289
Egyptian workers are searched by
British soldiers during the Suez Crisis
in 1956. Religious insensitivity and
poor treatment by the British troops
fed Islamic revivalism.
(p.278) in religious and political life.
Taken in this sense, jihad became
a revolutionary struggle against
un-Islamic forces, eliminating
perceived evil in pursuit of what
revivalists believed was justice
and righteousness. Likewise, the
revivalists thought that immoral
governments should be replaced
by Islamic systems established
according to divine principles. In
many Muslim revivalists’ minds, a
government based upon the Qur’an
and Islam would provide the perfect
social system, and the best way
to achieve it was by a jihad that
expressed itself through militant
action, resistance, and revolution.
Egyptian activism
Sayyid Qutb, a Muslim activist in
20th-century Egypt, became one
of the most influential revivalist
thinkers. From Qutb’s perspective,
Egypt had grown increasingly weak
and corrupt under British colonial
rule. Having become disillusioned
by his experience of the West and
its cultural influence, Qutb sought to
lead fellow Muslims out from under
foreign control and back to Islam. He
wrote extensively on the Qur’an and
its interpretation, as well as matters
of religion and the state, and joined
the Muslim Brotherhood, a group
formed in Egypt in the 1920s,
which aimed to use the Islamic
faith as a means of “ordering the
life of the Muslim family, individual,
community...and state.”Ages of ignorance
Qutb’s interpretation of jihad was
consistent with the perception of
Islam as a religion that provides the
perfect model for living. He believed
that Muslims had an obligation to
establish their moral standards on
earth so that everyone could benefit
from them. Jihad, then, became a
continual struggle against unbelief
and injustice, or what Qutb called
jahiliyya. This term was traditionally
used to describe the age of ignorance
—the period before the revelation of
the Qur’an—but it was applied by
Qutb to everything he considered ❯❯See also: God reveals his word and his will 254–61 ■ The pathway to
harmonious living 272–75 ■ Striving in the way of God 278
ISLAM
Sayyid Qutb
Born in 1906 in Qaha, a
farming town just north of
Cairo, Sayyid Qutb attended
a local school, where he
memorized the Qu’ran by
the age of 10. He went on to a
British-style education in Cairo
and began work as a teacher.
At first enamored with
Western culture, he developed
an interest in English literature
and studied educational
administration in the US.
However, his experience
of what he considered the
irreligious culture of the US,
along with his view of British
policies during World War II,
soured his vision of the West.
Back in Egypt, he joined the
Muslim Brotherhood, began
writing on Islamic topics, and
advocated an Islamic ideology
in place of Western influences.
In 1954, Qutb was arrested
along with other Muslim
Brotherhood members for
conspiring to assassinate
Egypt’s president, Gamal
Abdel Nasser. After serving
a 10-year sentence, he was
released, only to write his
most controversial work,
Milestones, in which he called
for a re-creation of the Muslim
world based on Qur’anic
principles. In so doing, he
rejected forms of government
that were not truly Islamic. He
was arrested and sentenced to
death for plotting to overthrow
the Egyptian state. In August
1966, he was executed and
buried in an unmarked grave.Key Works1949 Social Justice in Islam
1954 In the Shade of the
Qur’an
1964 MilestonesI went to the West and saw
Islam, but no Muslims; I got
back to the East and saw
Muslims, but not Islam.
Muhammad ‘Abduh