Sayyid Qutb, his writings and contribution to Islamism and also evaluate how extremists have wrongly interpreted his work to fit into their own terrorism plans based on his ideologies. Furthermore, the paper will try to justify that jihadism advocated for by Sayyid does not translate to terrorism or even encourages it.
To fully understand the stance that Sayyid took while advancing his ideologies pertaining to jihadism and offensive war as opposed to defensive war or jihad, the paper will first evaluate his life and the various events and circumstances that shaped his believes and ideologies.
Sayyid was a theorist in the Islamic movement as well as the Muslim brotherhoods leader. He was highly opposed to Nassers secular Arab nationalism and this was the major reason why he was executed in the year 1966 after being accused of planning to overthrow the government of Egypt. Sayyid Qutb has continued to serve as one of the major Islamic intellectual and spiritual guides. His conception on Islamic region, its secular relation and modernity relativism have had great influence in the Muslim world, especially in Egypt where he was born, and other Arab countries. Most political movements with Islamic banners have been affected by the thoughts of Sayyid Qutb and antipathy to governments and states not being governed according to the revelation of God. One of the major reasons as to why the thoughts of Sayyid Qutb are today very influential is because of his ability to carefully integrate his thoughts with various sections of the Quran-the holy book of Muslims. This has had a very authoritative ring that could be heard very clearly by individuals who were being guided by tradition and not sexual nationalism. Quran is a major source of understanding and inspiration for Muslim faithful, especially those practicing the traditional Islam. Even before his pre-Islamic period, Sayyid Qutb had a great interest in Quran and this is evident in his later life, especially by his artistic Quran expression. The Quran was Sayyids proof to most of his ideas as well as last resort court.
Most of the works of Sayyid Qutb have been attributed with the rising terrorism acts around the world. Most authors and philosophers, especially in the western cultures, believe that Sayyid Qutb is the founding father of terrorism acts and the Muslim brotherhood movement associated with emergence of terrorism groups such as the Al Qaeda, associated with terrorism attacks of 911 bombing of the World Trade center in the United States. However, careful analysis of the works of Sayyid Qutb reveals that he was not advocating for terrorism but the subsequent interpretations of his work by individuals have contributed to increasing terrorism activities around the world. Terrorist groups have been interpreting the work wrongly to serve their own needs and desires.
Background of Sayyid Qutb and his ideologies
Sayyid Qutb was born in Egypt in the year of 1906. He was the first born in a family of five and his father was highly educated while his mother was a very religious person. Qutb is described to have had a formal relationship with his father, although his mother and the rest of their siblings were more affectionate and closer to him. His mother brought him up in a very religious way and by the time he was aged ten, Sayyid had memorized the entire Quran. In the year 1921, Sayyid traveled to Cairo and in the year 1929, he joined a teachers college where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education arts in 1933.
The most formative stage in the life of Qutb was the period between the years 1919 and 1952 following the rise of the independent Islamism in Egypt. This was a period that marked transition from the tradition Islam to modernity in Islamic culture. It was a colorful period that was marked by contradictions and vitality that inspired the ideas of Sayyid Qutb as well as his thoughts. This stage also marks the formative era for most contemporary thought, theater, cinema and literature in modern Egypt. The westernization process that had commenced in the early 19th century was beginning to fully manifest during this time from the form of governance that was in place to the very lives of Egyptians inclusive of Sayyids. The nation was dominated by secular educational structure that led to the widening gap between religious and secular education. Liberal nationalist forces that were operating in Egypt during this period were being inspired by the western countries and the liberals were gaining more strength during this period. This ultimately led to the introduction of a system of government that was being led by a parliament based on a constitution in the year 1923. Egypt was leaving their culture as well as intellectual life and openly mimicked the civilization of the western countries. As liberal nationalists continued to do so, Islamists became more violent leading to the polarization of the country.
Towards the mid 1930s, the reaction against the widespread and rapid westernization increased national movements in Arab west and Arab east. The establishment of a liberal nationalist failed to gain independence in Nile valley as well as to solve the pressing problems in the society. Sayyid Qutb was involved and was affected by this westernization as he viewed it as a deviation from the true worship of God alone. The Second World War had negative impacts on the economic, social and political life and ideologies of the Egyptians, further dividing the country and leading to alienation of ideal nationalists as well as liberal politicians. After the completion of the Second World War, Egypt slipped to a period of violence with law and order being broken. Social injustices increased within the country during this period. Nasser was presiding over the military revolt prior to the year 1952 for seven years and he was a tyrant. The country during this period was characterized by despair, grieve and anger towards the political institutions and the situation was made worse by the defeat Egypt suffered in Palestine war in the year 1948. Defeat in this war led to the defection of most camps of the Egyptians and the formation of two groups the Muslim brothers and the Marxists group that wanted to challenge the orders that were already in existence. This led to the transformation in the life of Sayyid Qutb as well as his thoughts and inspired much of his works that have raised much controversy today especially with increasing terrorist acts by the Muslim brothers groups believed to have been inspired and mentored by Sayyid.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Sayyid Qutb was a secular man and he only transformed in the later 1940s, becoming an Islamist. Prior to becoming an Islamist, Qutb was a poet and a man of letters. However, as explained earlier, the events of the Second World War and the subsequent defeat of Egypt in the Palestine war changed the focus of Sayyid on Quranic studies. He found refuge for his personal needs in Quran as well as answers to most of the social and human ills that were being perpetrated in the society. This made him forsake literature fully for Islamic cause and enabled him to pursue or lead an Islamic kind of life. Between the years 1948 and 1950, Sayyid was in the United States and the kind of racial segregation he received and observed only served to reinforce the believe that Islam was the only valid form of salvation that could rescue or save humanity from the godless materialism of communism and capitalism. He actively opposed the secular policies that were being practiced by Nasser who was then the president of Egypt and this made him be imprisoned between the years 1954 and 1964. It was while in prison that Qutb wrote some of his controversial writings in which he accused all governments and societies inclusive of Egypt as being pagan or Jahili. In his writings, Sayyid called for the removal of the societies and institution of governments or societies that were just and true Islamic. According to him, the world societies were not submissive to the will of God or the Hakimiyyah as explained in the idea of al-uzlah al-shuuriyyah or the separation of individuals via feelings. Shortly after his release from jail, Sayyid was rearrested and subsequently tried whereby he was charged with heading an underground apparatus. He was asked to apologize to President Nasser but he refused citing that God had prohibited people to apologize to tyrants. This eventually led to his execution in the year 1966. The execution of Qutb among others had no justification or logical explanation. In actual sense, President Nasser had no need of carrying out such executions for him to establish a firm foundation of his governance. He could have done that in the year 1954 when Sayyid and other members of Muslim brothers had tried to overthrow his government. Also, during this time, the political system of Egypt was firmly founded on its popularity among the citizens as well as politically. The economy of the country was also very stable at this time.
Despite the fact that President Nasser was able to physically eliminate Qutb, his ideas continued to flourish even more after his death. Sayyid was being viewed as a revolutionary and his execution was termed as martyrdom of his faith and his ideas. Without its knowledge, the Nassers regime led to the resurgence of the Islamic groups as well as the writings of Sayyid which he had written concerning jihadists. Jihadist had become common in Egypt and other parts of the world by this time, a concept that had been well expounded by Sayyid. According to the Quran, Muslim faithful ones were supposed to observe jihad, a concept or law that calls for defensive war with an aim of attaining righteousness. Sayyid was opposed to this concept arguing that it was the duty of all Muslims to arise and defend their cause and the injustices that were being perpetrated by the liberal nationalists or the democracies. Sayyid developed the concept of jihadism which advocated for offensive war as the only means of brining all mankind to the Islam culture and belief as a means of bringing peace to the world. Sayyid argued that social injustices like the ones he had experienced in the United States could only be eliminated if human kind was made to submit to the rule of God or Allah. He argued that defensive war could have not been effective in accomplishing this task given by God to all Muslims. In his writings, Sayyid stated that preaching Islam and physical war was the major avenues via which true jihadist could be achieved.
Methodology
Many scholars have looked and analyzed the writings of Sayyid Qutb over the past years. For this study, secondary sources will be used in gathering information pertaining to Sayyid Qutb and his ideologies of his writings. The secondary sources will include materials obtained from the websites, books and journals. Based on the information obtained, an analysis of the workings of Sayyid Qutb will be done on whether his writings really promote or advocate for terrorism or the Islamic era or not.
Differences between Islam and Islamism and their relation to global jihad
Islam is derived from an Arabic word meaning total submission and obedience to God or Allah. Over one and a half billion of people around the world are faithful of Islamic religion. In understanding the concept of terrorism and their beliefs, it is essential to understand the difference between Islam and Islamism religions. Unlike the Islam religion, the basic beliefs and creeds, Islamism also known as political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism refers to a political ideology that emphasizes on a particular way of living that is made up of social, political, economic and religious and other lifes spheres. Islamism highly advocates for the Islamic code or a Shariah based society that ought to replace the non Islamic and secular societies oriented or founded on governments that are governed by man-made laws. Followers of the Islamism also participate in political systems that are pluralistic in nature and also actively participate in democratic elections. Revolutionary and radical Islamism on the other hand, as well as the global jihadism, call for overthrowing of the secular regimes that they view as being infidel by whatever means even if it means use of force. Islamism aims at establishing Islamic societies that are based on Shariah law all over the world. Most of the terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda represent radical Islamism also known as global jihadism.
The only differences between Islam and radical Islamism are seen on the interpretation of the holy Qurans teachings and their applications. Understanding these two terms and categories of the Muslim religion is essential in effective and unbiased interpretation of the writings of Sayyid Qutb as well as terrorism. Jihad in Muslim religion can be translated to mean to endeavor, to exert oneself and to strive its verb is jahada which means to wage holy war against infidel or to fight for a cause while striving to go on the paths of Allah in spreading or preaching about Allah to the whole world and in making the world submit to the teachings of Allah. Prophet Mohammed in the holy Quran termed the greater jihad as the jihad by heart that aims at fighting the devil and all evil things in this world. Muslim jurists argue that jihad is a collective duty for the entire Muslim community with the faith being subject to aggression. The jihadists deviated from this believe arguing that jihad is a personal duty and also a collective obligation for all Muslims.
Sayyid Qutb is credited for advocating for jihadism through his writings. Traditionally, jihad was purely defensive in nature and not a personal commitment or duty of Muslim faithful but rather a collective duty for all Muslims. However, Sayyid felt that this interpretation of jihad was wrong hence he reinterpreted it to mean that jihad was a personal obligation as well as a community or collective duty of Muslims. Following this interpretation of jihad, Sayyid was able to strengthen the Muslim brotherhood as he was its spokesperson. This movement, thought highly influenced by Sayyid Qutb, was not started by him. It had begun earlier in the 19th century. The interpretation of jihad by Sayyid has been a major basis for his association with terrorism and he is today being regarded as the founding father of terrorism groups such as Al Qaeda among others. However, while Sayyid truly advocated for personal commitment to jihad, he did not expressly or implicitly promote or advocate for terrorism nor began a terrorism movement. The jihad he advocated for was meant to ensure that all Muslim faithful participated in ensuring that Shariah or the laws of God or Allah were being observed or practiced in the public life of all Muslims. He called upon his Muslim brothers to stand up and defend the abuse of or replacement of Allah laws or the Shariah by secular laws that he termed to be immoral and infidel. He argued that true worship meant being ruled and guided by Shariah laws and not man made laws and this was the major reason he was angry with the western countries that were governed by constitutional government and parliamentary laws. Today, extremists from the Islamic religion have misinterpreted the works or the writings of Sayyid and used them as a basis for their attacks in the name of jihadism.
Analysis of writings of Sayyid Qutb
Searching via the web, it is evident that the writings of Sayyid have been highly demonized today. They are associated with the creation or the uprising of the terrorism activities that have been on the rise today. The anti-Muslim and anti-Arab movements have been on the forefront in the arguments that Sayyids writings are the major foundation or cornerstone of what has come to be referred to as Islamic terror. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade and Pentagon in the United States, much of the literature on terrorism has focused their attention on Sayyid Qutb, the Islamic religious leader. In the year 2003, the Sunday magazine of New York Times published an article titled the philosopher of Islamic terror and it is believed to have been among the widely read articles owing to its presence in the websites. Some of the Muslim clerics have also treated Sayyids writings harshly in the Arab world where Muslim religion is prevalent. The Quramic commentary of Sayyid in his writing dubbed in the shades of the Quran as well as in the milestones has continued to raise mixed reactions among the Muslims. Muslim clerics term them as Sayyids innovation that actually deviates from the dogma and teachings of Islam. Clerics have even warned young Muslims not to read the works of Sayyid, claiming that an individual with no in-depth knowledge of the Quran and Muslim teaching can easily be mislead. They argue that the case in Egypt where al-takfir wa-al-hijrah translated to mean penance and retreat who were led astray by the writings of Qutb due to deviation from the dogma of Islam.
The elegant prose of Sayyid Qutb reveals the anger and rage he had concerning immorality and injustices that inspired him to organize Muslim brotherhood or the al-lkhwan al-muslimun movements. Such immorality and injustices drove him to the military interpretation of Qurans jihad striving in the cause of God. While this was not meant to inspire the killing of innocent people, the interpreters of his work included that in their interpretation hence the increased interest on the role of Sayyids writing on terrorism rose around the world. The main reason why Sayyid wrote the milestone and other writings was to address the social injustices that he himself had experienced both in Egypt and in the United States and to provide an avenue to curb such injustices. The anger of Sayyid was not in any way expressed towards innocent people, but those he deemed were ones perpetrating social injustices and immorality around the world. He believed that the true Islam is to fully submit to the rule of God and he was convinced that this was the only way that true salvation and peace could be obtained. According to him, bringing the whole human kind all over the world to Islamism was the sole duty of every Muslim that he had been given by God. Sayyid believed in true worship without hypocrisy or love for wealth as he had observed in most westerners.
Previously, jihad was interpreted to mean striving for cause of God. Muslims believed that they had a call or a duty to God to submit and strive for his cause. Jihad was previously interpreted to mean defensive war while striving to be righteous. Sayyid was greatly influenced by Maududis idea or perception of Islam as a force of revolution. According to Maududi, Islam is a revolutionary ideology and program which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its tenets and ideals.
Sayyid expounded on this notion of Maududi and argued that Islam was indeed a revolution against people and human situation where Godhead or sovereignty is granted to human beings. Sayyid believed that any situation that gives people ultimate authority to become like God takes the authority of God. Human liberation according to Islam translates to the act of giving back the authority to God by rejecting those ruling over communities according to laws made by the people. Verbal advocacy in Islam cannot achieve this and this was the basis of military interpretation of jihad by Sayyid. He suggested that the state that was in existence in Egypt at that moment, since it was un-Islamic, could have been overthrown. By suggesting this, Sayyid reinterpreted the jahiliya concept already contained in the Quran to the non Muslim world. Traditionally, the Islamic world was divided into two the dar al-islam and dar al-harb, with the first one meaning the islam abode and the second one meaning the conflict abode that is the non Islamic, imperfect and social order. He argued that though Muslims were ignoring the conditions of the conflict abode, it was their duty and responsibility to reduce the threat of jahiliya or the religion truths ignorance that was being posed to Islam. According to Sayyid, jahiliya could be translated to mean the forces of ignorance in the modern world and the secularization of eastern communism and western capitalists. Faith declaration was also not enough as secular tyrants rose to rule over the world of Islam. As such, a militant form of jihad was essential if Islam was to fulfill the real jihad or their duty to God.
According to Qutb, jihad could be enforced against rulers of the Muslim community who did not implement the laws God. Such rulers were taken to be takfiri or apostate or traitors. He argued that such rulers were living in ignorance or jahiliyya and hence, the Muslim community should oppose such rulers. Traditional Muslims had believed that calling branding another fellow Muslim as takfiri translated to mean pagan was not an Islamic act. Sayyid however advocated for this mostly calling the secular Muslim rulers who had embraced modernism as pedlars of modernity. He even accused them of being guilty of apostasy and ridda hence they should be excommunicated and as such, they could be opposed justifiably. The excommunication that Sayyid Qutb advocated for did not in any way refer to the killing of fellow Muslims or citizens of other nations simply because they were being viewed as being takfiri. Sayyid only argued that since takfiri rulers were viewed as being ignorant or living in a state of jahiliyya, they were not fit to the rule the Muslim community, especially because they were not living according to the laws given to Allah for all Muslims to follow. Rulers became takfiri after adopting the laws and practices of modernity that were contrary to the holy teachings of Allah thus deviating from the true worship of Allah. Excommunication meant disowning such a person from the Muslim community but not eliminating or killing such a person. While most terrorists have taken the idea of takfiri advocated by Sayyid as a license to kill their fellow Muslims, this is their own interpretation of his writings but not the real intention of Sayyid. No writer can be judged according to wrongful interpretation of his work by other people. Also, while takfiri dealt with the issue of rulers and fellow Muslims, it did not extend to non Muslim individuals as is the case with terrorism. Terrorists have attacked non Muslim states and rulers in the name of takfiri and have ended up killing people not even subscribing or following the Muslim doctrine. The wrongful interpretation of takfiri by terrorists and the subsequent application of the misinterpreted work cannot be taken to demonize the works of Sayyid who had no intention of promoting terrorism activities.
Most critics have taken this interpretation of Sayyid on jihad as a license to the terrorists who feel that it is their duty to bring down tyrant rules and institute an Islamic kind of a society whereby all individual revere to God. While this is contained in Quran and it was expounded by Sayyid, his interpretation of jihad to include a militant form of intervention did not give way for innocent killing of American citizens or other people around the world through terrorism. Terrorism leads to killing of innocent children and both good and bad people. Sayyid called upon the Muslim brotherhood to bring down Muslim governments that were exercising injustices and immorality in the society and to institute a government that was purely guided by the laws of Allah. He did not advocate for killing of innocent individuals around the world. The main motivation of Sayyid via jihad was the elimination of social evils and injustices but not innocent people. Azzam who came following the execution of Sayyid was the one who took the role of interpreting the writings of Sayyid. He is the one who misled the Muslim brotherhood by adding that jihad and fighting jahiliya involved killing of innocent persons. This was not the original writing of Sayyid hence his reinterpretation of jihad and his explanation of the same cannot be said to be the basis through which terrorists are today being perpetrated. Later interpretations of his writings have created their own meaning, a deviation from the original work of Sayyid and expounded on concepts he did not tackle and have subsequently based their justification for their acts on the same.
Islamic religion does not entail a declaration of Arabs liberation only and its message is not only meant for the Arabs only either. On the contrary, it is given to all human kind and as such, the whole world is the field work of Islam. As such, it is the duty of Islam to ensure that all people are brought back to the true Lord and this means liberating them or stopping them from worshiping, serving or submitting to other authorities but to God. From the point of view of Islam, the real and true worships or servitude only occurs when a person submits to laws formulated and enacted by human beings. Any person who serves another person other than God is termed to have deviated from Islam regardless of his confession of the Muslim faith. Sayyid only took it upon himself to remind his fellow Muslims that they have a duty and responsibility to ensure that jahiliya was reformed and by doing so, he was able to move away from earlier interpretations of jihad by Islamic scholars who had termed it as purely defensive war. He argued that those who viewed jihad as defensive in nature were casting away the real objective of the jihad of ensuring that no tyrannical powers were in force in the entire world. This enabled him to reinterpret jihad terming it as being offensive rather than defensive. To Sayyid, Islam homeland meant or represented the Islamic way of living, the beliefs of Islam and the entire Islamic community. He reasoned that Islam liberating power had to be opposed and as such there was inevitability of a military form of jihad. Liberating human kind in the entire world could not go unopposed, especially by the tyrannical powers and hence this could have resulted to military action. Since the main aim of jihad was to liberate men, then jihad would ultimately lead to peace being obtained in the world. Peace that is characterized by submission to God alone and not to human beings or laws made by human beings and subjected to others to follow.
While writing about the jihad assuming a military form, Sayyid oversaw this as a result of resistant from the tyrannical authorities resisting the liberation of mankind to make them submit to the true God. Jihad was only meant to take this form in cases where Muslim brotherhood was resisted and it was not meant to be carried on the very people that the brotherhood was meant to liberate. The role of military form of jihad was to fight tyranny but not innocent people as is the case of the terrorism attacks. Taking for example the bombing of young school children, bus terminals and the 911 bombing of the World Trade Center, all these acts believed to have been carried out by the Islamic terror group Al Qaeda led to the killing of innocent people who were not in authority and who were on the contrary subjected to the tyrannical rule as per the believes of the Islam. According to Sayyid, it is the duty of every Muslim to ensure that people are liberated and made to serve or offer their worship to God alone. Sayyid said this could only be done via preaching and physical intervention. Terrorism, instead of liberating men or bringing them closer to liberation or to the Islam religion, is drawing them far away from the Islamic community hence not meeting or acting according to the writings of Sayyid. Basing on the argument that Sayyids writings are the basis of terrorism acts thus loses ground in that if that was the case, the innocent bloodshed we are experiencing today as a result of terrorism and the increased deviation from this religion should not be experienced. Sayyid advocated for mens liberation and not the killing of individuals who are supposed to be liberated. Islamic terror or the Muslim brotherhood that has been involved in terrorist attacks has interpreted the writings of Sayyid wrongly. Sayyid did not advocate for terrorism attacks but rather liberation of people and an end to social injustice and immorality.
Another issue that Sayyid highly advocated for in his writings was the essence of going back to ijtihad which means the process of reasoning in regard to the interpretation of Islamic law. This activity had previously been declared as being closed (by Islamic scholars who had existed in the 11th century) to Sunni Muslims. In writing this, Sayyid was being guided by the Ibn Taymiyyah which stated that the ijtihad process must never cease. Almost all Muslims today have this stand and they are calling for ijtihad gates reopening and the rejection of ways and thoughts of non Islamic origin. This approach brought up by Sayyid and in use today has significant differences as compared to traditional Islamic practice of the Sunni. Sayyid further suggested that revolutionary vanguard should establish Islamic states so as to help in Islamizing states from above. This idea had been advanced by Maududi earlier. Through the ijtihad restoration, Sayyid was advocating that while interpreting the Islamic law, reasons should prevail. If this was the case, reason would reveal that terrorism leads to killing of innocent people who have no right to die. As such, ijtihad advocated by Sayyid would rather stop rather than promote terrorism. Sayyid was not advocating for terrorism and this is quite clear through his writings although they have been subjected to misinterpretations and reinterpretations that make them seem like they advocate for and even form a basis for terrorism although this is not true.
Sayyid Qutb was one of the religious figures who contributed largely to the understanding of jihad, takfiri and jahiliyya among other Quran laws. With increasing terrorism attacks and his advocacy for jihad, takfiri as well as jahiliyya, most scholars today have termed his ideologies as the major foundation of terrorist attacks. Jihad against rulers is one of the most cited examples as a fact believed to have contributed to the rise in terrorism around the west. Most of the works of Sayyid clearly show that he was unhappy with the ways of life, especially for the people who were living in western countries. This is understandable given the fact that he was a stout follower of Shariah law and the Muslim religion. Sayyid viewed the westerners as being immoral and materialistic and in his writings he abhorred such things and only believed that true worship and good leadership could be founded on the laws of Allah or the Shariah. Having this in mind, most scholars have argued that such believes are the major reason for emergence of terrorism. Significant clues show that most of the terrorists beliefs are highly influenced by the works of Sayyid. However, from the above analysis of the works of Sayyid, it is clear that Sayyid did not advocate for killing of innocent people or for terrorism but rather he called upon all Muslims to ensure that human beings were brought back to Allah and to submission to the laws of God. Misinterpretation of the true meaning that Sayyid had while writing his books has been taken as license for killing by extremist Muslims. However, Sayyid Qutbs work should not be demonized on the fact that other people have wrongly interpreted his work.
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