Table of Contents
| 1 — Introduction to the Report |
| 2 — Terms and Definitions |
| 3 — Laying the Foundations and Important Principles |
| 4 — Lesson 1 : Is Quṭbism a Figment of the Imagination? |
| 5 — Lesson 2 : All Muslims and Muslim Societies Have Apostatised and Reverted to Jāhiliyyah |
| 6 — Lesson 3 : The Slogan of Quṭbism : Al-Hākimiyyah |
| 7 — Lesson 4 : Launching a Destructive Jihād Against Muslim Societies |
| 8 — Closing Remarks |
Texts
01 Stated Sayyid Quṭb:[1]
The whole of mankind, including those who repeat from the minarets, in the eastern and western parts of the world, the words ‘Lā ilāha illallāha’, without any [consideration of] meaning or reality, then they are the most sinful of people and will be the most severely punished on the day of Judgement because they have apostatised by turning to the worship of the servants (of Allāh).
02 He also says:[2]
The time has reverted back to its original form on the very day this religion can to mankind with the phrase “Lā ilāha illallāha”. For mankind has apostatised and gone to the worship of the servants, and to the oppression of the various religions and it has fled from “Lā ilāha illallāha”. [This is so] even though a party from amongst them repeat “Lā ilāha illallāha” from the minarets, without understanding its meaning and without intending this particular meaning when they repeat it, and without rejecting the Sharīʿah of al-Ḥākimiyyah that the servants have claimed for themselves.
03 Stated Muḥammad Quṭb:[3]
Certainly, the matter requires that the people be called afresh to Islām. Not so because they – in this time – refuse to say with their mouths, ‘Lā ilāha ilallāha Muhammad Rasoolullāh’, as the people use to refuse to say it in the very first strangeness [i.e. the call of the Prophet Muhammad]. But [more so] because they– in this time – reject the principle requirement of ‘Lā ilāha illallāha’ and that is judging to the Shari’ah of Allāh.
04 Stated Sayyid Quṭb:[4]
Today we are in Jāhiliyyah, like that which was prevalent at the dawn of Islām, in fact more oppressive (i.e. severe). Everything around us is Jāhiliyyah…
05 Stated Sayyid Quṭb:[5]
The Ummah (of Islām) has ceased to be in existence (ghābat al-Ummah) and has not been perceivable for a very long time.
06 A Cassette Lecture entitled “Al-Ummah al-Ghāʾibah” (The Absent Ummah) by SalmānʿAwdah propounding the same Quṭbi philosophical concepts and being based upon the above quote from Sayyid Quṭb.
Note: Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān considers the use of this term to be Takfir of the whole Ummah – which is actually the intent of Sayyid Quṭb.Refer to the Shaykh's book “al-Ajwibah al-Mufīdah”.
07 Opined Sayyid Quṭb:[6]
Entering into the realm of the Society of Ignorance (al-Mujtamaʿ al-Jāhiliyy) are all those societies which claim that they are Muslim societies. These societies enter into this realm not because they have the belief of Ulūhiyyah for other than Allāh and nor because they offer their sacrifices and rituals of worship to other than Allāh either. But rather, they enter into this realm (of Jāhiliyyah of Kufr) because (although) they worship by giving Ulūhiyyah to Allāh alone in the affairs of life – and (although) they do not hold the belief of Ulūhiyyah for anyone except Allāh, they have (nevertheless) given the most special and unique of the characteristics of Ulūhiyyah to other than Allāh, hence they worship by granting Ḥākimiyyah to other than Allāh…
08 He also said:[7]
Indeed the position of Islām towards these societies of Ignorance (Muj’tamāt al-Jāhiliyyah) can be defined in a single expression: It (Islām) refuses to acknowledge the Islām or the legal existence (shar’iyyatihā) of every single one of these societies…
09 In case a partisan Quṭbi claims that we are lying upon Sayyid Quṭb and the Quṭbists, stated Farīd ʿAbd al-Khaliq (one of the former Murshids of Ikhwān):[8]
We have pointed out in what has preceded that the spread of the ideology of takfir occurred amongst the youth of the Ikhwān who were imprisoned in the late fifties and early sixties, and that they were influenced by the ideology of the Shahīd[9] Sayyid Quṭb and his writings. They derived from these writings that the society had fallen into Jāhiliyyah (of kufr), and that he had performed takfir of the rulers who had rejected the Hākimiyyah of Allāh by not ruling by what Allāh has revealed, and also takfir of those ruled over (i.e. civilians), when they became satisfied with this.
Explanation and Comments
01 Quṭbism preaches that unless a Muslim (or a society or nation state) judges by the Sharīʿah in all of his affairs, then he cannot be a Muslim in absolute terms, rather he is an apostate and will be severely punished, with eternal damnation in the Hellfire – even if he speaks with the Kalimah and performs the ritual acts of worship (prayer, hajj, zakah, fasting).
This destructive Khārijite mentality arises – as we have mentioned previously – due to the great exaggeration in the matters of legislation (tashrīʿ), summarised in the most famous slogan and motto of Quṭbism, “al-Hākimiyyah” - as propounded in the books of Quṭb and those with his affectations amongst the contemporaries. They inherited this from the very first Khārijites.
02 Because the existence of complete Sharīʿah rule has been made the sole basis for existence of Islām itself, it follows, by the Quṭbi mode of argumentation, that since there is no complete Sharīʿah rule in any part of the world, that every single Muslim society and nation state is a society of Jāhiliyyah. That is, a society of kufr and apostasy.
Hence, every Muslim must be called to renew his Shahādah because he has rejected the principle requirement of it, which – in the Quṭbi view – is “al-Hākimiyyah”. In reality, this particular conceptual tafsīr of the Shahādah (i.e. restricting its meaning to al-Ḥākimiyyah) has a chain of narration going back to Dhū al-Khuwaiṣarah al-Tamīmi, father of the Khawārij who accused the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) of not establishing justice by not judging by what Allāh has revealed of justice.
This has been the legacy of the Khawārij in every age and era and will remain so until they fight alongside Dajjāl, as occurs in the authentic texts.
03 It should also not be surprising that the great exaggeration given to the issue of al-Ḥākimiyyah, that those poisoned with Quṭbism should fall into the madhhab of the Khawārij by performing takfīr of the Muslims on account of their sinfulness and their promotion of sin – as occurred from Salmān al-ʿAwdah and Safar al-Ḥawali (the former the student and protégé of Muḥammad Surūr, and the latter the student and protégé of Muḥammad Quṭb).
04 In light of the above, the desired activities required by Quṭbism are secret underground movements, plots and machinations, coups, assassinations, causing civil strife in order to rouse the common folk against the authorities, rebellions and revolutions and so on. By these avenues it is possible to fight the “Jāhiliyyah” systems from the top and then to enforce the Islamic rule by force upon the people.
In other words, amassing people together so that either by way of:
1) force or
2) popular revoution or
2) democratic elections,
They can become the rulers over the people and hence enforce the Islamic Sharīʿah from the top down.
In future lesson we shall highlight some of these partisan tactics and manifestations, which are a necessary outgrowth and extension of the philosophy of Quṭbism (and some of them make use of Bannāʾism, the way of Ḥasan al-Bannā, which is the accommodation of all and sundry, Innovator, Heretic, Disbeliever and Mushrik alike). In truth such activities required by Quṭbism are but destructive activities and have led to the death of thousands of innocent civilians such as those of Syria in the early 80s or those of Algeria in the 90s and likewise in Egypt over the decades, let alone being in direct opposition to methodology of the Prophets in calling to Allāh.