Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq
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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.
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 against Egypt's Nasser regime 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. 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 maintain evidence and testimony in the trial 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.) 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 in the eyes of many Muslims 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. Lisbeth Lindeborg, Dagens Nyheter, (Stockholm, Sweden), Oct. 25, 2001.
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."
Sharia
"The Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries" and reverted to Jahiliyyah ("The state of ignorance of the guidance from God" (p.11, 19)), 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)All page numbers given refer to the English language edition of Milestones published by The Mother Mosque Foundation, 1981 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'." To obey Sharia is to worship God, likewise "anyone who serves someone other than God" -- be that someone (or something) be a priest, president, parliament or secular legal statute -- "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." "Knowledge of the secrets of nature, its hidden forces and the treasures concealed in the expanses of the universe," (p.90) will be revealed "in an easy manner." 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. "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) "We will not change our own values and concepts either more or less to make a bargain with this jahili society. Never!" (p.21) 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 in the early days of Islam Muslims should look to the Prophet (pbuh) did not make appeals to ethnic or class loyalty. Though these crowd-pleasing appeals would have undoubtedly shortened the thirteen years of "tortures" the Prophet had to endure while calling 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.
Islamic vanguard
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 believes), 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)
- They looked to the Qur'an for orders to obey, not as "learning and information" or solutions to problems. (p.17-18)
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) on the road of renewal, 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 to 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)
Influences
Qutb popularized ideas first advanced by Indian Islamist writer Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi: 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). Two terms Qutb uses: al-'ubudiyya, or `worship` and al-hakimiyya (also al-`uluhiya), `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.)
Qutb's intense dislike of the West not withstanding, certain of his ideas (such as the decline of contemporary Western civilization and "infertility" of democracy, 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. See Discussion section.
Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islam and Modernites, London, Verso Press, 1996 p. 77-101.)
Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Verso, 2002, p.274