Syed Qutb, of Egyptian nationality, was a member and leader of Muslim brotherhood, the most powerful radical Islamic organization in the world today. In the year 1954, he was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the failed plot to assassinate, then, President of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser and was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment which was, later, reduced to 15 years. On health grounds, he was released in the year 1964. But his freedom was short lived as he was again arrested in the year 1965 on charges of treason and was sentenced to death along with two other members of Muslim brotherhood. President Nasser, realizing that Syed Qutb may be more dangerous in death than alive, offered mercy if Syed Qutb apologizes. Syed Qutb refuses; his sister, co-prisoner, requests him to save his life for the sake of Islamic movement. Syed Qutb disagrees and seems to have said, “Write the words. My words will be stronger if they kill me”. Finally he was hung in August, 1966. But what were his words?
While he was in prison, between years 1954 and 1964, he wrote letters to his kin and relatives on Islamic theology; in the year 1964 these letters were compiled in to a book under the title ‘
Milestones’, sometimes referred to as
Signposts. It was banned in Egypt; but it became a best seller in Arabic world and still remains one of the most important and influential Islamist documents produced in 20th century.
Here, I am just reproducing chapter 4 ‘
Jihad in the cause of Allah’ of Milestones. I thought of presenting only some excerpts, but I realized that it might be confusing and work itself may not be satisfactory. It is not easy to complete reading in one sitting, so it would be advisable to read in 2 or 3 sittings. Nevertheless, I marked important passages in red color (
as usual my comments will be in purple and italics.). Also below, I am explaining one Islamic concept (actually a phrase), I did explain in earlier posts, for making it easy for new readers.
Islam means submission. Muslims say Islam means peace, just for confusing infidels. Arabic word for peace is salam, which one can see when Muslims greet each other. Both Islam and salam have same root ‘silam (SLM)’, but this does not mean both also have same meaning. In the days of Koran being supposedly reveled to Prophet, there were no vowels in Arabic script. In fact the meaning of this can be checked from Koran it self as the verse
3:019 say.
Islam means submission to the will of Allah as it is in Koran. Koran is guidance to Muslim individuals and Islamic society as Allah in Koran says Muslims form one brotherhood, the verse
49:10. Muslims also have to judge people (rule according to Koran) by Koran i.e. Koran is a constitution for Muslim state (verses
5:47-49,
6:57, 6:62,
12:40, 12:67,
28:70,
40:12,
18:26,
12:80 and
11:45). That is the reason why Muslims have Sharia which is derived from Koran. In Islam, obeying laws also means worshipping those who made those laws (
verse 9:031). If Muslims obey laws made by men, this accounts to worshipping some one else besides Allah and this amounts to rebellion against Allah. This is what Syed Qutb calls ‘
servitude to men’; he argues, as it is laid in Koran, that sovereignty belongs to Allah alone as humans are only his slaves and slaves can not make laws for themselves as they are never sovereign. If people are following laws made by a king, it means they are worshipping that king; If people follow laws made by a democratic govt. they are worshiping a group of people who made those laws. Muslims call this oppression and tyranny; this is what Muslims mean when they say Islam only fights against oppression. In Islam, a govt. exists only to enforce law as it exists in Koran (Sharia) but not to make new laws. Since following man made law is called as oppression, Islam fights to free all man kind from this ‘
servitude to men’ except God i.e. Allah, Syed Qutb explains.
In this 4th chapter, Syed Qutb starts with a quotation from an Islamic scholar; read on.