/lit/ - Literature

Scruton vs Qutb, who was right?


>Our national narrative may change, but what underlies it is something that remains always in place: the secular law. [...] In his parables, Christ emphasized that the secular law is to be obeyed, and that our duty to God does not require us to defy or to replace it. Nor should we pay too much attention to the finicky edicts of the Torah, since ‘the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’.

>To someone raised on the doctrine that legitimate law comes from God, and that obedience is owed to Him above all others, the claims of the secular jurisdiction are regarded as at best an irrelevance, at worst a usurpation. Such is the message of Sayyid Qutb’s writings, and of Milestones (ma‘alim fi’l tariq, 1964) in particular. In that book, Qutb denounces secular law, national identity and the attempt to establish a purely human political order without reference to the revealed will of God: all are blasphemous in Qutb’s eyes. Qutb’s followers have included Osama Bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahiri

>In what follows, therefore, I shall be appealing to people who identify their political rights and duties in national terms, and who have learned to put God in the place where He belongs.


Qutb
>During my stay in the United States, there were some people of this kind who used to argue with us-with us few who were considered to be on the side of Islam. Some of them took the position of defense and justification. I, on the other hand, took the position of attacking the Western Jahiliyyah, its shaky religious beliefs, its social economic modes, and its immoralities: "Look at these concepts of the Trinity, Original Sin, Sacrifice and Redemption, which are agreeable neither to reason nor to conscience. Look at this capitalism with its monopolies, its usury and whatever else is unjust in it; at this individual freedom, devoid of human sympathy and responsibility for relatives except under the force of law; at this materialistic attitude which deadens the spirit; at this behavior, like animals, which you call 'Free mixing of the sexes'; at this vulgarity which you call emancipation of women, at these unfair and cumbersome laws of marriage and divorce, which are contrary to the demands of practical life; and at Islam, with its logic, beauty, humanity and happiness, which reaches the horizons to which man strives but does not reach. It is a practical way of life and its solutions are based on the foundation of the wholesome nature of man."

Thoughts on Qutb? Is he worth reading?

Is it just me, or are books that are supposedly portraying the wickedness of a subject often just a way of subtly glamorizing transgressive behavior? American Psycho and Lolita come to mine. Scarface for films

ISIS manifesto, on women, this is from an article but I will post the full title with other excerpts to follow

>"It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of nine," the manifesto says. "Most pure girls will be married by sixteen or seventeen, while they are still young and active."

>The translated version of the document—which including the analysis is 41 pages long—extols the virtues of motherhood and promulgates the idea that the best place for a woman is in the house, living a life of "sedentariness" and fulfilling her "divine duty of motherhood." It portrays Western civilization as a godless, materialistic society that has caused women to depart from their God-given roles as wives and mothers.

>It doesn’t put women on "equal" footing with men because the two sexes have distinctly different roles under Islam: "Women gain nothing from the idea of their equality with men apart from thorns," the manifesto states. "Under 'equality' they have to work and rest on the same days as men even though they have ‘monthly complications’ and pregnancies and so on, in spite of the nature of her life and responsibilities to their husband, sons and religion."

>It also envisions an education system in which girls complete their formal schooling by age 15.

>"Because of this, a woman studies these worthless worldly sciences in the farthest mountains and the deepest valleys," the manifesto continues. "She travels, intent upon learning Western lifestyle and sitting in the midst of another culture, to study the brain cells of crows, grains of sand and the arteries of fish!" It would be more appropriate, the document says, for Muslim women to study fiqh: Islamic jurisprudence and understanding of the Shariah. "Hence, there is with no need for her to flit here and there to get degrees and so on, just so she can try to prove that her intelligence is greater than a man’s."

>Ultimately, "It is always preferable for a woman to remain hidden and veiled, to maintain society from behind this veil," the document states. "This, which is always the most difficult role, is akin to that of a director, the most important person in a media production, who is behind the scenes organising."

Shouldn't the ads on this board be for books?

"You won't last five minutes reading this book!"

Islam

Writing an essay for class about western and Islamic jurisprudence and their underlying principles and how that causes them to differ. Any books or articles you can suggest?

Are there any good books explaining what exactly "western values" are?