Milestones [Paperback]

Sayyid Qutb was foreign to the public consciousness before the events of September 11 and his Milestones hardly ever made it to the reading list of students of political theory. Whereas for many Muslims his perseverance in the face of Nasser's dictatorship was a source of inspiration, scholars in the west have found it fit to include him as the ideologue of Islamic terrorism. Yet after September 11, conspiracy theories unleashed by the mainstream media barely a week after the tragedy explicitly traced al-Qaeda's ideology back to him and a vast series of nomenclature had surfaced ever since describing him from a "philosopher of Islamic terror" (New York Times Magazine) to an advocate of "anarcho-Islam" (The Guardian).

Milestones, however, is far from the "Islamic anarchy" manifesto it is made out to be, although a superficial reading would have easily deceived the gullible reader to this effect. The essence of this work is neatly summarised in the first sentence of the book, that "mankind today is on the brink of a precipice" owing to the loss of spirituality in modern life and this descent into self-destruction is inescapable unless man returns to his spiritual foundations found in Islam. This force that robs mankind off its spiritual power he calls Jahiliyyah (ignorance, often attributed to pre-Islamic Arabia), fashioned after Maududi, but redefined so that the notion of "partial Jahiliyyah" is now gone. The world according to him is now in an epic confrontation between Islam and Jahiliyyah but even within the Islamic Ummah, Muslims are gradually sinking deeper into Jahiliyyah. Qutb was thus sceptical that the true teaching of Islam could be revived by the entire community of believers, so he proposed for a formation of a vanguard to defend the true face of Islam: "Islamic belief should at once materialise into a practical movement, and from the very instant this comes into being, the movement should become a real representation and an accurate mirror of its belief" (Chapter 2).

This vanguard must never be confused with the Leninist model of political subversion, for this implies somehow that it must first seize state power and then impose Islamisation from above. On the contrary, Qutb is at pain to point out that "a Muslim community can come into existence only when individuals and groups of people reject servitude to anyone except God" (Chapter 5). Change, in other words, must come from the people, who would then form a community, and then a state, which would then provide the necessary leadership to bring the entire human race out of Jahiliyyah. Above all else, faith must first be imprinted into the hearts and minds of the Muslims who would become this vanguard: "The stage of constructing the faith should be long, and it should be gradual" (Chapter 2).

For Qutb, Jahiliyyah is characterised by man (not God) making laws for man, so it constitutes "man's lordship over man" and it is the goal of Islam to free mankind from this mortal slavery. Central to this work is the message behind the proclamation "There is no god but God" and Qutb dedicated an entire chapter on this point alone. He was inspired by the story - told by Ibn Kathir - of Muslim soldiers who entered the camp of the Persian general Rustum and boldy declared their objective to free people from "man's lordship over man." Consistent with his notion that "Islam is a universal declaration of the freedom of man on earth from every authority except God's authority" (Chapter 4) and the universality of its message, Jihad (struggle) cannot be a mere tool for self-defence but a constant effort from preaching and argument to actual fighting: "If we insist on calling Islamic Jihad a defensive movement, then we must change the meaning of the word 'defence' and mean by it 'the defence of man' against all those elements which limit his freedom" (Chapter 4).

Contrary to popular myth, he never exalted physical aggression as the dominant feature of jihad. His approach is pragmatic, as he believed Islam is, so that when force is used to prevent the peaceful propagation of Islam, it is right that force is equally used to remove this impediment. And since he deemed the entire Muslim world as one community, this method doesn't stop at the national borders, so that when physical force is used against Muslims in one country, other Muslims states are duty-bound to interfere and protect them. In short, where freedom of propagating Islam is secured, the military jihad ought not to be resorted to.

Probably the greatest setback of this book is Qutb's extremist epistemology, his inability to see beyond polar opposites, beyond black-and-white. Thus for him, "in the world there is only one party of God; all else are parties of Satan and rebellion" (Chapter 9). Even his juxtaposition of Dar-al-Islam (which he restrictively defined) against Dar-al-Harb is at odds with traditional Islam - Abu Hanifah had a rather flexible conception of Dar-al-Islam while as-Shafie recognised a third category of Dar-al-Suhl.

Qutb's aim is to revive what is regarded by many as the "Golden Age" of Islam, namely the first generation of pious Muslims, from Muhammad to the last Caliph Ali. To this end, he persisted that the method used by the Prophet is exactly followed. He dreams of a utopia, if not nostalgic world, one where "nationalism here is belief, homeland here is Dar-al-Islam, the ruler here is God, and the constitution here is the Quran" (Chapter 9).

Qutb's Milestones is a collection of guidelines for what he calls the vanguard, those who shall lead the way to a truly Islamic state. Qutb is an extremist in the way that he perceives the world and how to improve upon it. This world, he says, is divided into the good and evil forces in an all out battle. Good shall prevail, being the wish and intentions of God... One interesting point is Qutb's idea, that every individual can reach an intuitional understanding of revelation (in other words he invokes a kind of priesthood of all believers), and he also advocates a kind of religious anarchy. There is so much more information in this manual for Islamic activism. It is actually frightening, but at the same time certainly worth while reading, if one is interested in how some people motivate and legitimise violence to realise the Islamic state. Topical and chilling read!

Praise for Sayyid Qutb and his book, Ma'alim fi 'l-tariq, should relate only to their importance in modern Islam. But Qutb and his work are defining forces in the rise of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, and have to be assessed with that in mind. A comparison might be with something like Mein Kampf.