Talk:Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq

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This article was nominated for deletion on January 17, 2006. The result of the discussion was keep. An archived record of this discussion can be found here.

Contents

[edit] Surely there's a better way

Surely there should be a better way to write about this book than quoting verbatim from it. Instead of this format, can one simply discuss the main themes in the book and the book's impact?

Definitely. Anyone interested should also look to improving the article on Sayyid Qutb. --Vector4F 17:02, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New, More Complete, Entry for Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq

Warning: A lot of vertabim quotes are used but I want to let the book speak for itself.

Any comments?

--Leroy65X 21:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Seems good. I would definitely have more summary of the main thrust of the book and its historical impact first (that's already on the page, mostly), but the other details are nice. SnowFire 13:39, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
Milestones
Image:Milestones.jpg
Author Sayyid Qutb
Original title (if not in English) Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq
Country Egypt
Language Arabic
Publisher Kazi Publications
Released 1964
Media Type Print (Paperback)
ISBN ISBN 1567444946 (1993 edition)

Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq or Milestones, first published in 1964, is a book by Egyptian Islamist author Sayyid Qutb in which he lays out a plan and makes a call to action to re-create the Muslim world.

The title Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq translates into English as "Milestones Along the Way" or "Milestones Along the Road". English translations of the book are entitled simply "Milestones," (The book is also sometimes referred to as "Signposts").

Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq is probably Qutb's most famous and influential work, and one of, if not the most influential Islamist tracts ever written. It is often described as a major influence on radical Islamist terrorists.

[edit] History

Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq or Milestones marked the culmination of Qutb's evolution from modernist author and critic, to Islamist activist and writer, and finally to Islamist revolutionary and theoretician. It was written in prison where Qutb spent 10 years under charges of political conspiracy and first published in 1964.

Less than a year after its publication, Qutb was again arrested and brought to trial in Egypt under charges of conspiring against the state. [1] Excerpts from the book were used to incriminate Qutb and he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging in 1966. His death elevated his status to Shaheed or martyr and Milestones became a best seller and widely distributed across the Arab speaking world. To date, close to 2,000 editions of the work are said to have been published. [2]


[edit] Contents

In his short (12 chapter 160 pages) book, Qutb seeks to set out "milestones" or guiding markers along a road that will lead to the revival of Islam from its current "extinction."

"The Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries," and reverted to its pre-Islamic state, (a.k.a. Jahiliyyah [3]), according to Qutb, because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow "the laws of God" or Sharia (also Shariah, Shari'a, or Shari'ah), traditional Islamic law. (p.9)[4] Following the Sharia is not just important but a defining attribute of Muslims, more necessary than belief itself (p.89), because "according to the Shari'ah, 'to obey' is 'to worship'." Obeying Sharia is to worship God, likewise "Anyone who serves someone other than God" -- be they priests, presidents, parliaments or secular legal statutes -- "is outside God's religion, although he may claim to profess this religion." [p.60]

Qutb sees Sharia as much more than a code of religious or public laws. It is a complete "way of life ... based on submission to God alone," (p.82) crowding out anything non-Islamic. It's rules range from "belief" to "administration and justice" to "principles of art and science." (p.107) Being God's law, Sharia is as much a part "of that universal law which governs the entire universe, ... as accurate and true as any of the laws known as the `laws of nature,`" like gravity or electricity. (p.88, also p.45-46)

"The establishment of God's law on earth" will lead to "blessings" falling "on all mankind." (p.90) Sharia is "the only guarantee against any kind of discord in life. (p.89)" and will "automatically" bring "peace and cooperation among individuals." It will reveal "the knowledge of the secrets of nature, its hidden forces and the treasures concealed in the expanses of the universe." (p.90), its "harmony between human life and the universe" will approach the perfection of heaven itself. (p.91)

Just as Sharia is all encompassing and all wonderful, what is non-Muslim (or Jahiliyyah) is "evil and corrupt," and its existence anywhere intolerable to true Muslims. "The Islamic society is by its very nature, the only civilized society." (p.94) "We will not change our own values and concepts either more or less to make a bargain with this jahili society. Never!" (p.21) "Islam cannot accept or agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah ... The mixing and co-existence of the truth and falsehood is impossible." (p.130) In preaching and promoting Islam, for example, it is very important not to demean Islam by "searching for resemblances" between Islam and the "filth" and "the rubbish heap of the West." (p.139)

Some may ignore this fact and attempt to introduce elements of socialism or nationalism into Islam or the Muslim community (as Egypt's Arab Socialist Union government was doing at the time). They should bear in mind that the Prophet (pbuh) never appealed to ethnic or class loyalty to build his religion. Though such crowd-pleasing appeals would have undoubtedly shortened the thirteen years of "tortures" the Prophet (pbuh) had to indure while calling initially unresponsive Arabs to Islam, "God did not lead His Prophet (pbuh) on this course. ... This was not the way," (p.25-27) and so must not be the way now. Only God's law brings justice.

To restore Islam on earth and free Muslims from "jahili society, jahili concepts, jahili traditions and jahili leadership," (p.21) Qutb preaches that a vanguard (tali'a) be formed modeling itself after the original Muslims ("Companions of the Prophet") and their community. These Muslims successfully vanquished Jahiliyyah (Qutb declared), principally for two reasons:

  • They cut themselves off from the Jahiliyyah -- i.e. they ignored the learning and culture of non-Muslim groups (Greeks, Romans, Persians, Christians or Jews), and separated themselves from their old non-Muslim friends and family. (p.16, 20)
  • And they looked to the Qur'an for orders to obey, not as "learning and information" or solutions to problems. (p.17-18)

Following these principles the vanguard will fight Jahiliyyah with a two-fold approach: preaching, and "the movement" (jama'at). Preaching will persuade people to become true Muslims, while the movement will remove by "physical power and Jihaad" (p.55) "material obstacles" from the Sharia's path. The foremost of these obstacles is the "political power which rests on a complex yet interrelated ideological, racial, class, social and economic support," (p.59) but ultimately includes "the whole human environment." (p.72) Force is necessary, Qutb explains, because it is naive to expect "those who have usurped the authority of God" to "give up their power" without a fight. (p.58-9)

Remaining aloof from Jahiliyyah and its values and culture, but preaching and removing obstacles within it, the vanguard will travel the road, gradually growing from a cell of "three individuals ... to ten, the ten to a hundred, the hundred to a thousand, and the thousand ... to twelve thousand," and blossom into a truly Islamic community. The community may start in the "homeland of Islam" but this is by no means "the ulimate objective of the Islamic movement of Jihad." (p.72) Jihad must not merely be defensive, it must be offensive, (p.62) and its objective must be to carry Islam "throughout the earth to the whole of mankind." (p.72)

True Muslims should maintain a "sense of supremacy" and "superiority," (p.141), but sadly it is important that they also prepare themselves for a "life until death in poverty, difficulty, frustration, torment and sacrifice" (p.157), and even brace themselves for possibility of death by torture at the hands of Jahiliyyah's sadistic, "arrogant, mischievous, criminal and degraded people." (p.150) Qutb ends his book describing the gruesome burning and dismemberment (he believes) many Muslims will be subject to. (p.150, 157)

[edit] Some revision made 5.7.06

--Leroy65X 15:10, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Influences

Qutb popularized ideas first advanced by Indian Islamist writer Abul-a'la Mawdudi: al-'ubudiyya, or worship, (which is performed not only by praying and adoring but by obeying); and al-hakimiyya, or sovereignty, (which is God's over all the earth and violated when His law, the Sharia, is not obeyed). [5]

Qutb's intense dislike of the West not withstanding, certain of his ideas (such as the "infertility" of democracy, victimhood from malicious foreign and Jewish conspiracies, and the necessity of a corrective revolution led by a vanguard following principles from a earlier golden age) are strongly reminiscent of European fascism. Some have found "ideas, constructs and phrases" used by Qutb "clearly adapted from the works of" German "fascist philosopher" Carl Schmidt [6], or that Qutb "appreciated' the work of French fascist Alexis Carrel.[7]


[edit] Influence

In terms of Milestones' influence over others, the debate centers on whether or which terrorist or insurgent groups were inspired by Milestones and to what extent. In the decades following Qutb's execution, groups formed generally thought to be inspired by Qutb's Milestones-- such as al-Jihad al-Islami, al-Takfir was al-Hijrah, al-Jihad, Tanzim al-Faniyyah al-Askariyyah, Jund Allah.[8] Two vanguard groups dedicated to overthrowing the Egyptian government and renewing Islam -- al-Jihad al-Islami, and particularly Jama'at Islamiyya -- were responsible for hundreds of deaths in Egypt during the 1980s and 90s, including those of a president (Anwar Sadat), a head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat), a parliamentary speaker (Rifaat el-Mahgoub), dozens of European tourists, and over 100 Egyptian police.

Egypt, A Timeline of Recent Events[9] "Survivors of the Qutbist movement joined Bin Laden,"[10] including members of al-Jihad al-Islami which merged with al-Qaeda and whose leader Ayman al-Zawahiri became bin Laden's 2nd in command. [11]

On the other hand, supporters defending his innocence against the Egyptian governments accusations deny Milestones instigated "violence and destructive activities" [12] More persuasively, some point to passages in Milestones that talk of how "first" Islam must be "imprinted on hearts" and "consciences" (p.35) of the people before Sharia law is implemented, [13], although these contradicts his call for offensive jihad in the manner of the early Caliphs. (p.62) [14]

It should also be pointed out that some Salafi/Wahhabi radicals have attacked Qutb as insufficiently militant in opposing allegedly apostate Muslims. [15]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Some believe Qutb a victim of a show trial. (Ahmad S. Moussalli Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: the Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb, American University of Beirut, 2nd ed., 1992, p. 37.)
    Others maintaining the state did indeed prove there was a plot to kill the President and other leaders of Egypt and that Qutb was the leader of the group planning it, but that he was not its instigator. (Fouad Ajami, "In the Pharaoh's Shadow: Religion and Authority in Egypt," Islam in the Political Process, editor James P. Piscatori, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p. 25-26.)
  2. ^ Lisbeth Lindeborg, Dagens Nyheter, (Stockholm, Sweden), Oct. 25, 2001.
  3. ^ "The state of ignorance of the guidance from God" (Milestones, p.11, 19))
  4. ^ All page numbers given refer to the English language edition of Milestones published by The Mother Mosque Foundation, 1981
  5. ^ Two terms Qutb uses: al-'ubudiyya, or `worship` and al-hakimiyya, `sovereignty,` appear in The Four Key Concepts of the Qur’an by Abul-a'la Mawdudi. (Gilles Kepel, Le Prophète et Pharaon : aux sources des mouvements islamistes, Seuil, 1993, p. 48.)
  6. ^ Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999, p. 199. and
    Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islam and Modernites, London, Verso Press, 1996 p. 77-101.)
  7. ^ Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Verso, 2002, p.274
  8. ^ Ahmad S. Moussalli, Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: the Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb, American University of Beirut, 1992, p. 244)
  9. ^ Gilles Kepel, Le Prophète et Pharaon : aux sources des mouvements islamistes, Seuil, 1993
    Caryle Murphy, Passion for Islam : Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience, New York : Scribner, c2002.
  10. ^ Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam : the Search for a New Ummah, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 250
  11. ^ Marc Sageman Understanding Terror Networks, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004 p.63
  12. ^ (S. Badrul Hasany Syed Qutb Shaheed, Islamic Publications International, 2nd ed., 1982 p. 44.)
  13. ^ see: "A Fresh look at Sayyid Qutb's Milestones," http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01-8-2000/Art4.htm and other works by Muqtedar Khan.
  14. ^ see: "An Even Fresher Look At Sayyid Qutb's Milestones: a reply to Muqtedar Khan," http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/khan_milestones_text.html
  15. ^ (Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, Harper San Francisco, 2005, p.86)
    An example of a Wahhabi condemnation of Sayyid Qutb can be found on http://www.allaahuakbar.net (Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam : the Search for a New Ummah, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 250.)

[edit] Reference

  • Milestones by Sayyid Qutb, The Mother Mosque Foundation, 1981
  • Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: The Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb

by Ahmad S. Moussalli, Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 1992.

  • Syed Qutb Shaheed, Hasan, S. Badrul, Karachi, Pakistan, International Islamic Publishers, 1982
  • "Sayyid Qutb: ideologue of Islamic revival" by Haddad, Yvonne Y. in Voices of the Islamic Revolution, edited by Esposito, J., (1983)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Qutb and Fascism

Here is the deal. I have been around this claim that Qutb and fascism share this connection (see the Qutb talk page [1] and a note page of my own [2]). The cited sources are all familiar to me. There are some parallels, but they are not particularly "fascist." Therefore, I removed most of this paragraph:

Qutb's intense dislike of the West not withstanding, certain of his ideas (such as the "infertility" of democracy and victimhood from malicious foreign and Jewish conspiracies) are reminiscent of European fascism. "Ideas, constructs and phrases clearly adapted from the works of" German "fascist philosopher" Carl Schmidt have been found by some comentators.[16] Other have found ideas of the French fascist Alexis Carrel.[17] Qutb mentions Maududi. He does not mention either Schmidt or Carrel.

Here are the problems with this passage:

I removed the phrase
Correct me if I'm wrong but haven't you yourself lectured others on the impropriety of editing wikis before discussion? --Leroy65X 16:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


"and the necessity of a corrective revolution led by a vanguard following principles from a earlier golden age", because this is not something especially common to fascism. The concept of an ideological party educating and leading the people is far more relevant to communist revolutions.
It is the COMBINATION of these characteristics that makes them reminiscent of European fascism: disdain for democracy, hatred of foreigners and Jews, need for revolution etc. BTW, just what other ideologies is it common to? Communists did not "follow principles from a earlier golden age." They believed their ideology was the social, economic, political trend of the future. Dictatorship of the proletariate, scientific socialism, and eventually classless, moneyless society, were all new concepts. The Germans talked about a "Third Reich," i.e. they looked back at least in theory to two previous empires. I grant you Lenin used the term vanguard and, so far as I know, Nazis and Fascists did not. --Leroy65X 16:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


The quote from Euben does not appear on the cited page (199), nor can I find a mention of Carl Schmidt in the text. The footnote itself does not provide any content about Qutb other than that he cited Alexis Carrel, but this is only a correlation. Also, Euben is speaking of non-rationalism and its commonality to Qutb and fascist thinkers. She is not making an argument for Qutb as fascist.
The cite comes from Khaled Abou El Fadl.
"Although Qutb does not once mention him in his works, a careful reading of Milestones on the Road reveals that many of Qutb's ideas, constructs and phrases are clearly adapted from the works of Schmidt." i.e. Carl Schmidt.
I have not read the Euben book myself. --Leroy65X 16:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


  • The citation from Al-Azmeh occurs on page 71 in the paperback (pg 30 in the 1996 hardcover). Most of the cited passage (p. 71-101) is about Afghani. Schmidt is not referenced in Al-Azmeh's text. The passage mentions the following details:
-- A parallel between Qutb and Alexis Carrel in their general subject matter (both dealt with the decline of modernity).
-- The fact that Qutb read and cited Carrel.
-- The parallel between Qutb and Carrel that both mentioned the need for some type of enlightened elite to reform society.
-- The parallel that both Qutb and Carrel use a naturalistic argument, though Al-Azmeh says this is only "implicit" in Qutb. Whatever this means, Qutb and Carrel's naturalism are two very different things. It's entirely misleading, if not wrong, to use the term "naturalism" in refernce to Qutb's philosophy.
All things considered, this passage does not establish a link between Qutb and Carrel which can be identified as "fascism".


  • None of the two citations mentions Schmidt, source the quoted text, nor state that Qutb "clearly adapted" ideas from Schmidt.
  • In Ali's book, Qutb (where he appears as Kutb) is only mentioned as a reader of Carrel's work. That's the same correlation which Euben and Al-Azmeh noted, but it is only a correlation. (the citation above is from hardcover 2002 edition ISBN:1859846793).


I will accept the deletion of coments about Schmidt. Right now at least we don't have proof that what Khaled Abou El Fadl is right about Qutb's "ideas, constructs and phrases [being] clearly adapted from the works of" Schmidt.
As for Carrel I have to argue that
  • there is no doubt that he showed at least strong fascist tendencies: he `advocated the use of gas chambers to rid humanity of "inferior stock"` and worked to implement `eugenics policies during [the Nazi-allied] Vichy France` (from wikipedia entry).
  • Qutb read and cited Carrel and Azmeh sees Carrel's influence in Qutb.
I hereby propose replacing my original passage with this:

Qutb's intense dislike of the West not withstanding, certain of his ideas (such as the "infertility" of democracy, inspiration from an earlier golden age, victimhood from malicious foreign and Jewish conspiracies, and revolution to expell alien influences from the nation or community and rebuild its power and international domination) are strongly reminiscent of European fascism. Some commentators have found influence of fascism in Qutb -- French fascist Alexis Carrel in particular. [18]

--Leroy65X 16:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


Let's stick to keeping the comments properly organized (rather than inserting them inbetween posts) so they can be easily read. I'm having trouble following myself.
1) No, there is no impropriety on editing a wiki prior to discussion. If I ever said that, I was wrong. However, editing in lieu of discussion is bad form, particular when the facts are not clear. As far as I can tell, I made the last edit based on facts, which I don't think need major discussion. Obviously, however, I explained what edits I made and why because I wanted to bring the facts to light.
2) It's not productive to debate the various philosophies associated with fascism in depth here. Let's just stick with the language "strongly reminiscent of European fascism", being sure to be descriptive (as you have done) as to what we mean by this statement.
3) I found the citation from Khaled Abou El Fadl ("The Great Theft" pg.83), so that should be cited directly (maybe it was, I didn't see that in the article though). However, the passage in El Fadl only states this argument that Schmidt directly influence Qutb and provides no proof. He doesn't even elaborate. His endnote says this (pg.298): "The influence of facist theory upon Qutb has been noted by other writers. See Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 199, n. 181; Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islam and Modernities (London: Verso Press, 1997), 77-101..."
This is a circular reference. I see this all the time with connecting Qutb to European fascist authors. El Fadl cites other authors, who cite other authors, etc. Euben does the same. But none provide the evidence, not even a discussion, of the relationship between Qutb and fascist European authors. This circular referencing is not acceptable, certainly not for a scholarly work, but also not to make claims about direct influence.
On the connection to Carrel. As far as I know, Qutb cites Carrel in only one book. I have never seen this text. It would be good to know why Qutb was citing Carrel before we say Qutb was citing Carrel's facist ideas. Because context, let alone content, is important. None of the scholars cited provide this basic evidence. The topic of "who influenced whom?" occupies thousands of volumes in Western scholarship, but here we can't bring up the single piece of evidence we can identify - how do we know we haven't misidentified it?
Regardless, I support your revised version if we can remove the last sentence. I would support its inclusion if we had material to back it up (e.g. scholarly analysis). --Vector4F 02:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


Per editing a wiki prior to discussion, this is what I'm going to put in the text:

Qutb's intense dislike of the West not withstanding, certain of his ideas (such as the "infertility" of democracy, the decline of contemporary Western civilization, inspiration from an earlier golden age, victimhood from malicious foreign and Jewish conspiracies, and revolution to expell alien influences and rebuild the power and international domination of the nation/community) are strongly reminiscent of European fascism. The influence of fascist thinkers (particularly French fascist Alexis Carrel) in Qutb's work is disputed. [19]

Even assuming Tariq Ali, Aziz Al-Azmeh, Khaled Abou El Fadl are all using circular reasoning (which I haven't time to verify), the fact they have found fascist influence in Qutb is worth a line in the text.

--Leroy65X 15:13, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Please understand, I am not interested in being difficult or defining Qutb in a certain way. If we are going to make serious claims about who influenced whom then I think it is only fair that we do our best to be correct, not merely speculative. Let me be clear: I will not be taking this issue into an edit war, an RFC, or anything else. All we need is to identify what we know and what we don't know. I am perfectly willing to be proven wrong.
My argument is against the inclusion of these scholars opinions on the grounds that they do not provide justification for their assumptions. If scholars have found the fascist influence, they should explain and make a case for it. A scholar is only as good as their scholarship. To establish influence and qualify it as "fascist" is a significant claim. To do so with no evidence is a significant omission. I have no issue with simply saying that Qutb read and cited Carrel. That much is clear. But the incidence of this is isolated and we do not know the content or context. How do we get from this to "fascist influence" - how can we say this influenced a specific work (e.g. Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq)? Isn't there a rather large difference between saying "Bob influenced Alice" and "Bob's fascism influenced Alice"? The difference justifies explanation. We have no sources which provide this justification. We only have sources which say "it's there; so-and-so has seen it; here's a correlation." This opinion has no more value than a piece in National Review; it contributes nothing more than an editorial byline.
So I am unsure as to why a scholar's conclusion should be advanced without the content of their argument (in article or via citation). I cannot overlook the absence of verifiable argument on account of a person's/institution's/etc. reputation. What else do we have here? --Vector4F 21:00, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism of "Racism" and "Christians and Jews as Polytheists" sections

Two chunks of text were removed by "Islami"

Yet for the last decade and a half of his life (1953-1966) Qutb himself belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization founded on almost military-like structure at least as hierarchal as most Christian or Jewish congregations or denominations. Before his assassination "Supreme Guide" Sheikh Hassan al Banna had the power to overrule any decisions by local Brotherhood branches not to his liking. [20]

and

American Racism
- Qutb condemned "evil and fanatical racial discrimination" in America [21] but in Milestones he describes the enslavement of Africans by early Muslims as a great benefit to the deprived Africans. "When Islam entered the central part of Africa, it clothed naked human beings, socialized them, brought them out of the deep recesses of isolation, and taught them the joy of work for exploring (sic) material resources" (p.105), such work being the job of African slaves in the Islamic empire, and the reason their very short life expectancy. [22]

Both these pieces of information are documented by reputable sources. If Islami has any reason to dispute the accuracy or relevance of them kindly share it with us --Leroy65X 14:46, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

The first one is not related to what Qutb is talking about. He does not have a problem with a hierarchal organization. He is talking about giving priests and rabbis the authority to make laws, as in reference to Quran (Tauba:31). As for the second one, he was not talking about the slaves. --Islamic 14:59, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
The critic of Qutb in question, (one Elmer Swenson) argues that "Supreme Guide" al Banna was making "laws" (regulations is probably a better word) for the Brethren that were more strict than priests and rabbis make for their followers, i.e. Qutb was being hypocritical in his accusing Christians and Jews of being polytheists.
As for the second complaint, do you have any reason for us to believe that the Africans that Qutb says were given the "joy" of "work for exploring (sic) material resources," i.e. working in mines and farms in early Muslim empires, were not slaves as described below?
Zanj slaves used to drain the salt flats of southern Iraq, and the blacks employed in the salt mines of the Sahara and the gold mines of Nubia. These were herded in large settlements and worked in gangs. Large landowners, or crown lands, often employed thousands of such slaves. While domestic and commercial slaves were relatively well-off, these lived and died in wretchedness. Of the Saharan salt mines it is said that no slave lived there for more than five years ... [3]
Again the critic is suggesting Qutb's complaint about America's treatment of Africans is hypocritical. This certainly seems relevant to an article about this book. --Leroy65X 22:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
Making an orgnaizational regulations is very different than making divine laws. And since Sayyed never talked about slaves, that paragraph does not belong there. Islam had build large empires in the West balck africa (Mali, Nigeria, etc). That is not related to the "Zanj".--Islamic 23:44, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
Christians and Jews as Polytheists: Are you familiar with what Qutb said in Milestones? He did not talk about the "divine laws" of Christians and Jews, he said
[Jews and Christians] did not consider their priests or rabbis as divine, nor did they worship them; but they gave them the authority to make laws, obeying laws which were made by them [and] not permitted by God... [p.82]
[This is not permitted by God because] it clear that obedience to laws and judgments is a sort of worship [p.60]
in other words, it's obediance to other human beings and/or laws made by human beings that is the problem. The laws do not have to be designated "divine" by the human law-maker according to Qutb for obediance to them to be an act of shirk. Only sharia law should be obeyed because "obedience to laws and judgments is a sort of worship"
I have worked very hard on this article and would appreciate it if you did not delete text again. I will drop the racism issue for the time being.

[edit] "Christians and Jews as Polytheists" section revised

I have revised the "Christians and Jews as Polytheists" section to make it clearer and hope we will not have to continue this revert war. --Leroy65X 21:13, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

One thing need to be added here. Qutub's view (Christians and Jews as Polytheists) is a traditional, so I don't see a point of criticizing Sayyed only. --Islamic 04:09, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
Tell us more. Is Qutb's reasoning -- that ahl al-kitab are mushrik because they give 'priests and rabbis "the authority to make laws" and "it is clear that obedience to laws and judgments is a sort of worship"` -- is that traditional too? Isn't it traditional that ahl al-kitab are in a different class than mushrik? That they can pay jizya and do not have to convert to Islam? --Leroy65X 14:32, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Thanks SnowFire

I disagree with some of your edits but thank you for finding mistakes and wikipedia-ing it better. -Leroy65X 14:32, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

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