Sayyid Qutb and Social Justice, 1945-1948

I Journal of Islamic Studies 4:1 (1993) pp 52-70

SAYYID QUJB AND SOCIAL JUSTICE,1945-1948

ADNAN A. MUSALLAMDepartment of Humanities, Bethlehem University

The appearance of Sayyid Qutb's work on Islamic social justice, al-'Adala al-ijtima'Tyya ft l-Islam {Social Justice in Islam), in 1949 washailed as a landmark by Islamic groups in Egypt and the Arab world.The work was likewise judged significant in the Western world. Shortlyafter its publication the Committee of Near Eastern Studies of theAmerican Council of Learned Societies entrusted the Arabist John B.Hardie with the task of translating it. His translation, Social Justice inIslam, appeared in 1953. In this paper we shall examine when and whyQutb became interested in this theme which can only be understoodwithin the political, social, economic, and intellectual context of theperiod, that is within the context of wartime (1939-45) and postwar(1945-50) crises in which the disintegration and collapse of the liberalnationalist order became evident. This situation was further exacerbatedby the Egyptian and Arab defeat in the 1948 Palestine War.

THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR II AND THE POSTWAR PERIOD

The rapid growth of industry and Allied workshops and services inEgypt during World War II created a great movement of people fromthe rural areas to the major urban centres, especially Cairo. Thus,between 1937 and 1947 alone, Cairo's population increased by morethan 60 per cent over the previous decade, while the population ofEgypt as a whole for the same period increased by only 20 per cent.1

According to Lerner, 'the ancient metropolis has not the social capacity

1 Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East(New York, 1964), 218.

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SAYYID QUTB AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, 1945-1948 53

to absorb them as participants, and these urbanized nomads increasethe nation's explosive rather than productive potential.'2

The years during and following World War II put further strain onthe social and political spheres, and saw a continued erosion of popularsupport for the liberal nationalist regime.

Perhaps the most important single factor was the imposition of a twentieth-century inflation on a social structure in many ways reminiscent of the eight-eenth century. The gap between rich and poor, already great, was furtherenlarged; the unskilled rural and urban labourer suffered severe privations; andthe salaried middle and lower middle classes, whose money incomes rose verylittle, were relentlessly pressed down. Moreover,... the withdrawal of the Alliedtroops from Egypt after the war led to an estimated unemployment of over250,000 and to much distress and agitation.3

After the war ended, the country slipped into a period of increasingviolence, chaos, and anarchy, which came to an end only with theoverthrow of the monarchy and the liberal nationalist regime by theFree Officers in July 1952. According to Vatikiotis, 'the old politicalgroups had lost their hegemony after the last war partly because theyhad lost their control over the organized—and not so organized—masses of city folk, the youth in schools and universities, the increasingnumbers of industrial workers, but most important the soldiers.'*

This breakdown of law and order between 1945 and 1952 can beseen in the waves of strikes among industrial workers and publicemployees, including the police force. Many of the strikers and demon-strators were violently suppressed. These strikes were accompanied byother outbreaks of discontent, some violent, which resulted from theinability of the political leadership to reach agreement on the revisionor abrogation of the 1936 treaty during the Anglo-Egyptian negoti-ations.5

The social and political breakdown can also be seen in the frequentassassinations and attempted assassinations of public figures that tookplace during this period. Victims included Prime Minister Ahmad Mahir(1945), the Wafdist Anglophile AmTn 'Uthman (1946), the Secretary ofthe Cairo Court of Appeals (1948), the Chief of Cairo Police, SallmZakT (1948), Prime Minister Nuqrashl (1948), and the Supreme Guideof the Muslim Brothers, Hasan al-Banna (1949). Abortive attempts weremade against Wafdist leader Mustafa Nahas (1946 and 1948) and Prime

2 Ibid. 218-19.3 Charles Issawi, Egypt at Mid-Century: An Economic Survey (London, 1954), 262.4 P. J. Vatikiotis, The History of Egypt, 2nd edn. (Baltimore, Md., 1980), 356-7.5 Ibid. 360, 364.


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54 ADNAN A. MUSALLAM

Minister Ibrahim 'Abd al-Hadl (1949). Violent acts were also committedagainst public places, as can be exemplified in the bombings of theMetro Cinema (May 1947), the Jewish quarter (1948), and some largedepartment stores in Cairo (summer 1948).6 Other factors contributingto the breakdown of the political system included the scandalous behavi-our of the once promising King Faruq who discredited both the mon-archy and the existing order; and Egypt's defeat in the 1948 PalestineWar, which devastated the morale of the armed forces.7

Under these wartime and postwar conditions two alternative groupsappeared on the Egyptian scene which were prepared to challenge theexisting order: leftist groups, which had gained much confidence by thedefeat of fascism in Europe following two decades of agonizing struggleto formulate viable Marxist alternatives to the liberal nationalist regime;and the Society of Muslim Brothers, with years of discipline and experi-ence behind them. According to Ahmed, 'for a time these two groupsseemed to be the only social and political groups existing in Egypt, andto a large extent in the whole Arab World.'8

Thus the decade preceding the July 1952 military revolt was domin-ated by a sense of anger, grief, and despair at the established politicalinstitutions and their inability to solve the country's pressing problems.This is evident in the intellectual production of the period, which wasfocused on social protest and demanded the total reform of Egyptiansociety. Between 1945 and 1950 Taha Husayn, departing from his earliercontroversial cultural works, published several works which were crit-ical of the established order and which dealt with social injustice,political corruption, and resistance to oppression and exploitation.These included Jannat al-Shawk (1945), Mir"at al-damtr al-hadith(1949), al-Mu'adbdhabun ft l-ard (1949), which was banned in Egypt,and jannat al-hayawan (1950). Cachia points out that Husayn's 'frettingover the stationary conditions of the masses is genuine, and there aresigns of a swing to the left and an unprecedented concern with moralissues, as though his earlier faith in the inevitable success of simple butfundamental formulae—liberty, parliamentary democracy, naturalevolution—had ended in disillusionment'.'

Radical social and economic ideas were also expressed by membersof the Western-educated elite such as the literary critic MuhammadMandur, the philosopher cAbd al-Rahman BadawT, the economist

' Ibid. 364, 365.7 Issawi, 264.8 Jamal Mohammed Ahmed, The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism

(London, 1960), 123.' Pierre Cachia, Taha Husayn: His Place in the Egyptian Literary Renaissance

(London, 1956), 66.


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Rashld al-BarawT, the literary and cultural historian Louis Awad, andthe folklorist RushdT Salih, among others. Many of these intellectualswere Wafdists who had become disillusioned with the party as a resultof contradictions they saw in it. Many of them expressed their viewsin Mandur's al-Balth and Rushdl Salih's al-Fajr al-Jadid, as well as inother journals which represented 'Egyptian avantgarde radicalism inthe forties'.10

The nature of the Islamic alternative to the liberal nationalist systemwas also hotly debated among advocates of Islamic government. SayyidQutb's alienation from and anger at the established order for its failureto solve society's problems led him to write his al-(Adala al-ijtima'lyyafT l-lslam {Social Justice in Islam), in which he pressed for a solutionto the dilemmas facing society that was based on an Islamic notion ofsocial justice. His thesis was simple: Islam was a comprehensive systemembracing every aspect of life. As such, it offered a solution to socialproblems that was far superior to the materialistic systems of capitalismand communism. Two years later, in 1951, Qutb published his revolu-tionary Ma'rakat al-lslam wa-l-ra'smaliyya (The Battle between Islamand Capitalism), in which he attacked the liberal political order, thereligious hierarchy, the miserable social conditions, and the feudal stateof society, and called once again for an Islamic solution. His role inthe 1952 coup was that of a co-ordinator of the Muslim Brothers'contingency plans for the protection of the revolution.11

By far the most controversial work of the period, however, wasShaykh Khalid Muhammad Khalid's Min huna nabda' (1950). Thedebate surrounding this book was a replica of that which was provokedin 1925 by the publication of 'All 'Abd al-Raziq's al-lslam wa-usul al-hukm. In his bitter attack on the status quo the thirty-year-old Azharitecalled for the purging of 'priestcraft' from Islam, and charged thatofficial faith often conspires with wealth against justice and mercy.

SAYYID QUTB'S CALL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

By the mid-1940s Qutb, the long-time supporter of the Wafd and theSa'dist parties, had become severely disillusioned with the prevailing

10 Vatilciotis, 341-2.11 Yusuf al-'Azm, Ra'id al-fikr al-lslamT al-mu'a$ir al-Shahld Sayyid Qutb (Damascus

and Beirut, 1980), 158-9; 'Abd al-Fattah al-Khalidl, Sayyid Qutb al-shahid al-hayy(Amman, 1981), 40.


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political system.12 In mid-1945 he accused the existing parties of beingindifferent to the problem of social justice. According to Qutb, therewas an absence of planned constructive policy geared to the realizationof social justice and the rejuvenation of Egyptian society. What wasneeded, he said, were new parties with a constructive mentality and

12 Sayyid Qutb Ibrahim Husayn Shadhill was born in 1906 in the Egyptian village ofMusha in the Asyut District, 235 miles south of Cairo. Both Musha and Asyut arelocated on the west bank of the Nile. Qutb's education began at the age of six whenhis parents opted to send him to a modern primary school (madrasa) instead of atraditional Qur'anic school (kuttab) In his 1946 childhood autobiography, Tifl mm al-qarya (Child from the Village), one can observe the conflicting forces of tradition andmodernity in Egyptian society which were working to shape his personality and world-view. But one is also struck by the deep impact of traditional life on his mind and world-view and by the large amount of space he devotes to popular religious practices^ to hisIslamic upbringing, and to customs and manners of villages. Similarly one observes thatat a very early age Qutb had mastered important aspects of traditional Arab Muslimculture, such as the memorizing of the Qur'an and an excellent knowledge of the Arabiclanguage, skills which paved the way for his membership of the literati (udaba') in the1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

Two years after the outbreak of the 1919 revolution Qutb left his village to live withhis maternal uncle Ahmad Husayn 'Uthman in Cairo to continue his education. At thisformative stage of his life young Qutb came under the influence of liberal nationalistforces who managed to leave their mark on the intellectual life of the country in the1920s. It was at this stage that he acquired secular ideas, including the separation ofreligion and literature, which were expressed forcefully in his writings in the 1930s and1940s. In Cairo young Qutb became closely associated with and influenced by themodernist and outspoken Wafdist |ournahst and leader of the new school of modernpoetry known as the Diwan, Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad (1899-1964).

From 1929 to 1933 Qutb attended Dar al-'Ulum in Cairo where he became active inboth student and literary affairs. In literature he distinguished himself as a devout discipleof al-'Aqqad and the most vocal defender of the latter's vision of poetry and criticism.His reputation as a promising young literary critic had already been firmly establishedat Dar al-'Ulum with the appearance in 1932 of his Mahammat al-sha'ir ft l-hayat wa-sht'r al-jil al-hadir (The Mission of the Poet in Life and the Poetry of the PresentGeneration). Following his graduation in 1933 with a baccalaureate in Education andArabic Language and Literature, Qutb was appointed an elementary school teacher ingovernment schools. In the late 1930s he was transferred to the Ministry of Educationin Cairo where he served in various technical capacities until 1952, when he resigned inprotest against allegedly un-Islamic governmental policies in education. See my article,'Prelude to Islamic Commitment. Sayyid Qutb's Literary and Spiritual Orientation,1932-1938", Muslim World (1990), 176-89.

Despite the fact that from 1939 to 1947 Qutb was stressing the purely artistic orliterary goal of his Qur'anic studies, the long-lasting spiritual effect of his deep study ofthe Qur'an is clear. His unhappiness in Cairo, which was very much evident in his proseand poetry in the 1930s and 1940s, the death of his mother, his shattered love affairs,his poor health, and his alienation from the status quo and from Western civilizationprompted him to turn increasingly to the Qur'an for his personal needs and for answersto the ills of society. By 1948 he became totally alienated from the establishment anddeeply committed to Islam and the establishment of Islamic society.


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SAYYID QUTB AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, I 9 4 5 - 1 9 4 8 57

with a comprehensive social programme for correcting the unequaldistribution of wealth and for promoting social justice through educa-tional policies.13

By 1946 Qutb's concern with social justice had become paramountin his writings, including his autobiographical Ttfl min al-qarya. In ithe vividly contrasts his own privileged circumstances with the wretchedconditions of the migrant workers who used to toil on his family's land.These and similar childhood memories haunted him in his adult life inCairo and gave him the feeling that justice did not reign in the country.If there were just laws in the 'valley', according to Qutb, they wouldhave sent him to prison instead of the many whom the law consideredthieves and criminals.14

By September 1946 Qutb was'attacking various sectors of the estab-lishment. He became very critical of the privileged upper classes whomhe terms the 'aristocrats'. He accuses them of not speaking the languageof the people, of not even physically resembling the Egyptians, and ofbeing as imperialist as the British. He asserts that these privileged oneswere 'aristocrats' in name only, being heir to no noble descent ortraditions. On the contrary, they were the children of slave girls andemancipated ones, a caste which served the (British) occupation sowell.15

In addition, Qutb expressed indignation at those sectors of the estab-lishment which included writers, politicians, and representatives of themass media. He attacked writers and journalists, the 'opinion leaders'and 'spiritual fathers' of the people, whose pens and consciences wereput at the disposal of those politicians who promised programmes forsocial reform, intellectual revival, and the purification of the adminis-trative apparatus of government only to renege on their promises uponassuming power.

He criticized the pashas and the privileged of society, the 'aristocrats',for exploiting the people and for their snobbish attitudes towards thefellahin and the masses. He also attacked the ordinary people {abnay

al-sha'b) who, upon becoming part of the establishment, reneged ontheir support of free education.16

According to Qutb, the war years drove a wedge between the senior(al-shuyitkh) and junior ( al-shubban) literati because of deep differencesin their outlooks on the nation, society, and humanity. He accuses thesenior literati of forsaking the trust that was given to them by the

13 Sayyid Qutb, "Ila al-ahzab al-Misrlyya ...', al-Risala (Cairo), no. 627 (9 June 1945),723-4.

14 Qutb, T'fl mm al-qarya (Beirut, n.d.), 16, 17, 73, 91, 174-5, 184-6." Qutb, 'Min Laghwi al-sayf...', al-Risala, no. 687 (2 September 1946), 961-2." Qutb, 'Madans li-1-sakht ...', al-Risala, no. 691 (30 September 1946), 1081-2.


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nation, society, humanity, and the younger generation. Instead of focus-ing on national problems during the war years, the senior literati becamea tool of propaganda for the Allied cause, which resulted in theirmaterial enrichment.17

In the postwar period, Qutb says, the senior literati became a toolof partisan politics instead of devoting themselves to the national cause.Furthermore, instead of leading the call for social justice in a societywhere development, in Qutb's view, had not yet transcended the feudalstage, some of the senior literati were either silent or reacted hystericallyby equating 'social justice' with 'communism'.18

Qutb accuses the majority of senior literati of being more concernedwith their own material welfare and luxury than with the millions ofhungry and naked Egyptians. Whereas the prewar era saw the literatiexpress themselves in 'clean' ( nailf) literary or scientific publications,the war years and postwar period witnessed a reversal in which theliterati lost their literary conscience and adopted an immoral life-style.19

AL-F1KR AL-JADID, JANUARY-APRIL 1948

It appears that by the beginning of autumn 1947 Qutb's interest inIslam had progressed beyond the mere articulation of Islamic slogans.In October 1947 he and other Egyptian intellectuals set up an Islamic-oriented journal entitled al-Fikr al-)adtd (The New Thought). Thejournal was officially registered in the name of Muhammad Hilml al-MiniyawT, a printer and a member of the Society of Muslim Brothers,because Qutb and his colleagues, as public employees, were forbiddenby law to be owners and publishers. Qutb, however, became the chiefeditor who directed the journal's policies. In doing so he claimed to beindependent of any Egyptian party or group.20

Only eleven or twelve issues of this illustrated, 36-page weeklyappeared between January and April of 1948. Publication came to ahalt partly as a result of the restrictions imposed by the martial law

17 Qutb, 'Bad' al-ma'raka. al-damlr al-adab! fT Misr, shubban wa-shuyukh', al-'Alamal-'Arabt (Cairo), Sana 1, no 4 (July 1947), 52-3.

" Ibid. 53-4. " Ibid. 54.20 Al-Fikr al-Jadid was also the title of a three-page hand-written essay in Arabic,

describing the fortunes of the journal and believed by this writer to have been writtenby Sayyid Qutb. The essay was found with the University of Michigan's J. Heyworth-Dunne acquisition (henceforth referred to as Qutb's Essay), J. Heyworth-Dunne, Reli-gious and Political Trends in Modern Egypt (Washington, D C, 1950), 97 n. 63, and al-Ftkr al-Jadid (Cairo), Sana 1, no. 1 (1 January 1948), 3.


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which accompanied Egypt's entry into the 1948 Palestine War.21 Inaddition, Qutb claimed that the journal had met a great deal of opposi-tion from capitalists, government authorities, ultraconservative religiousfigures, and communists.22 Heyworth-Dunne claims that when Qutband his colleagues refused to join the Muslim Brothers, al-Fikr al-Jadldwas boycotted.23

The major factor that led to the appearance of al-Fikr al-Jadid,according to Qutb, was the deteriorating social condition of the countrywhich was causing the spread of communist ideas among the educatedand the workers. The journal was an attempt by educated Egyptiansto present alternative solutions to the problems of society. Qutb andhis colleagues felt they saw a need for social justice to be based onthe comprehensive Islamic way of life. They believed that Islam wasthe only system which could stand against the communist current, thereason being that Islam offered social justice which was spirituallysuperior to that offered by communism.24

The group also believed that Islam must be understood correctly andits principles applied in a modern spirit ( ruh 'asriyya). If, instead, Islamwas understood with a rigid mentality, it would not realize its goals insociety. This new interpretation of Islam, however, must also accordwith Islam as it was understood by the Prophet, Abu Bakr, and 'Umar,if it was to solve social problems in a practical and realistic manner, intrue harmony with both the spirit of Islam and the contemporary humansituation."

Al-Fikr al-Jadid, therefore, came into being as a result of this group'sdetermination to spread their ideas and offer practical Islamic solutionsto the problems of the age. According to Heyworth-Dunne, the journal'promised to be one of the most interesting experiments of moderntimes, as it offered some real contributions by suggesting methods whichcould be employed for the solution of some of the acute social problemsfacing the Egyptians today'.26 Problems addressed by the journalincluded individual ownership and the distribution of wealth in Egypt,relations between landowners and tenants and peasants, and relationsbetween employers and employees (especially regarding wages andworking hours).27

21 Qutb's Essay, 3, Heyworth-Dunne, 57.22 Qutb's Essay, 3." Heyworth-Dunne, 57.24 Qutb's Essay, 3; al-Fikr al-Jadid, Sana 1, no. 1 (1 January 1948), 3 and Sana 1, no.

3 (15 January 1948), 3." Qutb's Essay, 1; and see al-Fikr al-Jadid, Sana 1, no. 6 (5 February 1948), 3." Heyworth-Dunne, 97 n. 63.27 Qutb's Essay, 2.


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Uppermost in the minds of Qutb and his colleagues in their agitationfor social justice was a desire to articulate the views of the underpriv-ileged masses who lived amid poverty and hunger in a society dominatedby the big landowning ruling classes. Qutb's role in al-Ftkr al-Jadtd isdescribed by Heyworth-Dunne as follows:

He and his agents collected a number of detailed reports on the living conditionsof their compatriots and published these with photographs. He has examinedthe extreme poverty of four or five million fellahin and has described their wayof life to the Egyptians. His courageous approach in this journal puts him inthe forefront of those who are advocating a system whereby large estates shouldbe reasonably diminished in size, and the land distributed amongst the com-pletely landless, in order to eliminate destitution. He also advocates legislationregulating the relations between capital and labor, so that workers can get afairer deal. He believes in encouraging the system of co-operative societies."

Qutb's agitation for social justice on the pages of al-Fikr al-Jadtd in1948 caused much uproar among vested-interest groups in the country,including the palace. Probably more than any other single factor, thedispleasure of the palace quickened the pace of the demise of the journalupon the institution of martial law in 1948. According to partisansources, the palace had become very impatient with Qutb and hadordered the Prime Minister, Mahmud Fahml al-Nuqrashl, to arrest him.But al-Nuqrashl, a former associate of Qutb in the Wafd and Sa'distparties, managed to salvage the situation by ordering Qutb's superiorat the Ministry of Education to send him abroad on an educationalmission. And so in the autumn of 1948 Qutb left Egypt for the UnitedStates to study English and the American educational curricula.29

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ISLAM

Qutb's agitation for social justice did not end with the demise of al-Fikr al-Jadtd. On the contrary, he had completed writing his first majorIslamic work dealing with the theme, al-cAdala al-ijttma'tyya ft l-lslam(Social Justice in Islam) before his departure for the United States.30 Heentrusted the final draft of the work to his brother Muhammad and

21 Heyworth-Dunne, 97 n. 63. For a detailed view of al-Fikr al-Jadid's reportage onthe wretched conditions of the masses, see Sana 1, no. 1 (1 January 1948), 31; Sana 1,no. 4 (22 January 1948), 7, 14; Sana 1, no. 5 (29 January 1948), 31, Sana 1, no. 6 (5February 1948), 31, 32, Sana 1, no. 7 (12 February 1948), 32; Sana 1, no. 10 (4 March1948), 31; Sana 1, no. 11 (11 March 1948), 31.

" al-'Azm, 206-7, al-KhalidT, 118, 125-6.30 See al-Fikr al-jadid, Sana 1, no. 1 (1 January 1948), 21.


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left the country around September 1948. In April 1949 the book waspublished,31 but it was immediately confiscated due to the controversialcontent of its dedication page.

It is said that the government censors had believed Qutb was dedicat-ing his book to the Muslim Brothers, then an outlawed organization.Qutb writes in his dedication: 'To the youngsters whom I see in myfantasy coming to restore this religion anew like when it first began ...fighting for the cause of Allah by killing and by getting killed, believingin the bottom of their hearts that the glory belongs to Allah, to hisProphet and to the believers ... To those youngsters who I do not doubtfor a moment will be revived by the strong spirit of Islam from pastgenerations to future generations in the very near future.'32 The bookwas allowed to go on sale only after the dedication was deleted.

But Qutb did not in fact dedicate his book to the Muslim Brothers:at this stage he was still independent.33 The wording of the dedicationto the 1951 and subsequent editions, however, was changed to reflecthis later close association with the Muslim Brothers. Thus his wordsin the first edition—'To the youngsters whom I see in my fantasycoming to restore this religion anew ...' — were changed in latereditions to read 'to the youngsters whom I used to see in my fantasycoming but have found in real life existing.. ,'34

Those using Qutb's al-cAdala should, therefore, keep in mind themany editions in which the book was published and the changes thatwere made in them. This is important because the first edition and itsEnglish translation represent Qutb's thought before his association withthe Muslim Brothers, which is not, of course, always the same as hislater thought. For example, a new chapter was added to the 1964 Cairoedition to reflect Qutb's Islamic thought in the aftermath of his ten-year imprisonment (1954—64).3S

The deep interest in the Qur'an which manifests itself in Qutb'sarticles and books between 1939 and 1947 is very much apparent in al-'Adala. He uses at least 284 verses from the Qur'an to support his ideas,thus making the Qur'an his major source. Unlike his earlier works,however, where Qur'anic verses were utilized to illustrate artistic andliterary beauty in the Qur'an, Qur'anic verses were now used to articu-late various aspects of Islamic social justice and his unhappiness withthe existing conditions in Egypt.

The reliance on the Qur'an in his thought at this early stage of hisIslamic career is significant. Henceforth and without exception all

31 Cairo: Lajnat al-nashr h-1-jami'iyin, 1949.32 al-'Azm, 154. " al-Khahdl, 135, 237.34 al-'Azm, 155. " al-Khahdl, 237.


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Qutb's Islamic writings are grounded in and justified by quotationsfrom the Qur'an. In his call for the establishment of an Islamic way oflife the Qur'an is used as an unequivocal guide which is ordained byAllah. This guidance is all-encompassing and not limited to human orspiritual activities. In Qutb's writings in the late 1950s and 1960s,especially in the revised portions of his Qur'anic commentary and hiscontroversial work Ma'alim fil-tanq, which partly led to his execution,quotations from the Qur'an assume a crucial role because they justifyIslamic revolution against the jabilt way of life on earth.36

Qutb's emergence in 1948 as a champion of the Islamic way and histotal alienation from the status quo should be seen within the contextof the general public outrage at the Egyptian and Arab performance inthe disastrous Palestine War. The Egyptian government decision tointervene in May 1948 gave it 'some short-term relief from the ceaselessround of strikes and riots, and for a time a rigid censorship was ableto conceal the disastrous course of the war'.37 Censorship, however,could not hide the utter defeat of the Arab forces. There were alsoscandals over inferior army equipment and 'king and government wereblamed for treacherously letting down the army in which theredeveloped an intense feeling of shame ... and the ground was immenselyfertile for the growth of a resistance movement.'38

QUTB'S IDEOLOGY AND THE ISLAMIC THEORYOF THE UNIVERSE

In the opening remarks of his work al-lAddla Qutb reminds Muslimsnot to follow blindly in the footsteps of capitalism and communism.Muslims must, in his view, return to their own heritage. He writes:

We should not go to French legislation to derive our laws, or to communistideals to derive our social order, without first examining what can be suppliedfrom our Islamic legislation which was the foundation of our first form ofsociety ... This does not mean that our summons is to an intellectual, spiritual,and social avoidance of the ways of the rest of the world; the spirit of Islamrejects such an avoidance, for Islam reckons itself to be a gospel for the whole

36 See Qutb, Ma'ahm fll-tariq (Beirut, n.d.), 9-19 See also Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad,'The Qur'anic Justification of an Islamic Revolution: The View of Sayyid Qutb', MiddleEast Journal, vol. 37, no. 1 (Winter 1983), 14-29, and William E. Shephard, 'Islam as a"System" in the Later Writings of Sayyid Qutb', Middle Eastern Studies (January 1989),31-50.

" J. C. B. Richmond, Egypt 1798-19S2. Her Advance Towards Modern Identity (NewYork, 1977), 124.

38 Derek Hopwood, Egypt: Politics and Society 194S-1981 (London, 1982), 28-9.


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world. Rather, our summons is to return to our own stored-up resources, tobecome familiar with their ideas, and to proclaim their value and permanentworth, before we have recourse to an untimely servility which will deprive usof the historical background of our life, and through which our individualitywill be lost to the point that we will become mere hangers-on to the progressof mankind.3'

In order to understand social justice in Islam Qutb holds that onemust first examine the Islamic theory of the universe, life, and mankind.'For such questions as these are but issues arising out of that universaltheory and they cannot be truly deeply understood except in the lightof it.'40 This Islamic universal theory or philosophy, according to Qutb,cannot be found in Ibn Slna, Ibn Rushd, or any of those known asMuslim philosophers because 'the philosophy which they teach is nomore than a shadow of Greek philosophy.' Instead, this universal theoryand philosophy should be sought in Islam itself: in 'the Qur'an, andthe Traditions, the life of the Prophet and his everyday customs'.41

It is from the Islamic sources that one learns that creation which wasproduced deliberately by a single, absolute, and comprehensive Willforms an all-embracing unity in which each individual part is in har-mony with the other parts. Humanity is an essential unity becauseindividuals are as atoms, dependent upon and related to the world andone another. In this universal scheme man's body and soul are one andvalues of life are material as well as spiritual.42

In this theory, Islamic social justice is therefore 'essentially an all-embracing justice' which takes account of man's body and soul and notmerely the material and economic factors. It holds that mankind isessentially one body, the members of which are mutually responsibleand interdependent.43 In Qutb's words: 'This comprehensive view willserve to explain the regulations on individual possession; on the poor-tax; on the law of inheritance; on the rules for estates; on politics; oncommercial transactions; in a word, it will explain all the regulationsprescribed by Islam for individuals, societies, nations, and races.'44

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

The foundations of social justice in Islam, according to Qutb, includeintellectual and emotional liberation, complete equality of all humanbeings, and social solidarity. On intellectual and emotional liberation

39 Q u t b , Social Justice in Islam, trans. John B. Hardie ( N e w York, 1980), 1 5 - 1 6 .40 Ibid. 17. "Ibid. 17-18. " Ibid. 19, 20, 29.43 Ibid. 29-30. « Ibid. 30.


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64 ADNANA. MUSALLAM

(al-taharrur al-wijdanT) he writes: 'when it is freed from the instinct ofservitude to and worship of any of the servants of Allah; when it isfilled with the knowledge that it can of itself gain complete access toAllah, then it cannot be disturbed by any feeling of fear of life, of fearof its livelihood, of fear of its [position].'45 The human mind is thenreleased from 'the tyranny of the values of social standing and wealth;it is saved from the humiliation of need and beggary, and it can risesuperior to its desires and its bodily appetites.' Without this intellectualand emotional liberation, he says, 'human nature cannot prevail againstthe force of humiliation and submissiveness and servility, nor can it layclaim to its rightful share in social justice when it has attained to it.'He terms this liberation as one of the 'cornerstones for the building ofsocial justice in Islam'.46

On the complete equality of human beings, Qutb says that Islamicteaching adamantly supports equality because of the oneness of man'sorigin and growth. 'When it is thus denied that one individual can beintrinsically superior to another, it follows that there can be no raceand no class which is superior by reason of its origin or its nature.'47

He compares Islamic civilization with Western civilization in regard tothe issue of equality.

Thus Islam was freed from the conflict of tribal and racial and religiousloyalties, and thus it achieves an equality which civilization in the West hasnot gained to this day. It is a civilization which permits the American conscienceto acquiesce in the disappearance of the Red Indian race, a disappearancewhich is being organized in the sight and hearing of the government. It permitsalso Field-Marshal Smuts in South Africa to introduce racial laws whichdiscriminate against Indians.48

As for social solidarity (al-takaful al-ijtimdli), 'Islam sets the principleof individual responsibility over against that of individual freedom; andbeside them both it sets the principle of social responsibility, whichmakes demands alike on the individual and on society.' In it one findsthe responsibilities which exist 'between a man and his soul, betweena man and his immediate family, between the individual and society,between one community and other communities, and between onenation and the various other nations'.4 '

Thus each individual is charged with the care of society and with theduty of putting an end to whatever evil-doing he may find. The commun-ity, on the other hand, is responsible for taking care of its poor andneedy. Qutb quotes the Prophet who says: 'The likeness of the Believers

45 Ibid. 35. « Ibid. 44. " Ibid. 47.41 Ibid. 48. " Ibid. 55.


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in their mutual love and mercy and relationship is that of the body,when one member is afflicted, all the rest of the body joins with it tosurfer feverish sleeplessness'.50

In Qutb's view the best examples of social solidarity, as well as ofthe general method of Islamic social justice, are the poor-tax (al-zakah)and alms (al-sadaqa), which serve as indispensable cornerstones of truereligion. According to Qutb, the poor-tax is an 'obligatory claim onthe property of the wealthy in favour of the poor' which the governmentcan exact by law.51 However, almsgiving is voluntary and is left to theconscience of the individual Muslim. But the rewards of almsgiving asa means of purification of one's character and of one's property aretremendous because 'Paradise is the worthy recompense of those whoexpend freely in alms.'52

ISLAMIC POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

An Islamic political system which has a bearing on social justice 'restson the basis of justice on the part of the rulers, obedience on the partof the ruled, and consultation between the ruler and the ruled'.53 Underthis system the ruler must be impartial, not influenced by any relation-ship, be it of hatred or love. He derives his authority from his observanceof the religious law, not from the religion itself. According to Qutb,'he occupies his post by the completely and absolutely free choice ofall Muslims; and they are not bound to elect him by any compact withhis predecessor, nor likewise is there any necessity for the position tobe hereditary in the family.' 'When the Muslim community is no longersatisfied with him,' Qutb says, 'his office must lapse.'54

Furthermore, there must be 'consultation {sbura ) between the rulerand the ruled', which 'is one of the fundamentals of Islamic politics,although no specific method of administering it has ever been laiddown'. According to Qutb, the Prophet and Caliphs consulted withtheir community in worldly affairs.55

Qutb turns next to a discussion of the economic system in Islam,which he describes as 'perhaps the most essential part of any discussionof social justice'.56 In regard to the right of individual possession (al-mulkiyya al-fardiyya), 'the fundamental principle is that propertybelongs to the community in general, individual possession is a stew-ardship which carries with it conditions and limitations. Some property

50 Ibid. 65-6. "Ibid. 73, 74. " Ibid. 77." Ibid. 93. " Ibid. 95. " Ibid." Ibid. 100.


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is held in common, and thus no individual has any right to possess it.A proportion of all property is a due which must be paid to thecommunity (al-zakah).' Thus 'possession in the sense of profitable useof property is impossible except by the authority of the law.'57

According to Qutb, the recognized methods of gaining the right ofacquisition in Islam are the following: hunting as a means of livelihood,irrigating waste lands which have had no owner for at least three years,the production of minerals by mining, raiding against non-believers,working for a wage, assigning ownership of a piece of land which hasno owner or which lies waste, and acquiring money to sustain lifethrough the poor-tax.58

Absolute freedom is not granted in the case of passing on possessions(but gifts and presents are free from all restraint). Thus inheritance andbequest are subject to regulations under Islamic law. For example, aman can have the same share as two women, and an heir from thepaternal side takes precedence over one from the maternal side, and afull brother takes precedence over a half-brother. In addition, inherit-ance does not pass to a single individual but to a multitude of childrenand relatives.59

As for ways of increasing property, there is no absolute freedom inIslam. Here Qutb is very critical of his society: 'Capital only reachesthe disgracefully swollen proportions which we see today when it isamassed by swindling, by usury, by oppression of the workers, bymonopolies or exploitation of the needs of the community, by robbing,plundering, despoiling and pillaging—and by all the other semi-criminalmethods of contemporary exploitation.'60 Thus Islam forbids dishonestyin business because it defiles the conscience, injures others, and repres-ents a gain without effort (which is therefore un-Islamic). Islam doesnot recognize monopolies, because they inflict hardship and distress onpeople and lessen the flow of supplies to the public. It is also opposedto usury, considering it even more shameful than adultery. It is likewiseopposed to both niggardliness and wastefulness (luxury) in personalspending.61

Moreover, Qutb says that Islam 'disapproves of the existence of classdistinction in a community where some live on a standard of luxury,and others on a standard of hardship'. For this and other related reasons'the poor-tax (zakah) is prescribed as a compulsory duty on property;it is as much the right of those who receive it as it is the duty of thosewho pay it. '"

" Ibid. 110. 5g Ibid 111-15. " Ibid. 116-17.60 Ibid. 118. " Ibid. 118-33. " Ibid. 135, 138.


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THE RENEWAL OF ISLAMIC LIFE

The renewal of an Islamic life is governed by the spirit and law ofIslam. Qutb warns fellow Muslims against renewing their life by bor-rowing Western ways of thought, life, and custom, for 'such an experi-ment can only result in the suffocation of that very form of life whichit seeks to revive.'63 However, in the case of the 'pure sciences and theirapplied results of all kinds... we must not hesitate to utilize all thingsin the sphere of material life, our use of them should be unhamperedand unconditional, unhesitating and unimpeded.'64 Qutb acknowledgesthat the study of science cannot be separated from the method ofWestern thought. He also says that the applied results of science mightin time produce new ways of life inimical to Islam. He emphasizes,however, that 'there is no possibility of living in isolation from scienceand its products, though the harm that it does may be greater than thegood.' He adds that 'there is no such thing in life as an unmixed blessingor unalloyed evil ... We must hold to the guiding principle that allresults and material consequences of science do not essentially affectour universal philosophy of life and custom.'65

Qutb had earlier divided'the concept of hadara (civilization) into twoelements: thaqdfa (culture), which includes religion, art, ethical norms,etc., and madariiya (materialism), which comprises sciences and appliedresults. He acknowledges the difficulty of distinguishing the two termsand cites Japan as a prime example of a country which was able topreserve its thaqafa while adopting the latest in European madariiya.66

In regard to 'constitutional enactments which will ensure a soundform of Islamic life and which will guarantee social justice to all', Qutbsays that 'it is not possible to take a stand purely on the form of theoriginal life; rather we must utilize all possible and permissible means

• which fall within the general principles and the broad foundations ofIslam.'67 He tells his fellow Muslims not to be afraid 'to use all thediscoveries which man has made in the way of social legislation andsystems', as long as these do not conflict with the principles of Islamand its theory of life and mankind.68

Furthermore, according to Qutb, the two principles of 'public interest'(legislating on the basis of public interest or benefit in matters for whichthere are no Qur'anic texts) and 'blocking of means' (obstructing themeans to illegitimate ends by prohibiting acts which would otherwise

" Ibid. 247-8. M Ibid. 251. . " Ibid. 252." Qutb, 'Naqd (Mustaqbal al-Thaqafa fT Misr)', §aktfat Dar al-'Ulum, Sana 5, no.

4 (April 1939), 45-6." Qutb, Social justice in Islam, 259-60." Ibid. 260.


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appear permissible by Qur'anic precepts) give the ruler wide powers toensure the general welfare of society, including comprehensive socialjustice.69 The application of these two principles can, in Qutb's view,lead to the expropriation of excessive wealth from bloated capitalists,the removal of extreme poverty by providing work and adequate wagesto the able-bodied and social security to the disabled, and the availabilityof medical care and education to every individual.70 Other laws canlikewise be promulgated to ensure equity in Islamic society, for example,laws governing the poor-tax, the mutual solidarity of society, generaltaxation, public resources, co-operatives and usury, bequests, gambling,prostitution, and alcohol.71

ISLAM VERSUS COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM

In the concluding pages of his book Qutb compares and contrasts theIslamic way with the ways of communism and capitalism.

The nature of European and American philosophy does not differ essentiallyfrom that of Russia: both depend on the preponderance of a materialisticdoctrine of life. But while Russia has already become communist, Europe andAmerica are as yet merely going the same way, and will ultimately arrive atthe same position, barring the occurrence of any unforseen happenings.72

Thus the struggle is not between East and West but between Islam onthe one hand and the two camps of East and West on the other. Qutbconcludes:

We are indeed at the cross-roads. We may join the march at the tail of theWestern caravan which calls itself Democracy; if we do so we shall eventuallyjoin up with the Eastern caravan which is known to the West as Communism.Or we may return to Islam and make it fully effective in the field of our ownlife, spiritual, intellectual, social, and economic... The world ... is today morethan ever in need of us to offer it our faith and our social system, our practicaltheory of life ... Conditions today are favourable because of the birth of twogreat new Islamic blocs in Indonesia and Pakistan, and because of theawakening of the Arab world, both in East and West.73

" Ibid 138, 260, 266, 270.70 Ibid. 270-1.71 Ibid. 267-76." Ibid. 277.73 Ibid. 280-1.


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SAYYID QUTB AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, 1 9 4 5 - I 9 4 8 69

QUJB'S CONTROVERSIAL THOUGHT

One finds in al-'Adala the seeds of Qutb's controversial thought of the1960s. For example, when discussing the Islamic political system, Qutbasserts that obedience on the part of the ruled is 'derived from obedienceto Allah and the Messenger'. The ruler, on the other hand, 'is to beobeyed only by virtue of holding his position through the law of Allahand His Messenger ... If he departs from the law, he is no longerentitled to obedience, and his orders need no longer be obeyed.'74 Qutb'sarguments as well as his other controversial thought would lead theNasser regime in 1965—6 to accuse him of being a Khanjite, in referenceto early Islamic dissident groups who disavowed 'All's army at thebattle of Siffln demanding, inter aha, that obedience to the ruler wasconditioned by the latter's observance of the laws of Allah.75

In his Ma'alim (1964) Qutb writes that Islam knows only two typesof society, the Islamic and the jahilt. In the first society Islam is appliedfully, while in the second it is not.7 ' Although in his 1949 work onsocial justice he does not use the term 'jahilT, Qutb does charge Egyptiansociety with being un-Islamic.

Islamic society today is not Islamic in any true sense {laysa tslamtyyan bi-halinmm al-ahwal). We have already quoted a verse from the Qur'an which cannotin any way be honestly applied today: 'Whoever does not judge by what Allahhas revealed is an unbeliever.' In our modern society we do not judge by whatAllah has revealed; the basis of our economic life is usury; our laws permitrather than punish oppression; the poor tax is not obligatory, and is not spentin the requisite ways. We permit the extravagance and the luxury which Islamprohibits; we allow the starvation and the destitution of which the Messengeronce said: 'whatever people anywhere allow a man to go hungry, they areoutside the protection of Allah, the Blessed and the Exalted.'77

CONCLUSION

The emergence of the 'social justice' theme in Sayyid Qutb's thoughtcan only be understood within the context of the prevailing conditions

74 Ibid. 94." Indeed, it is not an uncommon practice in the Arab world to accuse dissident

groups of being Khanjites. Thus, during the 1948 and 1954 crackdowns on the MuslimBrothers, the Egyptian government accused them of being Khanjites. See, for example,Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London, 1969), 320 n 63; and'al-Ta'assub wa-1-Khiyana nash'at al-Khawari|\ al-Katib (Cairo), Sana 6, no. 62 (May1966), 29-37.

" Qutb, Ma'altm fi l-tartq, 105-6. " Qutb, Social Justice in Islam, 227-8.


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in Egypt. For the failure of the ruling liberal nationalist establishmentto achieve independence and to solve the nation's problems alienatedmany Egyptians. World War II and its adverse effects on the political,social, and economic life of Egyptians, in addition, discredited theregime. In the postwar period the country slipped into a period ofincreasing violence and anarchy which was further exacerbated by theEgyptian and Arab defeat in the 1948 Palestine War. The result was thedefection of many Egyptians to the camps of two alternative groupswho were prepared to challenge the existing order: the Marxists andthe Islamicists.

Sayyid Qutb, a poet, educator, journalist, and literary critic, did notbecome an active Islamicist until 1947-8. Until 1947 he appeared in hiswritings as an Egyptian nationalist as well as a pan-Arabist concernedwith the plight, iniquities, and liberation of his society. With the appear-ance of al-Fikr al-Jadid in January 1948 Qutb emerged definitely as anIslamicist, deeply committed to Islam and Islamic social justice. Thiswas highlighted by the appearance of his work on Islamic social justicein 1949. And whereas in his early works Qur'anic verses were utilizedto illustrate artistic and literary aspects of the Qur'an, his work onIslamic social justice used Qur'anic verses to articulate Islamic alternat-ives to the existing social order.

Qutb's Islamic writings have gradually become an integral part ofIslamic resurgence which draws much of its strength from the unmitig-ated failure of established Arab regimes to solve their pressing social,economic, and political problems. His execution in 1966 for allegedlyleading an underground organization only added a new 'martyr' to thecontemporary Islamic movements in Egypt and the Muslim world. Thegreat importance of his thought in the past forty years is well attestedby the republication of his works and their translation into manylanguages, the worldwide interest in his Qur'anic commentary, and theappearance of numerous books and articles concerned with his life andthought.


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Documents

Sayyid Qutb and Social Justice, 1945-1948