Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Ideas that travel: the influence of Abu al-A‘la al-Mawdudi on the political thought of two contemporary Arab Islamists: Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Sayyid Qutb

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/21567689.2023.2277460

2156-7689

Sami E. Baroudi,

Education and Islamic Studies

ABSTRACTThis article examines the influence of the renowned Indo-Pakistani thinker and activist Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi (1903-1979) on the political thought of two contemporary Arab Islamist thinkers: Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926-) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966). In his extensive discourse on politics, Mawdudi resurrected and popularized two intersecting notions: the Islamic state and God's sovereignty (hakimiyyat Allah, or hakimiyya). Borrowing these two pivotal Islamist notions from Mawdudi, Qaradawi and Qutb utilized them to construct contending perspectives on politics and society in majority-Muslim states. The article argues that the divergent views of Qaradawi and Qutb can be attributed, at least in part, to the fluidity of Mawdudi's notions of the Islamic state and hakimiyya, and their pliability to different interpretations. This fluidity helps explain the different stances of Qaradawi and Qutb on whether, or not, hakimiyya is compatible with popular sovereignty and democracy. Furthermore, the article underscores the cross-fertilization of ideas between the Arab and non-Arab (in this case South Asian) parts of the Islamic World.KEYWORDS: MawdudiQaradawiQutbIslamic statehakimiyyaPolitical Islamdemocracypopular sovereigntyumma Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 There are a few notable exceptions, though. See, for example, F. Osman, 'Mawdudi's Contribution to the Development of Modern Islamic Thinking in the Arabic-Speaking World', The Muslim World, 93 (2003), pp. 465–485. See also I. Weismann, 'Indian Roots of Modern Islamic Revivalism', The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, XXXVI:4, (2013), pp. 19–35; and Humeira Iqtidar and Oliver scharbrodt, 'Divine Sovereignty, Morality and the State: Maududi and His Influence'.2 Roy Jackson, Mawlana Mawdudi and Political Islam: Authority and the Islamic State (London & New York: Routledge, 2011), p. 79.3 For the relationship between Mawdudi and Nadwi, see, inter alia, V. Nasr, 'Mawdudi and the Jamaat-I Islami: The Origins, Theory and Practice of Islamic Revivalism' in Ali Rahnema (ed.) Pioneers of Islamic Revivalism (London and New York: Zed Books, 2005), pp. 98–124, p. 111.4 See Weismann, op. cit., pp. 20–23.5 Jackson, op. cit., p. 84.6 Mawdudi, Nazhariyat al-islam al-Siyasiya (Islam's Political Theory); transl. to Arabic by Muhammad Assem al-Haddad (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1967), p. 7.7 See, inter alia, Qaradawi, Shumul al-Islam (The Comprehensiveness of Islam) (Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 2011).8 See, especially, Qaradawi, Shumul al-Islam and al-Khasa'es al-'Amma lil-Islam (The General Characteristics of Islam) (Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 2003), pp. 95–115. See also Sami E. Baroudi, Contemporary Islamist Perspectives on International Relations: Mainstream Voices from the Sunni and Shii Arab World (New York: Peter Lang, 2022), pp. 142–146.9 Qutb, Khasa'es al-Tasawur al-Islami wa Muqawimatuh (The Characteristics of the Islamic Concept and its Constituent Elements) (Cairo and Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, n.d.), pp. 47–49.10 Qutb, Ma'alem fi al-Tariq (Signposts on the Road) (Beirut and Cairo: Dar al-Fikr, 1979), seventh edition, p. 64.11 Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 70–72.12 See S. Akhavi, 'The Dialectic in Contemporary Egyptian Social Thought: The Scripturalist and Modernist Discourses of Sayyid Qutb and Hasan Hanafi', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29 (1997), pp. 377–401; and A. Afsaruddin, 'Obedience to Political Authority: An Evolutionary Concept' in M.A. Muqtader Khan (ed.) Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates and Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2006), p. 48.13 Sometimes written Maudoudi or Maududi.14 Gordon P. Means, Islam in Southeast Asia (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009), p. 154.15 Jan-Peter Hartung, A System of Life: Mawdudi and the Ideologization of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 3.16 Uriya Shavit, Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam: A Critical Reading of the Modernist-Apologetic School (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), p. 81.17 For Mawdudi's criticism of the 'ulama see, inter alia, W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), p. 56.18 There is more than one English translation of this work. This paper relies on Maududi, Towards Understanding Islam, translated by Abdul Ghani (Lahore: Tanjumanul Quran, 1948), 4th edition. For a summary of its core argument see, inter alia, Jonah Blank, Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001), pp. 262–267.19 Jackson, op. cit., pp. 48–50; and Nasr, op. cit., pp. 30–31.20 There are multiple prints by different presses of this widely circulated translation. Normally, this track is included with tracks by Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb on the same topic. See, for example, Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi, al-Jihad fi Sabil Allah (Cairo: Dar al-Jihad, 1977).21 Qaradawi, Fiqh al-Jihad: Dirasa Muqarina li-Ahkamih wa Falsfatih fi Daou' al-Qur'an wa al-Sunna (The Jurisprudence of Jihad: A Comparative Study of its Rules and Philosophy in Light of the Qur'an and the Sunna) Vols. 1 & 2 (Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 2009), p. 415.22 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 415.23 ibid.24 Mawdudi, Fi al-Jiad fil Islam. The quoted passage is from the English translation, edited & translated by Syed Rafatullah Shah (Lahore: Irfan Afzal Printing Press, 2017), pp. 57–58.25 Qaradawi, Fi Wada' al-A'lam (Bidding Farewell to the Prominent Figures) (Turkey: al-Dar al-Shamiyah, 2016), p. 201.26 Nasr, op. cit., p. 41.27 For Mawdudi's concept of al-jahiliyya, see, inter alia, Hartung, A System of Life.28 Mawdudi published the speech in Urdu under the title Shahadat Haq. The quoted passage is from the English translation. Mawdudi, Witness unto Mankind: The Purpose and Duty of the Muslim Ummah, ed. & transl. K. Murad (Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, 1986), p. 32.29 Nasr, op. cit., p. 83.30 Asma Afsaruddin, Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 209.31 Adams, 'Mawdudi and the Islamic State' in John Esposito (ed.) Voices of Resurgent Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) pp. 99–133, pp. 115–117.32 Adams, op. cit., pp. 117–118.33 Jackson, op. cit., pp. 84–86.34 Nasr, op. cit., p. 62.35 Nasr, op. cit., p. 92.36 Mawdudi, Nazhariyat al-Islam al-Siyasiya (Islam's Political Theory) (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1967), esp. pp. 34–36. This early work was based on a lecture Mawdudi delivered in 1939 in the city of Lahore.37 Qaradawi, Islamic Awakening between Rejection and Extremism, with an Introduction by Taha Jeber Al-Alwani, edited by Nancy Roberts (London and Washington: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2nd edition, 1991), p. 88.38 Mawdudi, op. cit., p. 29.39 ibid.40 The Arabic translation reads (biyadih al-Tashri') (literally legislation is in His [God's] Hand). Mawdudi, op. cit., p. 27.41 Mawdudi anchors hakimiyya in multiple Quranic verses, including, 3:154, 'They would say: Have we any role in this affair? Say: Indeed this affair belongs entirely to God', 12:40, 'Sovereignty belongs solely to God'; 3:154, 'They would say: Have we any role in this affair? Say: Indeed this affair belongs entirely to God'; and 5:45, 'Whoso judges not in accordance with what God revealed, these are the wrongdoers'. Mawdudi, op. cit., p. 27.42 Muhammad Qasim Zaman, 'The Sovereignty of God in Modern Islamic Thought', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 25:3 (2015), pp. 389–419; p. 418.43 Fawaz Gerges, A History of ISIS (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 217.44 Wael Hallaq, The Impossible State: Islam, Politics and Modernity' Modernity's Moral Predicament (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).45 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 70.46 Nasr, op. cit., pp. 43–46.47 A.B. al-Merhi, 'Biography' in Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, p. 7.48 She is mainly referring here to Signposts on the Road.49 Giedre Šabasevičiute, Sayyid Qutb, An Intellectual Biography (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2021), pp. 170–171.50 Shahrough Akhavi, 'The Dialectic in Contemporary Egyptian Social Thought: The Scripturalist and Modernist Discourses of Sayyid Qutb and Hasan Hanafi', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29 (1997), pp. 377–401, 378.51 Calvert, op. cit., p. 214.52 Hudaybi's critique of hakimiyya, and more broadly of the influence of Mawdudi and Qutb on Arab Islamists, can be found in Du'at La Qudat (Preachers not Judges), a controversial work that was published posthumously and that was actively promoted by the Egyptian authorities. See, inter alia, Daniel Lav, Radical Islam and the Revival of Medieval Theology (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 61–72; and Eric Trager, Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days (Washington, DC: Washington University Press, 2016), p. 40. A close reading of Preachers not Judges reveals that Hudaybi – in line with Mawdudi, Nadwi, Qaradawi and Qutb – advocates an Islamic state where all laws are anchored in the sharia. But Hudaybi, in line with Qaradawi, rejects the takfiri tendencies exhibited in the writings of Qutb and his radical disciples. For a synopsis of the claims in the work, see Barbara Zollner, The Muslim Brotherhood: Hassan al-Hudaybi and Ideology (New York: Routledge, 2008).53 Gerges, op. cit., p. 141.54 Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), p. 2855 A significant deal has been written about Qutb's sojourn in the United States between November 1948 and August 1950; and how his experiences in the United States contributed to his radicalization. See, inter alia, Toth, op. cit., 64–69.56 Toth, op. cit., pp. 69–70.57 Toth, op. cit., p. 70.58 Calvert, op. cit., p. 158.59 ibid.60 Toth, op. cit., p. 102.61 Yvonne Haddad, 'The Qur'anic Justification for an Islamic Revolution: The View of Sayyid Qutb', Middle East Journal, 37:1 (Winter 1983), pp. 14–29.62 Rosefsky Wickham, op. cit., p. 28.63 Sayed Khatab, The Political Thought of Sayyid Qutb: The theory of jahiliyyah (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 3.64 Qutb, Ma 'alem fi al-Tariq, pp. 149–150. See also p. 8.65 Qutb, op. cit., pp. 5, 25. See also pp. 149–153. For a succinct statement of Qutb's views see, inter alia, Haddad, op. cit.66 Jackson, op. cit., p. 79.67 Al-Merhi, 'Introduction', in Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, 11.68 Qutb's views on jihad are best conveyed in the chapter titled 'al-jihad fi Sabil Allah', Ma'alem, 55–82.69 Sayed Khatab, The Power of Sovereignty: The political and ideological philosophy of Sayyid Qutb (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 7.70 Calvert, op. cit., p. 211.71 Qutb, op. cit., p. 33.72 Qutb, Hazha al-Din (This Religion) (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 2001), pp. 4, 16–21, 32–33.73 Qutb, Hazha al-Din, p. 26; Ma 'alem, pp. 8, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 149.74 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 200–204.75 The pertinent verses are 6: 14, 'Say: Am I to take other than God as Master', 6:114, 'Am I to seek anything but God as judge … ' and 7: 164, 'Say: Am I to seek a Lord other than God'. Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 200–201.76 Qaradawi, Min Fiqh al-Dawla, p. 75. Qaradawi's claim that hakimiyya originated with the thought of these figures is not universally accepted. Some scholars contend that the notion of hakimiyya should be solely attributed to Mawdudi.77 Qaradawi, Fi Wada' al-A'lam, p. 201.78 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 200.79 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 202–204.80 ibid.81 As Sagi Polka writes: 'Al-Qaradawi argues that when Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi and subsequently Sayyid Qutb called for the implementation of hakimiyya, they had in mind only Allah's legislative sovereignty but did not mean to imply that God appointed clerics and rulers'. Sagi Polka, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Spiritual Mentor of Wasati Salafism (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2019), p. 15982 Qaradawi, Fi Wada' al-A 'lam, p. 203; Min Fiqh al-Dawla, pp. 76–79.83 Qaradawi, Min Fiqh al-Dawla fi al-Islam (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 2011).84 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 4, 114.85 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 4.86 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 24.87 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 32.88 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 13, 126.89 Qaradawi, Tarikhuna al-Muftara 'Alayh (Our Slandered History), (Cairo, Dar al-Shuruq, 2005), esp. pp. 47–57.90 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 57.91 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 21–252.92 Qaradawi must have been aware of the major differences between these two forms of government. His lack of specifics on the form of the envisioned universal Islamic state indicates that he was simply pointing to the course of action to restore Islamic unity. It can also be that Qaradawi simply wanted to stimulate a conversation on the most conducive form of the universal Islamic state. Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 34.93 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 34.94 Baroudi, The Problematic Notion of the Islamic State'.95 Sana Abed-Kotob, The Accommodationists Speak: Goals and Strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.96 Qaradawi, al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya wa Humum al-Watan al-'Arabi wa al-Islami (The Islamic Awakening and the Concerns of the Arab and Muslim World) (Beirut: Mu'asasat al-Risalah, 1993), p. 244.97 Qaradawi, Min Fiqh al-Dawla, pp. 18–20, 31–33, 69.98 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 34, 41–42, 70.99 Qaradawi is adamant that the legislature cannot enact any laws that contravene the sharia. Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 43–45, 228.100 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 80.101 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 88–91.102 Qaradawi, Tarikhuna al-Muftara 'Alayh, p. 17. An English translation of the full text of the sermon can be found at https://www.alim.org/history/khaleefa/aboobacker/17/3/.103 Qaradawi, op. cit., p. 19.104 Ibrahim M. Abu Rabi', Contemporary Arab Thought: Studies in Post-1967 Arab Intellectual History (London: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 138.105 For the inconsistencies in Qaradawi's vision of the Islamic state, see, inter alia, Shavit, Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam, pp. 135–141.106 For the globalization of Islam, see, inter alia, Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).107 For the life and thought of Afghani see, in particular, Nikki Keddie, Sayyid Jamal al-Din 'al-Afghani': A Political Biography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972); Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din 'al-Afghani' (Berkeley: Berkeley University Press, 1983). First published in 1968; and Keddie, 'Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani' in Ali Rahnema (ed.) Pioneers of Islamic Revival (London: Zed Books, 1994), pp. 11–29.108 Sami E. Baroudi, op. cit., pp. 35–41.109 Gilles Kepel, Jihad The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 33. Iqtidar and Humeira Iqtidar and Scharbrodt likewise note that Mawdudi's 'ideas have travelled widely such that not only have they become the norm of Islamist thought but they also deeply infuse popular imagination in many pre-dominantly Muslim countries'.110 Foe Mawdudi's and the Jama'a Islamiyya stance regarding the Iranian revolution see, inter alia, Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, 'A Direct Flight to Revolution: Maududi, Divine Sovereignty, and the 1979-Moment in Iran', Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 32, special issue 2.111 See, in particular, Sami E. Baroudi, 'The Problematic Notion of the 'Islamic State' in the Discourses of Contemporary Islamists: The Case of Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra (1898–1974)', Middle Eastern Studies, 56:3 (2020), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2019.1704269.112 Qaradawi, Min Fiqh al-Dawla, esp. pp. 78–84.113 Qaradawi, op. cit., pp. 75, 79.114 Qutb, Hazha al-Din, esp. pp. 15–26.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSami E. BaroudiSami E. Baroudi is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University (LAU), Beirut, Lebanon. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University in 1992. He is a full professor at the Social Sciences and Education Department at the School of Arts & Sciences at LAU. Dr. Baroudi has held a number of administrative posts at LAU, including Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs between 2005 and 2013. He has published on the political economy of the Middle East, particularly Egypt and Lebanon and on sectarian relations in Lebanon. His current research agenda focuses on political Islam, especially the ideologies of radical Islamist movements and the views of mainstream Islamists on international relations. In March 2022, his book entitled Contemporary Islamist Perspectives on International Relations: Mainstream Voices from the Sunni and Shia Arab World was published by Peter Lang Inc. New York. His recent publications have appeared in The Middle East Journal, Middle Eastern Studies and British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. Email: sbaroudy@lau.edu.lb; Twitter: @SamiBaroudi; Instagram: samibaroudi2; Facebook: Sami Baroudi.