Table of Contents
Texts
The Quṭbists, like the first Khārijites, have made al-Ḥākimiyyah (the right of judgement, authority) the most important, unique and specific aspect of Tawḥīd, which defines it entirely, and they exaggerated in this matter, to the neglect of other affairs of Tawḥīd al-Ulūhiyyah, pertaining to affairs of worship. They used this as a tool to negate the Islām of all contemporary societies and/or negate the Islām of governments. Upon that, the bulk of their field of activity involved pursuit of ways and means to remove governments and to take positions of power and authority, to re-establish Islām and give al-Ḥākimiyyah back to Allāh, as they claim.
01 Stated Sayyid Quṭb:[1]
Indeed, a matter that is certain in this religion is that it is not possible for any aqeedah to exist in the heart and nor in the outward life of this world except when the people testify that “there is none which has the right to be worshipped except Allāh”, meaning: “There is no Hākimiyyah but Allāh. A Hākimiyyah” which is manifested in his Qaḍā (ordainment) and Qadr (predetermination) just as it is manifested in his Legislation and His Command.
02
Stated Sayyid Quṭb:[2]
La ilāha illallāha, as is understood by an Arab who knows its linguistic meaning (is): There is no Hākimiyyah except Allāh, and there is no Sharee’ah except from Allāh, and there is no authority (for anyone) over any one, since authority (sultān) is for Allāh alone.
03 Opined Sayyid Quṭb:[3]
Entering into the realm of the Society of Ignorance (al-Mujtama’ al-Jāhiliyy) are all those societies which claim that they are Muslim societies. These societies enter into this realm not because they have the belief of Uloohiyyah for other than Allāh and nor because they offer their sacrifices and rituals of worship to other than Allāh either. But rather, they enter into this realm (of Jahiliyyah of Kufr) because (although) they worship by giving Uboodiyyah to Allāh alone in the affairs of life – and (although) they do not hold the belief of Ulūhiyyah for anyone except Allāh, they have (nevertheless) given the most special and unique of the characteristics of Ulūhiyyah to other than Allāh, hence they worship by granting Hākimiyyah to other than Allāh…
04 Sayyid Quṭb stated:[4]
As for those idols about which it is known that they (the pagans) used to worship, then never was their worship of them built upon the belief that those idols had (the right of) Ulūhiyyah, like the Ulūhiyyah of Allāh – free is he of imperfection. And the Noble Qur’an has explained the reality of their ideological belief regarding these idols and their reason for giving devotion to them in His saying, the Most High, “And those who take Awliyâ' (protectors and helpers) besides Him (say): ‘We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allâh.’” (39:3).
So this was the extent of their belief and understanding with respect to these idols, that they were merely intercessors with Allāh. And the reality of their Shirk was not from this angle.
The Islām of those who submitted (and became Muslim) was not exemplified by their mere abandonment of seeking these idols as intercessors... Islam is exemplified with belief (i’tiqad) and devotion (to Allāh) and singling out Allāh – free from imperfection – with al-Hākimiyyah, in every era and place. They (the aforementioned) are Mushriks and their mere belief that there is none worthy of worship except Allāh and their mere devotion to Him alone (with the acts of ritual worship) would not be sufficient to remove them from this Shirk, for in this case they would merely be like the Hunafā whom no one considered to be Muslims.
People are only considered Muslims when they complete the rings of the chain, meaning when they add to their belief (in the kalimah) and to their devoting the acts of worship to Allāh alone, the singling out of Allāh – free is He from imperfection – with al-Hākimiyyah, and their rejection of any legislation, or law, or rule, or principle, or following (taqleed) which did not come from Allāh alone. This alone is Islām because this alone is the true meaning of the testimony that “there is none that has the right to be worshipped except Allāh and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allāh”…”
05 Stated Muḥammad Quṭb:
The meaning of Lā ilāha ilallāha is ‘There is no deity but Allāh, there is no Hākim (ruler) but Allāh.’
He also stated:[5]
Certainly, the matter requires that the people be called afresh to Islām. Not so because they – in this time – refuse to say with their mouths, ‘Lā ilāha ilallāha Muhammad Rasoolullāh’, as the people use to refuse to say it in the very first strangeness [i.e. the call of the Prophet Muhammad]. But [more so] because they – in this time – reject the principle requirement of ‘Lā ilāha illallāha’ and that is judging to the Shari’ah of Allāh.
06 Stated Safar al-Ḥawāli – parroting the same meaning as the two Quṭbs:[6]
If the reality of worship had been but the mere rituals of devotion, then none of this would have deserved the sending of a convoy of Messengers and Messages. The Tawḥīd of Ulūhiyyah, the Tawḥīd of Rubūbiyyah, the Tawḥīd of Qiwāmah and the Tawḥīd of al-Hākimiyyah… this is the Tawḥīd that is deserving of all the Messengers to be sent (for its sake).
In other words, it is Tawḥīd al-Hākimiyyah that justified the sending of the Messengers.
07 Also the whole book of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Khāliq “Manhaj al-Jadīd li Dirāsat al- Tawḥīd” (The New Methodology For Understanding Tawḥīd), in which he restricts Tawḥīd to issues of legislation (tashrīʿ) and tends to the Quṭbi explanation of “Lā ilāha ilallāha” as quoted above.
08 Also the book of Salmān al-ʿAwdah “Hākadhā ʿAllama al-Anbiyā” (This Is How The Prophets Taught) which is in reality a synopsis of the book of his mentor, Muḥammad Surūr, “Manhaj al-ʿAnbiyā Fī al-Daʿwah Ilallāh” and in which we find a similar theme being elaborated – namely that the Prophets clashed with the Tyrants of their times and dealt with issues related to power, authority and rulership.
09 Stated the Quṭbi of the West, Ali al-Timimi:[7]
Now somebody might ask, of the four types of Tawḥīd that they mentioned, Tawḥīd al-Rubūbiyyah, Tawḥīd al-ʿIbādah, Tawḥīd al-Asmā wal-Ṣifāt, and Tawḥīd al-Ḥākimiyyah - why did they pay so much attention to Tawḥīd al-Hākimiyyah. What is the secret behind this? The secret behind this is because those who have falsely attributed these ideas to Salafiyyah, have tried to argue that Tawḥīd al-Hākimiyyah is not from Tawḥīd - and that to say "Tawḥīd al-Hākimiyyah", some of them have said that this is a bidʿah -and some of them have said that this should be reduced to the principles of fiqh.
And the truth of the matter is that it is our Mashāyikh, the likes of Imām Ibn Baz, Imām al-Albani, Imām Ibn ʿUthaymīn who declared it a bid’ah and anyone who speaks with it, an Innovator – since it is a political tool in the hands of the political activists who proceed upon the methodology of the Khārijites. However, it comes under Ulūhiyyah and Rubūbiyyah, but since the daʿwah of the Quṭbis is centred around tashrīʿ (legislation) predominantly, then it is vital that they make it a fourth and independent category – and this is what our scholars warned against.
Explanation and Comments
01 Quṭbism has its own unique interpretation of the meaning of “Lā ilāha ilallāha” - that its principle requirement is al-Hākimiyyah and judging to the Sharīʿah. This is a deviation from the well-known meaning with Ahl al-Sunnah, that there is no “maʿbūd” or “maʾlūh” except Allāh. These two terms meaning an object of worship, adoration, devotion (i.e. Allāh), to whom all forms of worship ought to be directed.
This is the overall comprehensive meaning of “ilāh” known in the language, in proper usage and known to 14 centuries of the Islamic scholarship of Ahl al-Sunnah. And included within this meaning is giving obedience to Him in all affairs and adhering to His commands, since that is a part of worship and devotion.
However, in Quṭbism, al-Hākimiyyah is the principle requirement (i.e. judging to the Sharee’ah), and is the basis for which all the Messengers were sent, and it was on account of this meaning that great revolutions and rebellions were made (as opined by Mawdūdi, Quṭb, Surūr, al-ʿAwdah, al-Ḥawāli and others) at the hands of the Prophets.
021 With the abovementioned explanation of “Lā ilāha ilallāha” it then becomes easy to perform takfīr of whole Muslim societies and nation states – as is clear in the quotations mentioned in Lesson 2 – since such societies and nations states do not have complete Sharīʿah rule. And this is the next step of Quṭbism:
After having established its unique interpretation of “Lā ilāha ilallāha”, a strong justification is then made for takfir of Muslim societies and nation states and to claim that the Islamic Ummah has ceased to exist and is “absent” (as opined by Quṭb and parroted by Salmān al-ʿAwdah), and is in the mires of pre-Islamic Jāhiliyyah. Hence, the need for amassing individuals by partisan tactics in order to bring about a revolution to establish justice, resembling the ways of the Communists and Socialists.
03 Due to this particular distorted interpretation of “Lā ilāha ilallāha” the re-interpretation of the methodology of the Prophets in calling to Allāh is also justified. Hence, the Prophets are displayed as having come to create civil strife, revolutions and rebellions and to take control of the affairs by force and so on. These themes have been elaborated in explicit terms by the likes of Quṭb, Mawdūdi, Surūr, and then in more subtle forms by Salmān al-ʿAwdah and others.
04 The Esteemed Shaykh, Ibn ʿUthaymīn (حفظه الله) was asked in his regular 'open meeting' (al-Liqā al-Maftūḥ) (no. 150) dated 20th Shawwal 1417H) regarding the same topic. He clarified - may Allāh continue to bring about benefit through him - that:
Whoever claims that there is a fourth category of Tawhīd under the title ‘Tawḥīd al-Hākimiyyah’ is to be counted as an innovator. So this is an innovated categorisation which emanates from an ignorant person who does not understand anything of the affairs of ʿaqīdah and the dīn…
Imām al-Albāni (رحمه الله) stated:[8]
“Al-Hākimiyyah” is a branch of the branches of Tawḥīd al-Ulūhiyyah, and those who focus their attention upon this newly invented saying in the present age use it as a weapon not to teach the Muslims the Tawḥīd that all of the Prophets and Messengers came with, but rather as a political weapon.
05 From the above, we also understand the great fascination that Quṭbism has with political activity. Quṭbism promotes and encourages every Muslim to become engrossed with politics, using the argument that politics is a fundamental aspect of the religion.
There is no denying this (that politics is integral to the religion) but this is when an Islamic State with an overall Imām is in existence and politics is the concern of the Rulers and Scholars, not every individual. Hence, the concern with the political affairs of the state and its well being. This is known as the Sharīʿah Politics and is the type of politics that is desired and requested.
As for Quṭbism, then it requires involvement with politics in the absence of the Islamic State – and hence its political activity mimics the politics of the Disbelievers and is centred around it, it is not that of the Sharīʿah as just explained. Further, it requests every common person to get involved with political activity, whether by way of parliamentary elections or by way of the open demonstrations – as we shall see in “Intermediate Quṭbism.” All of this is far removed from the politics of the Sharīʿah and is in fact merely an expression of the politics of the Disbelievers.
06 And you will then come to understand why the Quṭbis show disdain towards the issues of the Shirk of the graves and the ʾAwliyā and what is similar to these matters from the major forms of Shirk and Innovations. These issues get in the way of the objectives and goals of Quṭbism, because they are boring and do not attract the people and do not fascinate them - and hence they are looked down upon and belittled.
Rather, political analysis, the formulation of conspiracy theories, stockpiling and reading the magazines and newspapers of the disbelievers and what they say about Muslim rulers and their political and economic decisions and activities, capturing the emotions of the people with undue exaggeration and sentimentalism are the desired activities.
Take the mockery of Salmān al-ʿAwdah, for example, of the khaṭīb who talks about the affairs of the Hereafter:[9]
…So you arrive at the khatib (i.e. come to Jumuʿah) and you will find that it is as if he has sealed his ears and that he does not hear anything (meaning of the current affairs). He speaks about a topic that is far away (i.e. irrelevant). Either he will be talking underneath the earth, about the issues related to the Hereafter, the grave and death, or he will be speaking above the heavens, about the issues related to Paradise and Hellfire, the Resurrection, Reckoning and other matters.
All of these affairs are the truth and speaking about them is the truth. However, it is necessary for a person to use any opportunity when the souls are receptive to admonition, guidance and direction, to acquire lessons and admonitions from these current affairs (ahdāth), so that the people’s hearts can be made to be at ease in this manner. All of this should be the source of serenity for the people, the source of tranquillity for their souls and which brings the meanings of faith back into their hearts - as I have mentioned – that he should explain to them the dangers which will cause them alarm, the while he talks about the current affairs.
So when we experience all of these events (in our lives) which are distressing and which move all of our hearts, and then we come to the khatib or the one who is speaking and we find that he is in a different valley (i.e. on a different planet). This in reality is astonishing and is a type of absent-mindedness that no believer or scholar or caller should fall into…”!!!
And we also find that this individual claims that Tawḥīd can be explained in 10 minutes or less as occurs in his book ‘Hākadhā ʿAllama al-Anbiyā’ (p.44):
And from the easiness of Islām is that you can explain the ʿaqīdah of Tawḥīd in 10 minutes or less
This book is a summarisation of the book of his mentor, Muḥammad Surūr ‘Manhaj al-Anbiyā’ – which is in reality the Manhaj of the Khawārij.
Thus, al-ʿAwdah merely doubles the time of 5 minutes that Hamzah Yusuf, the Ashʾarī Ṣūfī, specified in one of his lectures (saying, “I can go to the deserts of Mauritania and learn Tawḥīd in five minutes” and in which he also said, “This concern with ʿaqidah is a sickness in the minds of the Muslims,” his statements being in the same context as those of al-ʿAwdah.
And we ask him (al-ʿAwdah), does he think that Shaykh al-Islām Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al Wahhāb took 10 minutes to explain Tawḥīd in his Kitāb al- Tawḥīd? And does he think that the explainers of this book, such as the author of Fatḥ al-Majīd and others, that they wasted their time and made an overkill, in explaining the Tawḥīd of Ulūhiyyah which you claim can be explained in 10 minutes or less? From Allāh is the refuge from such nonsense.
And it is as if the Imām, Ibn al-Qayyim, heard the speech of this political activist and addressed him face to face and subtly reminded him:[10]
And likewise, his (صلى الله عليه وسلم) khuṭbah was but an affirmation of the pillars of Imān. Having Imān in Allāh, His Angels, Books, Messengers, the meeting with Him, Paradise and Hellfire, what Allāh has prepared for his friends and those who obey Him and what He has prepared for His enemies and those who disobey Him.
So (as a result of this) the hearts are filled with Īmān, Tawḥīd, knowledge of Allāh, and the meeting with Him, on account of his (صلى الله عليه وسلم) khutbah. Unlike the sermons of others which only bring about affairs which are shared by all the creation (i.e. muslims, disbeliever, hypocrites alike) such as wailing about life and frightening the people of death.
This does not bring about Īmān in Allāh in the hearts and nor does it bring about His Tawḥīd, or any specific acquaintance of Him, or any reminder of the meeting with Him. And neither does it cause the hearts to have love of Him or to be fond of meeting Him and as a result the listeners leave and do not gain any benefit, save that they have been made to realise that they will die, their wealth will be divided up and the dust will consume their bodies. So I wish I knew! What Īmān has been gained by the likes of this?! And what Tawḥīd and knowledge of Allāh and beneficial knowledge has been gained by it?
Hence, one of the necessary by-products of Quṭbism is the disdain and belittlement of the affairs of ʿAqīdah and the affairs of Shirk and Innovation. And a clear sign of this is their accommodation of the Innovators and their amassing and gathering together bodies, groups and organisations (regardless of whether they are Sunni or Bidʿiyy) for the fulfilment of their partisan goals.