Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism

by John Calvert

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was an influential Egyptian ideologue who established the theoretical basis for radical Islamism in the postcolonial Sunni Muslim world. Lacking a pure understanding of the leader's life and work, the popular media has conflated Qutb's moral purpose with the aims of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. He is often portrayed as a terrorist, Islamo-Fascist, and advocate of murder. An expert on social protest and political resistance, John Calvert rescues Qutb from misrepresentation and follows the evolution of his thought within the context of his time. Calvert recounts Qutb's life from the small village in which he was raised to his execution at the behest of Abd al-Nasser's regime. His study remains sensitive to the cultural, political, social, and economic circumstances that shaped Qutb's thought, including major developments that composed one of the most eventful periods in Egyptian history. These years witnessed the full flush of Britain's tutelary regime, the advent of Egyptian nationalism, and the political hegemony of the Free Officers. Qutb rubbed shoulders with Taha Husayn, Naguib Mahfouz, and Abd al-Nasser himself, though his Islamism originally had little to do with religion. Only in response to his harrowing experience in prison did Qutb come to regard Islam and kufr (infidelity) as oppositional, antithetical, and therefore mutually exclusive. Calvert shows how Qutb repackaged and reformulated the Islamic heritage to challenge authority, including those who claimed (falsely, Qutb believed) to be Muslim.

Genres: History, Islam, Politics, Religion, Nonfiction, Biography, Egypt

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[ahmad afridi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book mentioned that gone with the wind was Qutb's fav film. After reading this book I recalled a dialogue by Clark Gable (playing Rhett Butler's character) after confederacy had suffered major losses . He wanted to join the war from western states and when asked reason for joining so late, he said "I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.” the same path was chosen by Qutb or he was condemned to choose that path. Having good understating of conditions in Egypt caused by colonialism , shown by his writings in early life, he gradually drifted away and the goal which was fighting colonialism changed a dream of creating a theological state which will then guarantee true freedom from every type of oppressions .

This is a well written book covering Qutub's life as well as political events of Egypt during late colonialism. All this political information was new for me. Both Modudi and Qutub are hailed as pioneers of political Islam in 19th century but now having read Qutb's views I found them quite different from that of Modudi. The former advocated for a militant takeover of state in addition to propaganda and preparing a class which is religiously , politically and administratively conscious to run the affairs of state in light of divine teachings while the later refused the use of arms and opted political struggle in parliament along with grooming new generation in teaching institutions (although they would never admit officially but have soft corner for militants fighting in subcontinent and abroad and many were caught from houses of JI members and they even participated in Afghan war).

Even the global Jihad post al-Qaida, which is usually said to be influenced by teaching of Qutb, is quite different or even opposite in its approach , neglecting the structure of modern day states , extended battlefield to the countries they are fighting against and establishing global khilafat as the final goal instead of limiting it to a certain nation state. A hint is given in a dramatic way about how the kid Aimen zawahiri received Qutb's death news who later would take his ideology to a global stage but no further discussion of this influence or how Zawahari reinterpreted it. But this would have gone beyond scope of this book and would require another chapter at the end something like "influence of Qutb's life and death on future jihadism.

[Kaśyap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sayyid Qutb is one of the most important figures in modern day "political Islam"/"Islamofascism" that has taken deep roots in the Indian subcontinent. Maulana Maududi , the founder of jamaat-e-islami is another such figure, important in the Indian context. To Maududi Hitler was an icon.

This intellectual biography of the Egyptian Islamist Sayyed Qutb is based upon primary sources and is quite well written. It also shows the important influence the radical western ideologies of revolutionary politics, usage of terror militias and European fascism had in shaping the modern day Islamism. So yes, the alliance between the far left and the islamofascists today is not at all surprising.

[Polloplayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book helped me imagine reversed circumstances and how it would feel to live in a country occupied by a foreign power infused with religious views different from my own. It is a subject worth pondering.

And Calvert does have a warm familiarity with his subject matter. Too warm, in fact. He seems too smitten with Qutb and strains too hard to explain away the man's social (and possibly physical) impotence, his paranoia and his self-aggrandizing, ethnocentric and xenophobic attitudes that form his take on Islam.

When Calvert includes what seems to be an editorial (and unattributed) snippet stating that America "had it coming" on 9/11, I realized that he is less of a biographer and more of an apologist for Qutb. Never does he refer to his subject as an extremist. Instead he coddles him and fails to advance any useful or in-depth psychological profile of this man who stated his open hatred for all Westerners, who seemed both contemptuous of and intimidated by women and who, according to the author, likely died a virgin.

The pathology that may have driven Qutb's beliefs is echoed in that of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, the operatives of the 9/11 attack and of garden-variety suicide bombers. Socially alienated in a culture that gives them no spiritual or cultural room to breathe, they are vulnerable to radicalization for a sense of belonging and mission.

It is a grave reality in our world, not just a subject for academic navel-gazing. I believe Calvert does too great a service to his subject and a disservice to all the innocent people who have died at the hands of Islamic terrorists.

[Nazmi Yaakub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Menyusur perjalanan hidup Sayyid Qutb yang pernah mendapat tempat penting dalam pembacaan ketika remaja dulu melalui buku ini, memberikan gambaran jelas betapa ideolog Islamisme (kalau dulu lebih akrab dipanggil gerakan Islam) bukan lahir daripada ruang hampa, sebaliknya memiliki konteks zaman yang tidak boleh diabaikan dan melalui beberapa fasa hingga menggapai kemuncak idea ekstremnya, jahiliyah moden yang kelak dikutip oleh golongan Salafi-jihadi sebagai asas untuk lebih radikal serta ganas.

Membaca sejarah hidup dan idea Sayyid Qutb ini memang menyebabkan emosi tersentuh bukan sahaja disebabkan mengingatkan fahaman mentah ketika remaja dulu, bahkan menyedari perjuangan getir umat Islam dalam berdepan dengan kuasa imperialisme yang turut dibekali dengan senjata ideologi, pemikiran dan persenjataan moden hingga ramai memberikan jawapan tepat kepada simptom dialami dunia Islam tetapi tidak berupaya menyediakan jawapan tepat untuk mengubah nasib ummah.

Malah, dengan pelbagai ideologi, pemikiran dan kaedah, setiap entiti bukan sahaja meyakini merekalah paling benar, bahkan bertelingkah dan berkonflik hingga menghasilkan sejarah hitam antara Free Officer dipimpin Gamal Abdel Naser dengan Ikhwan Muslimin di bawah Hasan Hudaibi.

Sayyid Qutb adalah antara watak penting dalam sejarah hitam itu meskipun baru saja mendakap faham Islamisme pada dekad 50-an tetapi tidak asing dalam naratif besar Mesir berdepan penjajah Inggeris, elit kuasa dan kemudian ‘bekas’ regu Revolusi itu. Meskipun, Sayyid Qutb baru dalam Ikhwan Muslimin, sebagai pemikir, sasterawan, budayawan dan pengarang, beliau menduduki tempat penting, iaitu bahagian yang menentukan proses pembentukan ideologi dan pemikiran ahli.

Sukar membayangkan tanpa sejarah hitam dan kekejaman di luar batas kemanusiaan diterima penggerak serta ahli Ikhwan Muslimin termasuk Sayyid Qutb, idea-idea ekstrem dalam Ma’alim fit Torriq dan edisi lebih keras tafsir Fi Zilalil Quran akan muncul yang kelak akan mempengaruhi kumpulan lebih ekstrem seperti jamaah pimpinan Salih Abdullah Sirriya; Jamaat Muslimun atau lebih dikenali Takfir Wal Hijrah (Shukri Mustafa) dan al-Jamaat al-Jihad (Abdul Salam al-Faraj dan Sheikh Umar Abdul Rahman, kemudiannya pada zaman ini, Al-Qaeda dan Daesh.

Bagaimanapun, itulah takdir Tuhan yang menentukan sebab akibat setiap peristiwa melahirkan peristiwa seterusnya sebegitu rupa hingga kita dapat saksikan seseorang tokoh itu berubah dan sesuatu idea itu berkembang bukan daripada ruang kosong, sebaliknya melalui liku penuh getir.

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart, sane, and based on a large number of primary sources and interviews. Well worth your time.

[Mario Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ler este livro de John Calvert foi uma experiência esclarecedora.

Eu não o classifico o livro de Calvert como uma biografia, pois embora apresente bastante dados da vida de Sayyid Qutb, o relato é uma detalhada análise das raízes do radicalismo islâmico.

Antes de ler este livro, eu não tinha completa consciência da importância do movimento nacionalista egípcio, nascido e desenvolvido durante a dominação inglesa (1882 – 1052), como fonte da maioria dos movimentos extremistas islâmicos, mesmo fora do Egito. A própria Irmandade Muçulmana, a maior e mais antiga organização islâmica, criada em 1928, e que não revela consenso para ser classificada como organização terrorista, nasceu neste período e teve seu crescimento nos acontecimentos de 1948 – 1952, no Egito.

Sayyid Qutb, que no início de sua vida até a meia idade não pode ser considerado fervoroso na fé islâmica, teve o recrudescimento de seus ideais na luta por uma sociedade islâmica, tornando-se um fundamentalista, neste período e mais especificamente durante os anos na prisão (1954 – 1965), para a qual foi enviado pelo regime de Abd al-Nasser.

Embora em seus escritos, Qutb jamais tenha pregado o sacrifício de inocentes pela causa do Islã é bastante coerente elegê-lo como o responsável pelo surgimento dos grupos extremistas islâmicos cujas recrudescimento levaram ao 11 de setembro e tudo o que vivenciamos hoje.

No entanto, é fato que Qutb pregava que antes do combate ao inimigo externo, era necessária uma depuração da própria sociedade muçulmana atual, que ele considerava estar falhando com os desígnios dos primeiros membros da Umma e estava mergulhada na Jahillyya (ignorância). A defesa desta posição lhe valeu antagonismos dentro da própria comunidade muçulmana e o transformou em um autor controvertido até os dias de hoje, amado pelos radicais e criticado pelos moderados.

Embora os especialistas no ocidente, quase em sua totalidade, o consideram o pai do radicalismo islâmico, existem vozes, mormente entre os muçulmanos, que afirmam ele ter sido mal interpretado.

John Calvert, neste excelente trabalho analisa também a fase inicial de Qutb como escritor e em uma boa parte do livro envereda por sua produção literária. Antes de você considerar esta parte enfadonha, perceba que Qutb somente começou a ser considerado como importante na literatura egípcia e árabe quando estudou e publicou aspectos estéticos do Alcorão (al-Taswir al-Fanni fi al-Qur'an (Representação Artística no Alcorão). Como se sabe, é dito pelos muçulmanos que o Alcorão somente encontra sua beleza plena quando é recitado no idioma árabe, quando então todas a toda a sua riqueza estética é exposta.

Julgue você mesmo, lendo este excelente livro e, se possível, complemente com a obra seminal de Qutb, que serve de manual guia para os grupos extremistas, “Milestones”.

[Mustapha · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books documenting the life of the Father of Modern day Islamism/Islamofascism and Terrorism . In My reading I realized that Qutb was mentally ill as well even though the writer didn't mention that but Qutb accounts with American Nurses where he thought ( in his Mentally ill brain ) that a friendly discussion from the behalf of the nurse about her futuristic dream hubby is actually a sort of "Molestation " or seduction! against him ! which contributed more to his hatred towards the west and America !! his sharp tone against the poor nurse shows that in my opinion .

[Nur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad i read this book...

[Baher Soliman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book, “Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism,” John Calvert attempted to read Sayyed Qutb from his literary phase to his revolutionary Islamic phase, which did not come violently - as the book sees it - until the mid-fifties, although Calvert does not aim to defend Qutb as his most famous biographer did. Salah Abdel Fattah Al-Khalidi However, he also did not try to demonize Qutb as Sharif Yunus did in his book about Qutb, and although Calvert described Qutb as an extremist, he did not mean by that to evaluate Qutb’s ideas as representative of the classical Islamic tradition or not. In any case, he meant how he presented Qutb gave an assessment of society that differs from the traditional assessment since Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, and Hassan al-Banna, and he certainly says in the first pages of his book that although Qutb condemned the general culture of the era and described it as ignorant, he avoided describing individuals as infidels, and Calvert will emphasize this meaning again. At the end of his book, Qutb told Omar al-Tilmisani that he does not declare society or individuals to be infidels.

Calvert is trying, as he says, to rescue Qutb from obscurity. Here we can borrow Guidry’s statement in his book, “Sayyid Qutb, an Intellectual Biography,” to explain that ambiguity. As he said, “The effectiveness of the anti-Brotherhood discourse is partly due to the fact that the intellectual culture responsible for producing it in the golden sixties does not It remains unchallenged to this day.” Naguib Mahfouz was part of this anti-discourse. Calvert spoke about how he portrayed Qutb’s character badly in his novel Mirrors. Perhaps Qutb’s Islamism is what prevented him from being celebrated as a writer in the period after the 1960s, but there is a bridge between Qutb’s legacy as a writer and his Islamic legacy. This bridge is What Calvert expressed, as there was no major rupture, as Qutb’s formation, ideas, and customs with which he entered the world of literature in a crisis colonial reality = were naturally leading Qutb slowly towards the Islamic direction. The matter is not as Qutb himself claimed or those who wrote his biography about the moment he witnessed. The nurses at the American Hospital celebrate the assassination of Hassan al-Banna. This is not the moment of transformation. According to Calvert, the transformation took place slowly and gradually.

Calvert traces the features of Qutb’s childhood through his biography, “A Child from the Village.” The village is “Mosha” in Assiut, where Qutb was born. His relationship with his father was predominantly formal, and his relationship with his mother and siblings was more relaxed. Here the author monitors an important feature inherent in Qutb’s personality. In the process of transformation, which is maintaining moral standards, later and even before the transformation, Qutb would morally despise the West. He was unlike Taha Hussein in that, but he was searching for a modern version of Egyptian civilization. His father, Qutb, saw that modern education would enable her son to join the Effendi classes, and in the Musha School, Qutb studied against the backdrop of increasing nationalist agitation, and he heard the discussions of the patriots with whom his father was secretly meeting, and in that period a critical sense of the injustices of the large landowners in the countryside crystallized in him. These ideas She was the one who later accompanied Qutb to Cairo.

He came to Cairo after the 1919 revolution, stayed with his uncle Ahmed Othman, and joined Dar al-Ulum, where he strengthened his linguistic skills and enhanced his interpretive knowledge. He complained that Dar al-Ulum was suffering from a lack of teaching foreign languages, and Qutb began to emerge as a poet and writer, and entered into an intellectual relationship. For a long time with Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad, Qutb inherited Al-Aqqad’s enemies. He entered into intellectual battles with the Rafi’is and the Apollo group. Later, Qutb would look at those battles as trivial. It is noted that Qutb during those battles seemed to be secular, especially when he responded to Al-Rafi’i’s supporters that religion had no relationship. He had the arts, and as Calvert says, Qutb here was far removed from his final Islamic position.

On the behavioral level, Qutb was conservative about open female relationships, and he had a novel, “Thorns,” that represented his predicament with women. He also depicted and identified his enemies in that period: the illusion of colonialism, Western culture, and Zionism. These enemies would not leave Qutb’s thought even in the Nasserist era. Later, he would see that striking A supporter of the Brotherhood who serves these enemies, and had national interests in the Palestine issue in the 1930s at a time when the Egyptian government abandoned support for Palestine for fear of Britain. Calvert returns once again to Qantara, which is literature, as the gateway to Islamism. He notes that Qutb’s study of the rhetoric of the Holy Qur’an contributed to this transformation. He wrote “Artistic Illustration in the Qur’an” to study the artistic genius of the Qur’an, as Calvert says, and with Qutb’s growing awareness of social justice from the perspective of An Islamist, Qutb wrote “Social Justice in Islam,” a book that would later cause heated discussions between him and Mahmoud Shaker about Qutb’s opinion of Uthman and Muawiyah, may God be pleased with them both. ( رضي الله عنهما)

In all of this, Qutb’s views were closer to the Brotherhood, and when he returned from his travel to America, he wrote a criticism leaning toward the Brotherhood, relating to the decadence of American women and the materialism that was deeply rooted in American society. When he returned from the American mission, he went for Hajj and met Abu al-Hasan al-Nadawi there. Calvert believes that he took over the idea of ​​the world’s ignorance. Qutb from Nadwi and Mawdudi (in an interview with Hamida Qutb on YouTube, she said that Qutb, while in prison, advised young people who asked him about recommendations for reading, to read Nadwi and Mawdudi), but Calvert says, however, that the idea of ​​“divine sovereignty” Qutb did not take from them, but rather Early roots in his writings.



During that period, Qutb attacked the Azharites and the Americanized Muslims. He considered the modern school system to be the main channel for the distorted image of Islam, and thus he found hope in the Free Officers. Before joining the Brotherhood, Calvert mentions that on July 19, 1952, the Brotherhood met with the Free Officers at Sayyid Qutb’s house in Hulun, and asked for help in In the event that they were exposed to a British attack, after the coup, Qutb stood next to the coup plotters, and the Brotherhood praised the officers’ suppression of the workers’ movement in Kafr al-Dawwar, but only a few months passed until the honeymoon between the Brotherhood and the coup plotters ended. The military became hostile to the Brotherhood, and here Qutb decided to join the Brotherhood, and perhaps had it not been for that Hostility when Qutb joined them, but here he sensed danger after he saw in them the only organization capable of challenging Abdel Nasser’s regime.

The Brotherhood rejected the evacuation negotiations, and sided with Naguib against Nasser, and here Nasser decided to overthrow everyone. The author mentions the attempt to assassinate Abdel Nasser in Manshiya in 1954 AD without refutation. What concerns him is how Nasser used it as an excuse to remove the Brotherhood, and Qutb was arrested, even though it was not proven that he He participated in this alleged conspiracy, and even the charge brought against him by the coup plotters was vague, as Calvert says, namely, “opposing government activity.” Qutb stood in court and exposed his back to show the torture. Then he said sarcastically, “Abdel Nasser applied the principles of the revolution to us.” Qutb was unjustly sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in Tora Prison. Qutb entered prison at the age of fifty.

Torture and ill-treatment were common. Qutb’s health deteriorated. He entered the hospital. Qutb’s relationship with a person named Youssef Hawash strengthened. During his imprisonment, he completed his interpretation of Shadows. His sisters Hamida and Amina leaked the written copies outside the prison walls. Calvert believes that those years constituted Qutb’s violent shift towards Islamism. Especially after the massacre that happened to the Brotherhood in prison in 1957, when the guards shot them in their cells after they refused to go out to work in the quarries. The book says that Qutb here, after that incident, began to believe that the regime was atheist and in the grip of the Zionists and Crusaders, but there is no explicit text for Qutb. In it, he asserts the regime’s disbelief, and does he declare it a disbeliever in general, or does he drop the ruling on their notables? During that period, Qutb also wrote his book “Milestones on the Way,” the most problematic and comprehensive book in terms of concepts and terminology, but whoever reads the landmarks will find in it a book of education for the vanguard, not a revolutionary map for violent action. The idea of ​​sovereignty and the focus on God’s rule are ideas that existed with Qutb before. His book "Signs on the Road". In general, Calvert asserts that the guide Al-Hudaybi in that period read Al-Ma’alim and approved of it, while the Brotherhood leader Muhammad Farid Abdel Khaleq mentioned in the program “Witness to the Age” that he warned Al-Hudaybi about Al-Ma’alim and the guide had reservations about the ideas of the book.


While Qutb was in prison, a revolutionary group was formed by Abdel Fattah Ismail in communication with Zainab Al-Ghazali. Ali Ashmawi, Ahmed Abdel Majeed, and others joined them. The problem with this group was that it was looking for revolutionary leadership away from the guide who was not inclined to revolutionary work. They found in Qutb what they wanted. They communicated. With him in prison, he agreed to the leadership and advised them to read Maududi’s books, but according to Qutb, the vanguard must spend years in education, not engage in acts of violence, and this is a major point of difference between Qutb’s thought and what the organization was thinking about.

Qutb was released from prison after the mediation of Iraqi President Abdel Salam Arif. Qutb met with Abdel Fattah Ismail and Ali Ashmawi at his home in Helwan. Qutb rejected hasty action in exchange for education. According to Calvert, he tried to reduce the enthusiasm of his followers, and did not justify their use of force except only to repel aggression. The organization was exposed. Sayyid Qutb, Abdel Fattah Ismail, Al-Hawash, Ali Ashmawi, Hamida, Amina Qutb, and others were arrested. It was a major campaign, in which even those who had not heard of the existence of this organization were arrested. Qutb, Hawash, and Abdel Fattah Ismail were sentenced to death. Calvert tells us the moments. In the last of Qutb’s life, the guards came to him in the middle of the night and took him out of his cell. Qutb greeted the guards, and with confidence and steadfastness he headed to the gallows, where the sentence was carried out at three o’clock in the morning.

He mentions Qutb’s steadfastness in the last moments of the Brotherhood-hating Major General Fouad Allam. He says in a documentary about Qutb produced by one of the channels run by the Egyptian state agencies - and Allam was an eyewitness - that Qutb was muttering words that were not clear to him all along the way, and when Sheikh Al-Azhari asked him to He did not pay attention to uttering martyrdom before his execution, and he kept muttering words that Allam did not understand. Here, Calvert, in his book, also conveys this consistency to us, along with another story, that he was offered a pardon in exchange for asking for forgiveness from Nasser, and Qutb refused. Calvert says that Qutb was undoubtedly seeking martyrdom. .



Calvert concludes his book by narrating Qutb’s influence on the groups that came after him that went to areas that Qutb did not go to. Qutb was appreciated by the leaders of those groups. However, as Hani Nasira mentioned in his book “Jihadists’ Mistakes in Understanding Ibn Taymiyyah,” the jihadists’ attribution of Most of their opinions belong to Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and not to Sayyid Qutb. Undoubtedly, this is a very enjoyable book. Calvert tried to be fair, and I think he succeeded in doing so to a great extent. The reader enters Calvert’s book intellectually charged from its title and imagines that he will confront Rasputin or Frankenstein. The reader does not finish this book without respecting... As Sayyid Qutb appreciates, Calvert did not aim for this, but perhaps this was the logical conclusion.

[Nawar Kassomeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but it has numerous mistakes ( names and Arabic transliteration) such as:

"Khatib Ibn al-Walid, the commander of the first Muslim army" (P.87) It should be Khalid Ibn al-Walid.
" the “larger homeland of Islam (al-watan al-Islamiyya al-akhbar)” " (p.161). It should be (al-watan al-Islami al-akhbar).
"that belongs to God and had thereby precipitated a condition of jahiliyya—“ignorance” " (p.1). Ignorance is jahil, whereas jahiliyya is the (pre-Islamic) Age of Ignorance.

[Malin Näfstadius · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've frequently seen the name Sayyid Qutb, and Milestones, mentioned when I've read about contemporary Islamist leaders, so I'm glad to have gotten a bit of a grip on who he was. The author does a good job in laying bare the foundation and connections that exists between Islamist groups that have taken to the stage throughout the later part of the 20th century until today, however the writing style is a bit stuffy and doesn't flow very smoothly.

What strikes me about this account of Qutb's life is how obvious it appears that had the Nasser regime not treated it's ideological opponents with an inhumane lack of justice, or even right to exist, then he would most likely not have deviated from his initial path of Islam as a way to social reform, within existing nation-states. It's so familiar, I just need to watch the news to see it repeated in any war zone, and from this vantage point the history of radicalisation is like watching a train wreck happening again and again, the cause and effect never fail, but our ability to do anything to stop it always does.

Qutb's later prison writing seems so familiar when one has seen enough Islamists proclaiming a new and pure struggle in the name of God. I've read of scholars that champion "the religion of peace", stressing that Quran has many verses that only sanction defensive force. However that's a thin veneer that doesn't hold when reminding of that later revelations abrogate the earlier ones, and Qutb has no patience for the talk of "greater jihad" in the struggle for learning etc. He calls for activism, and doesn't shy away from that "the true Muslim, while struggling against other people, also struggles against himself. Thereby horizons are opened to him in the faith which would never be opened to him if he were to sit immobile and rest"
However as always, the ambiguity of the theory leaves too much space to interpretation. His declaration that there is no actual living Muslim land, and has not been since the age of colonialism infected the world might sound strange if taken out of context. And I guess its a very tempting excuse for the "pure" vanguard takfiri groups that have no qualms about calling all people that don't live up to their strict standards "kafir".


To me Qutb comes across as naive in his faith that everyone actually will want the "freedom" to adopt Allah's ways once they get the chance, it strikes me as so ignorant of the identical conviction of representatives of other religions. However as the author says, Qutb did not compare Islam to other religions but to other political ideologies, all of which lack an all-mighty creator.
However the whole task becomes a utopia when he writes that Muslims, once awakened, must basically overthrow all old secular rules and adopt "Islam in totality". No half measures can be accepted, everything else is yahiliyya. In theory it makes sense that you can't implement hudud laws if you don't have an Islamic system that protects everyone from hunger etc, but in practice that appears less possible now than ever, since we have just seen a group try to implement such a complete Islamic system, with force and duplicity, and fail to convince more than few disenfranchised youth that have failed to find meaning in the competition of today's society.

I can see why Qutb has become an inspiration, there is resonance in his observation that life of today has lost its connection to the metaphysical realm. However even tho his diagnosis may hold some truth I don't think that his proscribed treatment in which belief preceeds understanding will take in an age when we are learning to question everything we see.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calvert's treatment of Qutb is balanced and nuanced placing both Qutb's life and ideology within the context of 20th century Egyptian history. In order to properly understand Qutb, it is important to understand how Egyptians perceived Britain's imperial influence within Egypt, the failure of Egyptian political forces failure to provide real political change, and how the rise of authoritarianism impacted Egyptians. Calvert's history gives the reader a background on the intellectual and political debates of the time in Egypt as well as a grounding in the events shaping this thought. He also provides readers with an reasonable understanding of cultural and social cleavages within Egypt and where Qutb sits. This is a fantastic book.

[Kristian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely in-depth look at the development of Sayyid Qutb's ideology and how he got from his early Islamic writings to his later influence in the MB and teachings of jihad/radicalism, etc.

[Annika]

Read for religion and politics in Islamic history.

[Gracie O’Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

for a paper

[Izak Miklavčič · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit dull at times, but overall very interesting.

[harry gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great piece of scholarship but quite boring to read. Qutb is an interesting man, and while the minutia of his life is important for understanding the development of his ideology, in the moment of reading about it, it can feel like a slog. Educational nonetheless. Below are some notes I made in an attempt to understand the book:

the quran and jihad according to sayiid qutb

where the bible provides an ethical framework, the quran goes further and provides a social system. Such a system comes into being, with matters of justice and equality occurring naturally, once a society is in complete accordance with quran/sharia. this comes from adherence to its teachings, imitation of the prophet and his society (haddith and sunna) - the most pure of muslim communities that acted only by the word of the quran and thus without fallible, human corruption - and abject faith as sprouts from the mythical and emotional touching of the spirit by the qurans artistic textural nature.

It was with the onset of western imperialism and the spread of secularism that muslims came to ignore god’s sovereignty completely and deep jahiliyya (ignorance) began. There is no middle ground between accepting Gods prerogative, and not. As long as a life is not based on submission to God alone, they are steeped in jahiliyya and are not muslim. A jahili individual see himself as a believer yet dismisses islams prerogative to govern all aspects of life. this is different from a kafir, who is a person who intentionally disbelieves in God. Qutb reasoned that Muslims had a duty to jihad against jahili forces responsible for mankinds misery and confusion.

jihad comes from contradictory texts in the quran, some of which caution against confrontation, others allowing fighting kafir but only in defence, and a select few sanctioning jihad in all circumstances. In justification, one must acknowledge the quran was written by the Prophet over the course of his lifetime, and the earlier texts which prohibit or warn against conflict and jihad were from a time at which the Muslims were weak within Mecca. They are also in reference to a specific situation and therefore less generally applicable. Later on, once the Muslims were well established in Medina, the contradictory texts seemingly replace the previous ones and establish combat as norm, with universal scope. Some claim Jihad is spiritual and defensive, acting only against extreme oppressors. Qutb claims that Islam is by nature expansionist, with an unstoppable manifest destiny to a freedom which can come only with the actualisation of one’s god-given nature. Muslims fight to relaise God’s universal truth in the world and so matters of territory, politics, treatise of peace and acceptance are subordinate - they are matters of nations and militaries, not God. Islam must be elevated to a position of power over the people because then, unlike the imperialist forces, they can administer God’s justice with wise and benevolent rule. Eventually, kafir will come around to the true-religion, especially with the affecting nature of the quran. Islam originated as a revolutionary force concerned with justice, equity and compassion. Conflict in administration of these ideals seems contradictory, but Islam began as a revolution. On means to an end, Islam is historically clear. Inaction is in contradiction to these values, as only action produces a Godly society. Preaching may come first, but the Jahiliya have always resisted violently. And in the first place, Qutb posits that, irrespective of the outcome, a Muslim that struggles against the enemy, struggles against themselves. It is a matter of personal development. Is this not true - that struggle and suffering build character and educate?

Qutb changed the purpose of Islam’s struggle from being one against its oppressors, to a cosmic battle between good and evil, with an implicit dream of modern revolutionary transformation.

[Negusa Nagast · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about a man whose written work is often blamed for terrorism many decades after his death.
It is clear after reading this book that it is inaccurrate to attribute Qutb alone with Al-Qaeda or ISIS.
These contemporary groups should more correctly be attributed to the culture of torture in prisons.
I do think for someone like myself, I will need multiple readings of the book to understand Qutb as much as one can.
An excellent book nonetheless.