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Basic Principles of Islamic Worldview

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This is the same book as "The Islamic Concept and Its Characteristics". It is just a different translation. The views Qutb expressed in it are from his later years, when he had rejected secularism completely and most forms of Islam. He focuses on the Unity of God, the universal application of Shari'ah, and the necessity of Jihad to accomplish Islam's God-Given mission. For Qutb, the opposite of Islam is Jahiliyyah,(pre-Islamic ignorance of God) and he found Jahiliyyah present in secular ideologies, other religions, and many Muslim scholars.

Executed in 1996 by the totalitarian Egyptian government as part of a crackdown on dissident leaders and movements, Sayyid Qutb was unshakeably persuaded that Islam provides an ideal framework for human existence including all of its diverse individual, social, political, economic, intellectual, and spiritual aspects. Qutb believed that all these aspects of the revealed Islamic faith had become obscured and/or distorted by alien influences both within and without the Muslim community. In Basic Principles Of Islamic Worldview, Qutb presents what he saw as the authentic mode of thought that is distinctive of Islam. Profusely illustrated with Qur'anic verses, Basic Principles Of Islamic Worldview has been ably translated into English by Rami David, enhanced with an informative preface by Hamid Algar (Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies, University of California - Berkley) placing Sayyid Qutb and his works in an historical and contemporary context while also evaluating the principle ideas presented, and is also available in a hardcover edition (1889999350, $34.95). No academic library Islamic Studies collection can be considered complete or adequate without the inclusion of Sayyid Qutb's Basic Principles Of Islamic Worldview.

Qutb is an Islamic Loyola - equally devout, equally nefarious. He has the tolerance of a Falwell, the humanity of a Dzerzhinsky, and the personal appeal of a toothache. To the extent that he has influenced current Islamic thought, to that extent has he harmed Islam. This book has value in that it explains some, not all, of the motivations of radical Islamists. On its own and outside that context, it is the sort of true believer text common to all religions' more unatractive elements. I recommend not judging Islam based only on this one book.