Letters to the Editor

Q: I have a doubt regarding the authenticity of ‘In the Shade of the Quran‘ by Sayyid Qutb. I find this Tafseer very interesting, but recently a friend forwarded a few articles on Sayyid Qutb, which cast doubts on his calibre as a scholar. Now I do not know if I should continue with his Tafseer. I see that you quote him in the Quranic commentary that you publish every month in your magazine. 

Safoora Hunaiza 

YMD:

From a certain angle, Fi Zilal al-Qur’an by Sayyid Qutb is one of the finest of commentaries ever written. What you will find therein, you will not elsewhere. Whereas, what you will find in other commentaries, you might also find in Fi Zilal al-Qur’an.

Now, the work runs into thousands of pages. Is it possible for any human to write so many pages and commit no error? Errors, therefore, are expected.

But, which commentary has no errors in it? Here is one which is recommended by some people as the most trustworthy. But it has so many weak reports and Israeli stories. Here is another, which is considered by some people as the most correct. But it is full of ambiguities. Here is a third, which is said by some to be the most precise. But it is too short and brief to be recommended as a commentary that answers most of the reader’s questions. Thus there is no commentary which is not, from some angle or another, without shortcomings. If one is very choosy, he will be left with none to study.

Yet, we may ask, is that how you judge commentaries? Is your criterion right? Is it possible that your own knowledge is so limited, the vision so narrow, and the field of activity so restricted, that no Tafsir work fits into them. Maybe, it is the scheme of your life, religion and philosophy that doesn’t leave room for development of thought. Maybe you are at cross-purposes with the Ummah: the great body of it; the earlier ones and the latter ones; the eastern ones and the western ones; the ones of this school and the ones of that school. They all made their own tiny efforts to bring out a certain aspect of truth and understanding to fore. They were all good of intentions, all broad-minded. But, yourself not being so, to the extent Islam itself would allow, you cannot accommodate anyone in your tiny boat. Perhaps you are afraid your boat captaincy will be lost. So you throw overboard this one, that one, and everyone. Ultimately you will be left alone, if you are not already alone, and the pages of history might not even give you a line as an aberration while the Ummah, one Ummah, the great multitudes, the Jama`ah, moves on.

Yet the errors remain. Maybe one over every hundred pages. But what sane mind will reject the whole for a few errors? Errors, that you need a microscope to spot: if your judgement be correct.

Mawlana Abul A`la Mawdudi, who wrote for the Urdu readers, and Sayyid Qutb for the Arabic readers, and now both for the English speaking readers through translations, have done for old Tafsir works what the traditional scholars failed to achieve. They invoked interest in the Qur’an, Qur’anic commentaries, and Qur’anic related knowledge. The earlier commentaries that were under neglect for a few generations, suddenly started selling well in the markets. There isn’t any doubt, after Allah had decided to enliven the hearts of some believers, that the credit for the renewed interest in old commentaries and their republications in our times, goes to these two writers. Those who will not say thanks to the people, will not say thanks to Allah.

In particular, Sayyid Qutb dealt with modern pagandom in Fi Zial al-Qur’an in the manner Imam Ghazali dealt with the base self’s evils in Ihya’. He takes up aspect after aspect of pagandom, uncovers it layer by layer, dissects it, and goes right into the heart of it to strip it completely of its layered deceptions and delusion, and expose the dark, filthy and stinking side of it, invisible and imperceptible to the ordinary minds and eyes. This is a good reason why the Western Orientalists, the priests of darkness, wouldn’t touch Fi Zilal, wouldn’t comment on it, and ignore it as if it was never written.

This is not all that Sayyid Qutb achieved in Fi Zilal. But, in our opinion, this is something that no writer has done in our time as successfully as he did. Hence our opening sentence.

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