Therefore...

Therefore, the expressions Qutb relates should be understood as part of a whole stream of consciousness emanating from the historical experience of a religious figure in a highly diversified intellectual context. Hence Qutb's formula of Qur'anic knowledge is understanding through experience and reflection. We witness the intersection of the personal and the epistemological from his early work, and thus we can not easily escape the methodological problematic as construed by Qutb.

He was not objective; neither was he subjective. He was pragmatic and idealistic at the same time. His justification was marred by speculative idealism and social pragmatism. We are here concerned with the theological, social, cultural, and ideological formulations of Sayyid Qutb as they appear in the Zilal. We believe that these formulations are culmination of his mature intellectual effort that began before his joining the Muslim Brotherhood in 1952.

Therefore, Qutb's pre-Zilal ideas bear a direct relevance to what we are trying to study in the Zilal. That is to say, Qutb's oeuvre has to be considered in its totality before any sound judgement on the value of this work could be made.

What we have in mind are two significant goals: (1) to study Qutb's Qur'anic weltanschauung; i.e., the ontology of his thought, and (2) to discuss his basic concepts in relation to the larger issues and problems that have preoccupied modern Arabic/Islamic thought, such as, revival, westernization, tradition, the role of the intelligentsia, sacred and profane theories of knowledge, and the place of religion in general in the modern world.

Carre proceeds in his discussion to argue that, "The author, Sayyid Qutb, does not interest us himself. But some elements of his life are uniquely utilized in order to comprehend certain fragments of discourse that make up the Zi1al." [^40] The Zilal has furnished the theoretical framework of thinking and behaviour for Islamic movements, not only in Egypt, but throughout the Arab World, and in some other Muslim countries as well.

In many passages in the Zilal, Qutb owes to the thought of two major Indian Muslim thinkers, Nadwi and Mawdudi. Carre attempts to lay down the principal themes of Zilal: (1) questions of Qutbian method and discourse; (2) the normative foundations of Islamic society; (3) the political form of ideal Islamic state; (4) questions of peace and war; (5) Jahiliyyah vs.