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Sayyid Qutb is easily one of the major architects and \& 34;strategists\& 34; of contemporary

Islamic revival. Along with Maulana Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, the

revivalist movement in South Asia, and Imam Khomeini, the leader of Iran\'s Islamic

revolution, he gave shape to the ideas and the worldview that has mobilized and

motivated millions of Muslims from Malaysia to Michigan to strive to reintroduce

Islamic practices in their lives and alter social and political institutions so that they

reflect Islamic principles. Milestones was written to educate and motivate the potential

vanguard of the re-Islamization movement.

Qutb, like most contemporary mujaddids, Islamic revivalists, was distressed with the

growing distance between Islamic values, institutions and practices and the emerging

postcolonial Muslim societies, specially in his native Egypt. In Milestones, he sought

to answer some of the fundamental questions such as why Islam needs to be revived

why no other way of life is adequate What is the true essence of an Islamic identity

and an Islamic existence (he uses the term \& 34;concept\& 34; to signify these two elements)

How was Islam established by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his companions

Can the same method, which was undoubtedly divine in its conception be replicated

again Qutb is particularly concerned with this issue of \& 34;Islamic methodology\& 34;. He

believes that Islamic values and the manner in which they are to be realized (read as

were realized by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his glorious companions) both

together constitute the faith of Islam.

Relying entirely on the Quran, Qutb uses the concepts of jahiliyya, Islamic concept,

Islamic methodology, jihad and Allah\'s sovereignty, to dilineate the strategy by which

Muslims would:

1. realize the true significance and implications of La-ilaha-illallah, having faith in the

exclusive unity of Allah (tawhid).

2. understand the imperfections, injustices and moral poverty of jahiliyya.

3. empower themselves by realising the meaning of

ashhadu-anna-muhammadur-rasoolullah (bearing witness that Muhammad is Allah\'s

messenger) -- internalizing his method of dawah and submitting to the will and laws of

Allah.

4. through this Islamic methodology, as articulated in the Quran and manifested in the

practices of Prophet Muhammad, which does not separate theory from practice, and

discourse from action, establish an Islamic order. The Islamic order, which is Allah\'s

most significant gift to the entire humanity.

5. The most remarkable aspect of Qutb\'s book is his insistance on an approach in

\& 34;stages\& 34; and the repeated assertion that the need for implementing Islamic law would

not arise until every member of the community had completely submitted to the

sovereignty of Allah and by that agreed to live under Allah\'s laws. Laws would then be

framed merely to serve the needs of this \& 34;living community of Islam\& 34;. A far cry from the

perception that a handful of Islamists are out to impose an essentialized shariah on all

Muslims and non-Muslims living in Muslim lands.

Jahiliyya, as used in the traditional Islamic sense suggests ignorence in the ways of

God. However, Qutb gives an interesting twist to the idea of jahiliyya. Jahiliyya for Qutb

is the sovereignty of man over man. Socio-political orders where men have power over

other men, to institute legislation and determine principles of left and wrong conduct.

The Quran is explicit in postulating Islam as the antithesis of jahiliyya. Qutb, by

redefining jahiliyya to encompass modern secular systems of political organization, is

basically decreeing that all existing systems are unacceptable and even antithetical to

the spirit of Islam. Thus the dichotomy, Islam and jahiliyya includes both the Islamic

and the anthropocentric way of doing things, and Islamic regimes and the existing

unIslamic regimes in Muslim lands. A clever ploy that uses Islamic reasoning to

indirectly condemn contemporary political organizations as antithetical to Islam.

His notion of the sovereignty of Allah as opposed to the sovereignty of man is basically

a restating of the meaning of Islamic faith -- submission to the will of God. It clearly

suggests, that any principle of organization that is not premised on God\'s supreme and

sole prerogative as a legislative source, is shirk. Shirk, in Islam is the only unforgivable

sin. It means to associate other Gods with Allah thereby denying the fundamental

article of faith, lailaha illalah, there is no deity but Allah. He also uses it to declare the

\& 34;universal declaration of the freedom of man on earth from a every authority except

Allah\& 34; (p. 48). I have already discussed his idea of the Islamic concept which basically

emphasizes the inseparability of knowledge and practice. It is an important insight

which means that one cannot really understand Islam fully unless one is also

practicing it. Islamic methodology is his interpretation of how Prophet Muhammad

realized the Islamic ideal. He believes that any other way of approaching Islamization

is destined to fail.

His understanding of the obligation of jihad -- struggle in the path of Allah -- is also a

significant departure from traditional understanding. He understands jihad as taking

many different forms depending upon the stage of development of the Muslim

community. Thus at the earliest stage it implies struggling to assert the principle of

tawhid against all odds. Further along the journey of Islamization it means defending

the communities left to \& 34;freely practice Islamic beliefs\& 34; even if it entails the use of

arms. He challenges the \& 34;defensive\& 34; constitution of the duty of jihad and argues that

jihad is a mandatory proactive activity that seeks to establish Allah\'s sovereignty on

earth. He is however careful to emphasize that it does not necessarily mean the use of

violence, it includes preaching use of service and wealth in the way of Allah. He is also

careful to remind his readers that there is no compulsion in Islam. But if someone has

chosen to live by it then no one has the left to prevent him from doing so. Jihad, for

Qutb is both, the defense of the left to believe and live by Islam and also the struggle

to establish Allah\'s sovereignty. Qutb, true to his preachings died for the values he

espoused. He was sentenced to death and hanged by a military court established by

Nasser. I think, and Qutb would agree, writing Milestones was his jihad against the

jahiliyya that he saw all around him.

(This review is based on the ATP edition, Indianapolis, 1990.)

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