Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq
Encyclopedia
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
author Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamist theorist, poet, and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and '60s....
in which he lays out a plan and makes a call to action to re-create the Muslim world on strictly Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
ic grounds, casting off what Qutb calls Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah is an Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia, i.e. prior to the revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad...
, the pre-Islamic ignorance that the world has lapsed into.
Ma'alim fi al-Tariq has been called "one of the most influential works in Arabic of the last half century". It is probably Qutb's most famous and influential work and one of the most influential Islamist tracts written. It has also become a manifesto for the ideology of "Qutbism
Qutbism
Qutbism is a strain of Sunni Islamist ideology and activism, based on the thought and writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Islamist and former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed in 1966. It has been described as advancing the ideology of jihadism, i.e...
". Commentators have both praised Milestones as a ground-breaking, inspirational work by a hero and a martyr, and reviled it as a prime example of unreasoning entitlement, self-pity, paranoia, and hatred that has been a major influence on Islamist terrorism.
English translations of the book are usually entitled simply "Milestones," the book is also sometimes referred to as "Signposts." The title Ma'alim fi al-Tariq translates into English as "Milestones Along the Way", "Signposts on the Road", or different combinations thereof.
History
Ma'alim fi al-Tariq marked the culmination of Qutb's evolution from modernist author and critic, to Islamist activist and writer, and finally to Islamist revolutionary and theoretician. It was written in prison, where Qutb spent 10 years under charges of political conspiracy against Egypt's Nasser regime, and first published in 1964. Four of its thirteen chapters were originally written for Qutb's voluminous Quranic commentary, Fi Zilal al-Qur'anFi zilal al-Qur'an
In the Shade of the Qur'an or Fi Zilal al-Qur'an[p][n] is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an, written during 1951-1965 by Sayyid Qutb[a] , a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood. Most of the original 30 volumes were written while in prison following an attempted assassination of...
(In the shades of the Qur'an).
Less than a year after its publication, Qutb was again arrested and brought to trial in Egypt under charges of conspiring against the state. Excerpts from the book were used to incriminate Qutb and he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in 1966. His death elevated his status to Shaheed or martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
in the eyes of many Muslims. Milestones became a bestseller and widely distributed across the Arab speaking world. To date, close to 2,000 editions of the work are said to have been published.
Contents
In his book, Qutb seeks to set out "milestones" or guiding markers along a road that will lead to the revival of Islam from its current "extinction."Sharia
According to Qutb, much of the Muslim world approaches the Qur'an as a means to simply acquire culture and information, to participate in academic discussions and enjoyment. This evades the real purpose, for rather, it should be approached as a means to change society, to remove man from the enslavement of other men to the servitude of God. He also says "The Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries" and reverted to JahiliyyahJahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah is an Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia, i.e. prior to the revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad...
("The state of ignorance of the guidance from God" (p. 11, 19)) because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow "the laws of God" or Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
(also Shariah, Shari'a, or Shari'ah), traditional Islamic law. (p. 9) Following the Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
is not just important but a defining attribute of Muslims, more necessary than belief itself (p. 89), because "according to the Shari'ah, 'to obey' is 'to worship'." This means Muslims must not only refrain from worshipping anything other than God, they must not obey anything other than God: "anyone who serves someone other than God" — be that someone (or something) a priest, president, a parliament, or a legal statute of a secular state — "is outside God's religion, although he may claim to profess this religion." (p. 60)
Qutb sees Sharia as much more than a code of religious or public laws. It is a complete "way of life ... based on submission to God alone," (p. 82) crowding out anything non-Islamic. Its rules range from "belief" to "administration and justice" to "principles of art and science." (p. 107) Being God's law, Sharia is as much a part "of that universal law which governs the entire universe, ... as accurate and true as any of the laws known as the 'laws of nature,'" like gravity or electricity. (p. 88, also p. 45-46)
"The establishment of God's law on earth" will lead to "blessings" falling "on all mankind." (p. 90) Sharia is "the only guarantee against any kind of discord in life. " (p. 89) and will "automatically" bring "peace and cooperation among individuals." "Knowledge of the secrets of nature, its hidden forces and the treasures concealed in the expanses of the universe," (p. 90) will be revealed "in an easy manner." Its "harmony between human life and the universe" will approach the perfection of heaven itself. (p. 91)
Just as Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
is - in Qutb's view - all encompassing and all wonderful, whatever is non-Muslim (or Jahiliyyah) is "evil and corrupt," and its existence anywhere intolerable to true Muslims. "Islam cannot accept or agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah is an Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia, i.e. prior to the revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad...
... The mixing and co-existence of the truth and falsehood is impossible." (p. 130) "We will not change our own values and concepts either more or less to make a bargain with this jahili society. Never!" (p. 21) In preaching and promoting Islam, for example, it is very important not to demean Islam by "searching for resemblances" between Islam and the "filth" and "the rubbish heap of the West." (p. 139)
According to Qutb, to ignore this fact and attempt to introduce elements of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
or nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
into Islam or the Muslim community (as Egypt's Arab Socialist Union government was doing at the time) is against Islam. Qutb stresses that in the early days of Islam, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
did not make appeals to ethnic or class loyalty. Though these crowd-pleasing appeals would have undoubtedly shortened the thirteen years of "tortures" Muhammad had to endure while calling unresponsive Arabs to Islam, "God did not lead His Prophet on this course. ... This was not the way," (p. 25-27) and so must not be the way now. So although many of Qutb's ideals about how to run a just society would seem socialist to the western observer, he denounced socialism because socialism works from the idea that classes of people do exist, while the whole point of Mahammed's postulating of Islam was that he abolished a very rigid class and cast system in the then Christian-Jewish-animist Middle -East by declaring all people equal.
Islamic vanguard
To restore Islam on earth and free Muslims from "jahili society, jahili concepts, jahili traditions and jahili leadership," (p. 21) Qutb preaches that a vanguard (tali'a) be formed modeling itself after the original Muslims, the "companions" of Muhammad (SahabaSahaba
In Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...
). These Muslims successfully vanquished Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah
Jahiliyyah is an Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia, i.e. prior to the revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad...
(Qutb believes) principally for two reasons:
- They cut themselves off from the Jahiliyyah—i.e. they ignored the learning and culture of non-Muslim groups (Greeks, Romans, Persians, Christians or Jews), and separated themselves from their old non-Muslim friends and family. (p. 16, 20)
- They looked to the Qur'an for orders to obey, not as "learning and information" or solutions to problems. (p. 17-18)
Following these principles the vanguard will fight Jahiliyyah with a twofold approach: preaching, and "the movement" (jama'at). Preaching will persuade people to become true Muslims, while the movement will remove by "physical power and Jihaad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system." (p. 55) Foremost amongst these organizations and people to be removed is the "political power which rests on a complex yet interrelated ideological, racial, class, social and economic support," (p. 59) but ultimately includes "the whole human environment." (p. 72) Force is necessary, Qutb explains, because it is naive to expect "those who have usurped the authority of God" to "give up their power" without a fight. (p. 58-9)
Remaining aloof from Jahiliyyah and its values and culture, but preaching and forcibly abolishing authority within it, the vanguard will travel the road, gradually growing from a cell of "three individuals ... to ten, the ten to a hundred, the hundred to a thousand, and the thousand ... to twelve thousand," and blossom into a truly Islamic community. The community may start in the "homeland of Islam" but this is by no means "the ultimate objective of the Islamic movement of Jihad." (p. 72) Jihad must not merely be defensive, it must be offensive, (p. 62) and its objective must be to carry Islam "throughout the earth to the whole of mankind." (p. 72)
True Muslims should maintain a "sense of supremacy" and "superiority," (p. 141) on the road of renewal, but it is important that they also prepare themselves for a "life until death in poverty, difficulty, frustration, torment and sacrifice" (p. 157), and even to brace themselves for possibility of death by torture at the hands of Jahiliyyah's sadistic, "arrogant, mischievous, criminal and degraded people." (p. 150) Qutb ends his book by an example of persecution against Muslims from the Quran's "surat al-buruj," enjoining modern-day Muslims to tolerate the same or worse tortures for the sake of carrying out God's will. After all, "this world is not a place of reward"; the believer's reward is in heaven. (p. 150, 157)
Islamic
Two of Qutb's major influences were the medieval Islamic scholar Ibn TaymiyaIbn Taymiya
Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah , full name: Taqī ad-Dīn Abu 'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd as-Salām Ibn Taymiya al-Ḥarrānī , was an Islamic scholar , theologian and logician born in Harran, located in what is now Turkey, close to the Syrian border. He lived during the troubled times of...
, and contemporary Pakistani/Indian Islamist writer Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. Both used the historical term jahiliyya to describe contemporary events in the Muslim world.
Two other concepts popularized by Qutb in Milestones also came from Maududi:
- al-'ubudiyya, or worship, (which is performed not only by praying and adoring but by obeying); and
- al-hakimiyya, or sovereignty, (which is God's over all the earth and violated when His law, the Sharia, is not obeyed).
Qutb's precept that Sharia law is essential to Islam and any self-described "Muslim" ruler who ignores it in favor of man-made laws is actually a non-Muslim who should be fought and overthrown come from a fatwa of Ibn Taymiya.
Non-Islamic
Qutb's intense dislike of the West notwithstanding, some of his ideas are strongly reminiscent of European fascismFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
:
- the decline of contemporary Western civilization and "infertility" of democracy,
- inspiration from an earlier golden age and desire to restore its glory with an all-encompassing (totalitarian) social, political, economic system,
- victimhood from malicious foreign and Jewish conspiracies, and
- violent revolution to expel alien influences and reestablish the power and international domination of the nation/community,
Where it completely opposes fascism is that it works from the assumption that all men, irrespective of race, skin color or nationality, are equal in their being a Muslim or in their ability to become a Muslim. So where fascism centers around exclusion, Qutb tried to strive for a world in which everybody is included.
Fascism having made some impact among anti-British Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....
before, during, and after World War II. The influence of particular fascist thinkers (particularly French fascist Alexis Carrel
Alexis Carrel
Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles A. Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation...
) in Qutb's work is disputed.
The centrality of an Islamic 'vanguard' (Arabic: tali'a) in Qutb's political program also suggests influence from Leninist thinking.
Criticism
Qutb's book was originally a bestseller and became more popular as the Islamic revival strengthened. Islamists have hailed him as "a matchless writer, ... one of the greatest thinkers of contemporary Islamic thought," and compared to Western political philosopher John Locke. Egyptian intellectual Tariq al-Bishri has compared the influence of Milestones to Vladimir LeninVladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's pamphlet What Is To Be Done?
What is to be Done?
What to do? Burning Questions of Our Movement is a political pamphlet written by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in 1902...
, where the founder of modern Communism outlined his theories of how Communism would be different than socialism. Author Gilles Kepel credits Milestones with "unmasking" the socialist and "nominally" Islamic "faces" of the Egyptian regime Qutb lived under.
Outside the Islamist context, however Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq has been criticized by Muslims for the takfir of "jahili" Muslims, and by non-Muslims for its accusations against same, particularly following the terrorist attacks of September 11th
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
.
Takfir
The claim that the entire world was jahiliyya meant that mainstream Muslims were not actually Muslims, which meant they were potentially guilty of apostasyApostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
, a capital crime in traditional Sharia (though rarely enforced). Critics allege that Qutb's Milestones helped to open up a Pandora’s box of takfir
Takfir
In Islamic law, takfir or takfeer refers to the practice of one Muslim declaring another Muslim an unbeliever or kafir...
(declaring a Muslim to be an infidel) that has brought serious internal strife, in particular terrorism, to the Muslim world in recent decades.
Christians and Jews as Polytheists
Qutb repeatedly proclaims that "serving human lords" is intolerable and is a practice Islam "has come to annihilate." (p. 60) Christians and Jews are guilty of it since, according to Qutb, they give priests and rabbis "the authority to make laws" and "it is clear that obedience to laws and judgments is a sort of worship." [p. 60] Because of this, Qutb says, these religions are actually polytheist, not monotheist.Western and Jewish Conspiracies
- Qutb asserted that "World Jewry" was and is engaged in conspiracies whose "purpose" is:
-
- to eliminate all limitations, especially the limitations imposed by faith and religion, so that Jews may penetrate into body politics of the whole world and then may be free to perpetuate their evil designs. At the top of the list of these activities is usuryUsuryUsury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
, the aim of which is that all the wealth of mankind end up in the hands of Jewish financial institutions which run on interest. (p.110-111)- He also alleged that the West had a centuries-long "enmity toward Islam" which led it to create a "well-thought-out scheme ... to demolish the structure of Muslim society," (p. 116) At the same time, "the Western world realizes that Western civilization is unable to present any healthy values for the guidance of mankind," (p. 7) and "the American people blush" with shame when confronted with the "immoralities" and "vulgarity" of their own country in comparison with the superiority of Islam's "logic, beauty, humanity and happiness" (p. 139)
- to eliminate all limitations, especially the limitations imposed by faith and religion, so that Jews may penetrate into body politics of the whole world and then may be free to perpetuate their evil designs. At the top of the list of these activities is usury
Olivier Roy has described Qutb's attitude towards the west is one of "radical contempt and hatred" for the West, rather than reasoned criticism, and complains that the propensity of Muslims like Qutb to blame problems on outside conspiracies "is currently paralyzing Muslim political thought. For to say that every failure is the devil's work is the same as asking God, or the devil himself (which is to say these days the Americans), to solve one's problems."
Sharia
Qutb's ideology is premised upon ShariaSharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law and its application to every aspect of life. He does not explain or illustrate how any specific statutes are better or different than man-made law - evidence to support assertions in Ma'alim fi al-Tariq is limited to scriptural quotations - but does assure readers Sharia is "without doubt ... perfect in the highest degree" (p. 11), and will free humanity from servitude to other men.
Some, such as scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl, have questioned Qutb's understanding of Sharia, and his assumptions that Sharia is not only perfect but accessible to mortals in its completeness. While Islamic scholars of Sharia traditionally have two decade-long training from schools such as Al Azhar, all Qutb's formal post-secondary schooling was secular.
Insofar as Qutb's book follows the fundamentalist prescription that "the Quran is our law," it comes under modernist criticism of Islamism and Islamic fundamentalism which points out, for example, that of 6000 verses in the Quran only 245 concern legislation, and only 90 of those concern constitutional, civil, financial or economic matters. Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law is based on Sunna
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
as well the Quran of course, but even this legislation is notably short on help dealing with modern problems such as traffic control, price stability, or health care.
Freedom
Qutb explains that Sharia law needs no human authorities for citizens to obey and thus frees humanity from "servitude" because- God's law has "no vagueness or looseness" (p. 85) which would necessitate judges to settle disputes over interpretation, and
- no need for enforcement authorities because "as soon as a command is given, the heads are bowed, and nothing more is required for implementation (of Shariah) except to hear it." (p. 32)
This uniquely free socio-economic system not only frees Muslims to be true Muslims, but explains why offensive jihad to "establish the sovereignty of God," i.e. true Islam, "throughout the world" (p. 62) would not constitute aggression towards non-Muslims but rather "a movement to wipe out tyranny and to introduce true freedom to mankind," (p. 62) since even the most contented and patriotic non-Muslim living in a non-Muslim state is still obeying a human authority. These non-Muslims must be freed by Islamic jihad, just as the non-Muslims of Persia or Byzantium were freed by invading Muslim armies in the 7th Century AD.
The alleged problem here is that conquered non-Muslims would have no incentive to obey un-enforced Sharia law since non-Muslims by definition do not consider Islamic law to be divine. However, if obedience were not voluntary, offensive jihad would lose its rationale as a movement to wipe out tyranny.
External links
- Sayyid Qutb, Milestones
- Milestones (a PDF)
- Robert Irwin, Is this the man who inspired Bin Laden? The Guardian (November 1, 2001).
- Elmer Swenson, Sayyid Qutb's Milestones.