“Those who do not stand and shout against the face of dictators and miscreants either commit a grave sin or behave in this manner because they are hypocritical in belief. Or they are utterly ignorant people who do not know real Islam.” (Page 32)[1]
With statements of this sort he incited fitna among Muslims. As a matter of fact, a hadîth states, “Fitna is asleep. May Allâhu ta’âlâ damn him who wakes fitna!” and “When you cannot correct something wrong, be patient! Allâhu ta’âlâ will correct it.” Hadrat al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî said that al-amru bi ’l-ma’rűf should be performed mildly. It was stated in a hadîth, “He who cannot change the oppression of the cruel should migrate from there.”
“Islam is a struggle, an endless war. It is not Islamic to murmur prayers, to jingle the beads of rosary, to trust in the words, ‘O my Allah, You protect us,’ and to believe in that benevolence will rain from the sky.” (Page 33)
The forty-seventh letter of the third volume of Maktűbât[2] by Hadrat al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî is a perfect answer to these writings of Sayyid Qutb and helps one understand immediately what kind of path Sayyid Qutb followed. Allâhu ta’âlâ commands to pray and to trust in Him, and He says He likes those who pray and trust in Him, but Sayyid Qutb made fun of those who prayed to and trusted in Allâhu ta’âlâ. The Qur’ân and the Hadîth command to tell beads. They praise those who tell their beads, but he denied this. It is common to Muslims and unbelievers to make preparations for war, to hold fast to the means and to make the most modern media of defence; however, there is the weapon of tawakkul and prayer in Muslims in addition.
Hadrat Ibn Hajar al-Makkî wrote: “A person who disbelieves in saying prayers, in fact, disbelieves in the Qur’ân al-kerîm and the Hadîth according to most Islamic scholars and, therefore, he is an unbeliever. The thing asked in prayers will either be accepted and given, or it will be given in the next world, or it will cause a
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[1] Reference to the Turkish translation of Sayyid Qutb’s Islamic Studies.
[2] For the translation of this letter, see Endless Bliss, III, 18.
sin to be forgiven. Allâhu ta’âlâ likes His human creatures to pray and beg Him. There are conditions for the prayers to be accepted. One of them is that what you consume and wear should be halâl, and another is to ask them from your heart, that is, sincerely. It is stated in a hadîth, ‘Allâhu ta’âlâ likes those who pray very much. He who prays and does not give up hope will certainly attain one of the three things promised.’ It is a sunna to use rosary.”[1] Sayyid Qutb’s writing, “It is not Islamic,” about these kinds of worship, which are stated in the Hadîth, shows what kind of a reformer he was.
“Islam never keeps in view to make war in order to convert anyone to the religion with coercive methods” (Page 33)
“The thing asked of the Prophet of Islam and his followers is to convert people to the religion by endeavouring and showing zeal with mild invitations.” (Page 41)
We have proved in detail in the forty-ninth paragraph that these writings were wrong and slanderous. Muslims treat and advise (al-amru bi ’l-ma’rűf) everybody mildly. Muslims of dâr al-Islâm are commanded to get on well with the unbelievers of dâr al-harb.
“All the early conquests were intended to make Islam the single religion of mankind not by using force but through free invitation.” (Page 43)
The hadîths that refute this idea have been quoted above.
“Islam commands everybody to bring justice into effect on the world.” (Page 45)
He meant that the âyat, “Reconcile Muslims!” referred to all the people in the world. Islam does not command to practise justice in the non-Muslim countries. It commands Muslims to introduce îmân and Islamic justice into these countries.
“If we hold religious belief as a basis for moral education in order to achieve social solidarity in Arab countries, we will see that all the current religions in these countries -not only Islam- will help us.” (Page 59)
Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in the Qur’ân, “There is only the Islamic religion which is right.” As for this Egyptian writer, he held all the false, base religions equal to Islam. He could not realize that there was no need for false religions or ideas while there was Islam.
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[1] Al-fatâwâ al-fiqhiyya, p. 149-50.
“Since property belongs to society, the individual is bound to lend his possession without interest to those in need.” (Page 69)
Property belongs to society in socialist and communist countries only. In Islam, property is in the individual’s possession, as we have proved at length in the fifty-second paragraph. In Islam, others cannot interfere with the individual’s property. The society or the State cannot lay hands upon anybody’s property. If it does, it will be oppression and usurpation. Nobody can be forced to lend anything to anybody.
“Zakât is a payment which is not left to the individual’s conscience. The government collects it. Zakât is not a donation given from individual to individual.” (Page 70)
We have told in the fiftieth paragraph that this writing of his is very wrong and absurd.
“Islam established its social order and overcame the world’s orders not through force of arms but through force of ideas.” (Page 75)
We have proved with documents in the forty-ninth paragraph above that these thoughts are not compatible with Islam. In the same paragraph, we have quoted him as writing in his book World’s Peace and Islam, “There is very little work done on the field of the policy of state control so far. This aspect of Islam has not been explained in due manner,” which contradict his own words, “Islam established its social order...” It has often been seen in every field of knowledge that those who are not learned enough like him write in a haphazard way.
“It will never suffice for us to invite them to Islam with brief or detailed teachings today, as the Prophet did in his days. Unlike today, there were not detailed social theories standing against the Islamic theory in those days.” (Page 77)
He supposes Islam as a theory, a human thought. His writings indicate that he knows nothing about Islam. Islam is not a theory. Allâhu ta’âlâ and His beloved Prophet’s (’alaihi ’s-salâm) commands and messages make up Islam. Theories arising from man’s short mind or thought can never stand against these commands and messages but rot, melt and fade away. They are always overcome. If Sayyid Qutb had read the books of the Ahl as-Sunna scholars and understood them a little, he would have known his place and behaved himself and perhaps refrained from offering his own thoughts and absurd words unconformable with Islam as Islam to the youth. To disseminate writings of this sort in
the name of Islam, which are incompatible with the knowledge derived from âyats and hadîths and written in the invaluable books by the Ahl as-Sunna scholars, means to attempt to spoil and demolish Islam from within.
“We invite all beliefs equally and to the same liberty. It is the Muslim government’s duty to protect the freedom of belief. All the compatriots have equal dues from the sources of income. Personal possession is limited; it is society’s right to get the extra propety.” (Page 79)
These thoughts of his are also diametrically opposed to Islam. Above he said that Islam should be spread, and here, he wants every religion to be given freedom. His words do not make sense. In fact, he strives to change Islam into socialism and communism. We have already answered these words of his a few pages earlier.
“Whenever necessary, the government may get unconditionally from well-to-do individuals as much money as it needs for the protection of society.” (Page 87)
We have given detailed answers to these wrong thoughts of his in the fifty-second paragraph.
“If zakât does not suffice to do these, the government gets the extra property which the rich have and hands it to the poor.” (Page 92)
If Sayyid Qutb, instead of imputing these socialistic thoughts of his to Islam, propounded put them as his own, perhaps he would have been able to find a place for himself among the youth, who have already been confused amidst various currents. But, his disguising himself as a religious man and attacking the Ahl as-Sunna scholars and his misrepresenting his own thoughts as Islam disgrace him in both this world and the next, and make him a target for the vengeance of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Please read the fifty-second paragraph!
With the following words, he altogether stripped off his mask and displayed his abominable ideas:
“Islam is a force that runs to gift freedom to all people on the earth with no regard to the variety in their religious beliefs. When this force meets with aberrant forces, it is its duty to struggle and annihilate them.” (Page 203)
He holds the unbelievers in dâr al-harb and Muslims equal and considers it as a duty to struggle so that unbelief, which Allâhu ta’âlâ calls foul and dirty, may spread and attain freedom. This is what he thinks of jihâd, which is done in the way of Allâhu ta’âlâ.
When a vessel leaks, only its contents come out. He who goes to the rose-garden smells like a rose, but the bitter apple which grows in the rubbish-heap certainly gives off an acrid smell. Our master Rasűlullah (sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) said “Do not smell flowers grown in a rubbishheap!” To attain happiness in this world and the next, one should read Ahl as-Sunna scholars’ books. These scholars wrote in them every kind of knowledge which individuals, families and societies need. A learned person will look for and find this knowledge. Those who are ignorant and heretics cannot find it and think that it does not exist. It is stated in the Hadîth that those who depart from the Ahl as-Sunna will go to Hell. May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect the youngsters from the harms and books of the false men of religion! Âmîn.