THEMUSLIMWORLD Vol. LXXXV, No.

1-2 January-April, 1995

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL WELFARE

IN THE EMERGENCE OF
MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT

Within the Arab world, cultural perspectives-the norms and values

that shape human expectations in the patterns of everyday life-derive
from the principles of Islam interpreted within the framework of commu-
nity customs and practices. The principles of Islam constitute a system of
ideals perceived as absolute, universal and eternal ideals of life, while
community customs and practices are variable over time and place ac-
cording to the conditions perceived as beyond human control. Thus, cul-
tural perspectives in Arab societies are a product of the interplay between
timeless ideals and changing realities.
This paper examines the ideals established in Islamic law /sharZ&,J
regarding the role and responsibility of government for the social welfare
of the community. It then examines the major principles of classical Is-
lamic jurisprudence on this matter as a reflection of the effort to reconcile
the realities of life with these ideals and establish a public standard of
practice in social welfare in the rapidly changing conditions of classical
Muslim society. This provides the cultural context for understanding the
perspectives of modern Arab thinkers on the social problems of contem-
porary Arab society and their prescriptions for public policy. The writ-
ings of some of the most influential nineteenth and twentieth century
Arab thinkers are examined from this standpoint.

The Ideals of Islamic Law

In Islam, the welfare of the individual is bound to the welfare of the
community, and the welfare of the community to that of the state. There
is no separation between the temporal and the spiritual; both are dimen-
sions of Divine Will and Justice. The state in Islam is founded upon the
rule of God’s law in temporal affairs. Thus, Islamic law represents the
ideals of justice in the perfect state. It is based upon the Qur’gn-the
work of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad-and the Sunna-the
wisdom of the Prophet in interpreting the meaning of the Qur’Hn in its
application to daily governance. As the constitution of the ideal state, the
Qur’an establishes the moral and ethical standards of government respon-
sibility for the social welfare of the community.

82
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 83

The basic standard of state responsibility for social welfare is estab-

lished in the state taxation policy legislated in the Q u r h . An obligatory
charity tax, Zakat, imposes redistribution to the needy as a state responsi-
bility. It is the only tax on Muslims directly legislated in the Qur’gn, where
it is emphasized as second to prayer in importance:’

And be steadfast in prayer;

Practice regular charity;
And bow down your heads
With those who bow down (in worship).
Q. 11, 43. (See also Q. 11, 110).
Entitlements to charity are also specified in the Qur’gn.
Alms are for the poor
And the needy, and those
Employed to administer the (funds);
For those whose hearts
Have been (recently)reconciled
(To Truth); for those in bondage
And in debt; in the cause
Of God; and for the wayfarer:
(Thus is it) ordained by God,
And God is full of knowledge
And wisdom. Q. IX, 60.

Thus, charity is to be distributed accordingly to the poor and needy;2

to those who are appointed to collect and administer the funds (i.e., ad-
ministration expenses are chargeable to the fund); to new converts who
require assistance to become established in the Muslim community; for
“those in bondage”-captives of war for their release and slaves for their
freedom; for those in the grip of debt for their economic freedom; for
those who serve the Muslim community and therefore cannot earn a n
ordinary living: and to poor travellers.
Throughout the Qur’an, Muslims are admonished to engage in chari-
ty. The care of the needy is established as a community responsibility to
be carried out through organized and personal acts. Indeed, charity is
one of the five pillars of Islam, and as such is one of the foundations of
the Muslim community that the state is responsible for maintaining. The

* Translations of the Qur’Bn are from A. Yusuf A l i . 7;I,,-Ho(i.L?N/ri/l Text. Translation and
Commentary (Washington. D.C.: The American International Printing Co., 1946).
* For commentary on entitlements. see A. Yusuf Ali. ft. 1320. p. 458; also. Hasan lbrahim
Hasan, /shn: A Rehkious. Pb%‘ic.d Socis/ snd Ecmi(~/r/;r S/r/4i.[Beirut: Khayats. 1967). pp.
112-113.
84 THE MUSLIM WORLD

significance of charity as a n obligation the state enforces is further em-

phasized in the prophetic traditions /Sr/nna/. One of them, for example,
reports that w h e n the Prophet Muhammad sent his representative to
Yemen, he instructed him to:

Invite them to bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that I
am t h e Messenger of Allah; if they accept this, tell them that Allah
has made obligatory on them five prayers in every day and night; if
they accept this, tell them that Allah has made obligatory in their
wealth a charity which is taken from the wealthy among them and
given to the poor among them.3

Not only is charity imposed as a duty of the wealthy, it is maintained

as a right of the needy:

And in their wealth

And possessions (was remembered)
The right of the (needy,)
Him who asked, and him
Who (for some reason) was
Prevented (from asking). Q. L1. 19.

This principle is reasserted later:

And those in whose wealth
Is a recognized right
For the (needy) who asks
And him who is prevented
(For some reason from asking); Q. LXX, 24-25.

The stress on charity in the Qur'Bn resulted in the emergence of the

institution of rwqf (pious endowment) in the early centuries of the Is-
lamic state. A ivaqfis private property donated by its owner to a chari-
table purpose:

Property beconies a riwqfupon a declaration by its owner (the iiwq2)

permanently reserving its income for a specific purpose. Ownership
is thereupon 'arrested' or 'detained': the rrzqlFceases to be the owner
of the property: i t cannot be transferred

or

Quoted in Hassan. p. 110.

 SOCIAL WELFARE IN M O D E R N ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 85

alienated by him, the administrator of the rivqLor the beneficiaries;

and it does not devolve upon the owner’s heirs. While ri,aqfprop-
erty must be dedicated to a charitable use, this purpose may be ulti-
mate rather than immediate, as when the waqif reserves the income
to his children and their descendants in perpetuity, with a provision
that upon the extinction of his descendants, the income shall be used
for the relief of the poor or some other charitable ~ b j e c t . ~
The three basic rules of a m y f a r e irrevocability, perpetuity and in-
alienability.5 It has always been the responsibility of the Muslim state to
supervise the administration of the waqL While the institution of waqf
has been widely abused-i. e. as a means of evading property taxes-it has
nevertheless survived from its inception in early Islam to the present,
some fourteen centuries, with vast amounts of property accumulated over
this time span and administered by the state. The complex laws of c.vaqf
have been significantly reformed by most modern Arab governments to
eliminate the widespread abuse of the institution. Irrespective of this
abuse, however, the institution of waqfhas remained legitimated by the
ideals of charity manifested in the Qur’Bn. It exemplifies the tradition of
public responsibility for the administration of provision ‘to the needy.
A second standard of state responsibility for social welfare is govern-
ment protection of the underprivileged-those whose social status makes
them vulnerable to exploitation and oppression. The injunction to the
protection of the weak is given accordingly:
And why should ye not
Fight in the cause of God
And of those who, being weak,
Are ill-treated (and oppressed)?-
Men, women, and children,
Whose cry is: ‘Our Lord!
Rescue us from this town,
Whose people are oppressors;
And raise for us from Thee
One who will protect:
And raise for us from Thee
One who will help!’ Q. IV,75.
In addition to general admonishments for justice in the treatment of
the weak and needy, the Qur’Bn specifically addresses the vulnerability
of women, widows and orphans to economic and social exploitation. Leg-

‘ Henry Cattan. ’The Law of W q / , *in Majid Khadduri and Herbert J. Liebesny. eds., Law
/i/ /h~/lfidd/e
East (Washington. D.C.: The Middle East Institute. 19551. p. 203.
f%f. p. 206.
86 THE MUSLIM WORLD

islation to curtail prevalent abuses against them at the time was set out in
the Qur'Fn6
The fundamental ideal of government responsibility for social welfare
is that of justice. According to Majid Khadduri, "the literal meaning of
$dl Ijustice] in classical Arabic is. . . a combination of moral and social
values denoting fairness, balance, temperance and straightforwardness. c 7
The principles of justice are emphasized in the Qur'Bn and S m m " s e c o n d
only to the existence of the One God.'8 The commandment to act with
justice and guard against injustice is the ideal of government established
in the Qur'Bn:
God commands justice, the doing
Of good, and liberality to kith
and kin, and He forbids
All shameful deeds, and injustice
And rebellion: He instructs you,
That ye may receive admonition. Q. XVI,90.

Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence

As the conditions of the Islamic state changed from a tribal commu-
nity to a vast empire in the centuries immediately following the Prophet's
death, the direct relevance of the Q u r b n and S u n m to the problems of
daily governance became increasingly obscure. Islamic jurisprudence
evolved out of the efforts of jurists in classical Arab/Muslim society to
reconcile the ideals of Islamic law with the rapidly changing conditions.
It is based upon systematic principles of interpretation of the Qur'an and
Sunm to the practical problems of public administration and thus repre-
sents a dynamic instrument in an eternal system. The eternal principle
embodied in the philosophy of Islamic jurisprudence is that Divine Law is
based upon the promotion of good and prevention of evil.
However, the problems of distinguishing good from evil in the practi-
cal administration of Divine Justice became more complex as the state it-
self expanded. The process of systematic deduction of the law from the
textual sources (Qur'an and Sunnd became systematized around methods
of logical reasoning ~ ? J X & from analogy /&yjzW. Q/:r~.developedas a

See. for example. Q. 11. 220: Q. IV. 2 , 5. 6, 19-21. 34-35. 127-128: Q. XXIV. 4-5.
' M. Khadduri, 72e/s/am/cCnncep/Jono f ~ u s t k(Baltimore:
e The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1984). p. 8.
/bid. p. 10.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 87

method of analogical reasoning to deduce the implications of the textual

sources to emergent problems in the public administration of justice:
Ideally, the concept of qiygsrests on the assumption that in a given
rule revealed in the Qur'Bn or hdyh, a particular attribute of the
subject ruled upon is the governing consideration, and that by dis-
covering what this attribute is, the rule can be systematically applied
to other comparable situations. For instance, to cite the usual ex-
ample, the Qur'anic ban on wine is clearly due to the consideration
of intoxication, as is evident from the wording of the relevant pas-
sages. It is generally agreed that by analogy, any other intoxicating
drink is also forbidden.
The practical instrument of reconciling public policy to the eternal prin-
ciple of promoting good and preventing evil developed in the doctrine of
m,35A7& (social welfare). At the foundation of this doctrine is the assump-
tion that the duty of public policy is the maintenance of the general wel-
fare of the community. As a principle of legal interpretation, the doctrine
of mqsf&a became systematized in the technique of 2hs/5+1egal judge-
ment on the grounds of public welfare. As a philosophy of public policy,
mqslaha constituted an implicit critique of the existing public order.
Chief among the classical jurists to elaborate the doctrine of m+&5a
were al-Ghazzdi (d. A.D. 1111), Ibn Taymiya (d. A.D. 1328) and Najm al-
Din Taufi (d. A.D. 1316). They lived at a time of increasing social and
political turmoil in Muslim society and were concerned with the rela-
tionship between the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Muslim commu-
nity. As jurists, they focussed upon issues of legal interpretation, attempt-
ing to verify the technique of ikhs&h on the grounds of textual sources
(Qurkn and Sunm 1. From the broader philosophic perspective, however,
their treatises reflected directly upon the issue of government responsibil-
ity for the social welfare of the community. According to al-Ghazzali:
. . . what we mean by mashha is conservation of the aims of the
Sharhh. The aim of the Sharhh in regard to man is fivefold: to
conserve his religion, life, reason, offspring, and material wealth.
All, then, that secures conservation of these five elements is a mn+-/a~a,
and all that jeopardizes them is mahad!, prevention of which is a
mqs/a&. lo

Interpretation and application of the law was the responsibility of ju-

rists. As religious scholars, they tended to focus on moral, ethical and

M. H.Kerr. fslanic h'ehrn: The Pokka/and Lqca/ Theorik of Mubaninad kbduh and
h'8sh/di?/& (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1966). p. 66.
lo Quoted in Kerr, p. 93.
88 THE MUSLIM WORLD

legalistic issues rather than political and social problems in questioning

the deteriorating social conditions of the community. Nevertheless, ac-
cording to Islamic political theory, government is responsible for the wel-
fare of the community and public policy for implementing the full intent
of the law. Of the classical jurists, Ibn Taymiya focussed most directly on
government responsibility for the social and spiritual malaise of Muslim
society. Commenting on his voluminous works, Majid Khadduri observed:
In almost all his writings, he [Ibn Taymiya] sought to serve the gen-
eral interest /h~g5/a&) of believers which he, in agreement with ear-
lier jurists, held as the ultimate end of the Law. This end can be
achieved through the 5j.7Z53 Shar$;va. The unity of Religion and
Law (State),which exists in principle, must be carried out in prac-
tice. Without the effective power /.shrvka) of the State, he held,
Religion and Law would be in danger. Conversely, without the con-
straints of the Law, the State (presided over by despotic Rulers) de-
generates into a n unjust and tyrannical organization. Only in the
pursuit of justice can the State be expected to fulfill the ends for
which it was established. The justice that Ibn Taymiya strove to
achieve was obviously a new concept enshrined in t h e S1)~75a
Shar$ya, which might be called social justice, as its aims were to
serve public interest. Since the power of Islam was in a state of
decadence, social justice was the means by virtue of which that power
/5hlarvkqj might have been rehabilitated. More specifically, Ibn
Taymiya held that social justice would bridge the gulf between the
Ruler and the Ruled. . . and ultimately improve social conditions and
enhance the power of Islam.'l

Arab Social Thought in the Modern Age

While Islam embodied the cultural ideals of modern Arab social
thought, the internal decay of the Ottoman Empire and external chal-
lenge of European imperialism constituted the historical stage. It was in
this cultural context that modern Arab social thought addressed the so-
cial conditions of Arab society-the manifold problems of poverty, in-
equality and inequity.

Rafi '.al-Tahfawi(1 801-1 873)

The Napoleonic expedition to Egypt from 1798 to 1801 had a major
impact on Egyptian society. By introducing French ideas of freedom and
equality, it catalyzed the emergence of a sense of Egyptian nationalism.

I' Khadduri. pp. 179-180.

 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 89

This implied the opening of all official positions in the country to the
local population, positions reserved for the Mamluk aristocracy and Turk-
ish rulers. Most important, Napoleon strongly attacked the feudal /%ZtiZi7m)
system and denied any claims by the Mamluks of their privileged rights
to ownership.12 In addition, the French introduced a system of modern
public administration, reformed the tax system, and introduced the print-
ing press into Egypt. Although the expedition was short-lived, it paved
the way for the advent of Muhammad‘Ali who patterned his administration
on the French model of development.
Muhammad ‘Ali became viceroy of Egypt in 1805 under the Ottoman
sultan’s suzerainty. He launched an intense modernization program in
Egypt, sending students to Europe, mainly France, to study modern sci-
ence and industry. Among the most prominent students sent abroad was
a young Azharite shaykh by the name of Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi.
Al-Tahpwi became one of the leading figures in Muhammad ‘Ali’s
attempt to modernize Egypt. After spending five years in France (1826-
1831), he returned to Egypt and wrote in detail on the circumstances of
the French revolution, the French constitution, the parliamentary system,
etc., translating French works into Arabic. Through a career in education
and eventually as director of the al-Alson Language School, al-Tahtawi
facilitated the dissemination of French liberal ideas in Egypt.
After a period of exile in the Sudan, al-Tahpwi returned to Egypt in
1854 and began concentrating on the problems of Egypt. During that
period most of the political and economic developments of the Muhammad
‘Ah era were aborted as a result of the European-Ottoman alliance which
defeated the Egyptian armies and forced the ruler of Egypt to open Egyp-
tian markets to foreign imports. This, to a great extent, broke down the
state monopoly system which had been established by Muhammad (Ali,
leading to the liquidation of many of the state’s industrial projects which
were offered no protection. Trade shifted to the control of individuals
rather than the state; and although there existed a class of local traders,
foreign control was predominant. As a result, many of the members of
the local class, who were originally large feudal landholders under the
abolished d!!zcfm system, started investing their wealth in industrial
projects. Eventually, this class began to assert its influence, especially
after Sa‘id Pasha completely destroyed the system of state monopoly. l 3
These economic developments, which crystallized under the governments
of Sa‘id Pasha (1854-63)and Ismdil Pasha (1863-791,had major social rami-
ns on Egyptian society.
90 THE MUSLIM WORLD

Rifa‘a al-Tahtawi was a member of this class and a prominent

articulator of its interests. Thus, he became the most prominent social
thinker to attack the feudal system and advocate liberalism. While em-
phasizing the rights of individuals to trade and to run their own private
enterprises, he also defended the rights of the peasantry against exploita-
tion by the landowners,14 stating: “the custom of not rewarding the peas-
ant for the amount of his service and ploughing is based on the well known
principle that ‘he who sows, harvests’-that is, the harvest belongs to the
owner. The Prophet, however, said that ’the produce is for the cultiva-
tors,’ which means that the produce is for those who Al-TahtBwi
thus strongly advocated a fundamental change in the relationship between
the landowners and peasants, stating: “The saying [of the Prophet] about
the crop and cultivators does not imply anything regarding the right of
the owner to expropriate the crops without rewarding the peasant.”I6
Al-TahtBwi called for the establishment of equality among the differ-
ent classes, and actually called upon the poor to break down the feudal
barriers that prevented them from improving their own conditions. When
he talked about equality, however, he explicitly meant equality before the
law, not equality in terms of social and economic conditions:
If we look deeply into this equality among citizens, we find that it is
a relative matter, not an absolute one, because the Divine Wisdom
differentiated between people since eternity by giving some better
attributes than others. Accordingly, people are differentiated in the
material attributes as well as the natural ones such as physical strength
or weakness. Although God has distinguished among people in
wealth, he has made them all equal in front of the law, no differ-
ence between the notable and the ordinary, or the leader and his
subordinates. These are the orders given by Him and brought down
by His Prophets. Equality, therefore, has no other meaning except
the sharing of the same rules in front of which all are the same.
Thus, wherever people have equal and common natural characteris-
tics, such equality should not be removed from amongst them by
man-made law. ”

In addition to his concern for the problems of the peasants, al-Tahtawi

was also disturbed about the growing influence of foreign capital. He,
therefore, called for economic planning on the state level, and although
he did not encourage the repetition of the Muhammad ‘Ali experience
which weakened the local bourgeoisie, he was convinced that private capi-

fbid, pp. 182-3.

Quoted in al-Hiltsli. p. 273.
l6 fbid, p. 274.
‘Imsrah. p. 185.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 91

tal alone, without state planning and organization, could not meet the
economic challenges of the time. The limited focus of state planning un-
der Muhammad (Ali, he noted, ’opened many channels and canals, but
they were dispersed in many areas and only useful in their own localities.
He did not establish a general irrigation system. ” I 8
Al-TahtBwi’s most radical social views were related to the issue of
women and their social role: “If a sane person looks deeply into the physical
features of men and women. . . he will find only differences which are
manifested in their masculinity and femininity and what relates to these.
Masculinity and femininity are the only source of differences. . . . Pre-
venting women from exercising their rights. . . is an indication of a bar-
baric nature.”19 He upbraided the traditional view of women as objects of
men’s pleasure, maintaining that apart from differences in sex, women
were not inferior to men, “The human virtues exist in both men and
women, though in different facets of their habits. These characteristics-
such as courage, generosity, virtue, etc. -are common among
all. . . whether male or female.”20 Even physical weakness was not con-
sidered a basic attribute of the female sex,
Women in [ancient] Greece were recruited into the educational sphere
and thus gained from education the virtues of men and healthy bod-
ies. . . . They had to suffer rigorous exercises and go through prac-
tice and wrestling. As a result, many admirable things happened in
these countries for a long period of time in which women’s courage
equalled that of men.21

In addition to calling for the education of women, al-Tahpwi also called

for allowing women to work. The education of women, he argued,
would allow women, if the need arises, to practice the same jobs
which men do, according to their individual strength and capacity.
This is likely to drive women away from idleness. , . . Work thus
protects women and moves them closer to virtue. If idleness is con-
sidered to be a vice for men, it is an even greater vice for women.u

Al-Tahtswi’s significance lies in the fact that he was one of the first
modern Arab scholars to extol the virtues of western science and liberal
economic ideology. While his economic views were clearly an expression
of his class interests, they were modified by his traditionalist political views
of the nature of authority in the Islamic state. Thus, while affirming the

Is fbd. p. 187.
/bJZ, p. 201.
2o /hZ,. p. 205.
zI I b d , p. 206.
22 /bid,pp. 210-11.
 92 THE MUSLIM WORLD

classical Islamic ideals that the purpose of government is twofold-to imple-

ment the Divine Will and to achieve the welfare of the community-he
interpreted welfare in modern Western terms of progress. Economic
' progress through technological advancement, social progress through edu-
cation and political progress through social justice were the elements he
stressed, but all were related to the Islamic conception of the responsibil-
ity of government for the social welfare of the community.23
Jamill d-DIn d-Afghihi (1 839-1897)
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was perhaps the most outspoken critic of con-
temporary Muslim governments and eloquent defenders of Islamic civili-
zation of his time. Highly educated in Islamic philosophy and law, he was
a charismatic speaker and irrespressible political activist. In fact, his name
is associated with three revolutionary movements in the Muslim world at
the end of the nineteenth century-the Turkish constitutional movement,
the Egyptian parliamentary movement and the Iranian parliamentary
movement. His primary concern was with the threat of European imperi-
alism against the Muslim world and the inadequacy of Muslim govern-
ments to meet this threat.24
Al-Afghani maintained that the failure of Muslim society to meet the
European challenge was a result of internal decay-the dissolution of the
principles of Islam in Muslim society. He argued that Muslim society had
moved away from the true path of Islam and lost the virtues of social
solidarity and social responsibility that had given strength and vitality to
Islamic civilization. 25 The result was despotism, injustice and foreign domi-
nation-the major conditions that undermine the social welfare of the
Muslim community. In stressing the ability of Islam to resolve these prob-
lems, however, al-Afghani did not reject modern European ideas as inher-
ently incompatible with Islam, but attempted to demonstrate their foun-
dation in Islam itself. Indeed, he maintained that modern science was
entirely compatible and parliamentary democracy was a n Islamic means
of checking despotism. 26
In the area of his social thought-his reflections on the social condi-
tions of Muslim society-modern European ideas of social justice chal-
lenged his conception of the good society and stimulated a change in his
perspective of justice. His attacks on socialist and materialist doctrines
reflect his initial rejection of these ideas. In his A'ehm/ibn d / h e Argw

zJ Albert Hourani. Arb/? Thoiyh/ /h / h l * L / h l x ~ / / . { ~ ,/,W'.f.9:?9

r ilondon: Oxford University
Press, 1962). pp. 69-80.
z4 For a n account of al-Afghani's life. see Hourani. pp. 103-29.

25 See Hourani. pp. 115-19. a n d Khadduri. pp. 197.9. for a n elaboration of his arguments.
26 Muhammad 'Imarah (ed. ), a/-2/n$/a/-h>jmi/ah L;./MM/~/-D;/) J/.,-!(2hi/ni vol. 2 (Beirut:
al-Mu'assah al-'Arabiyah l i l Dirasal wa al-Nashr. 1981), pp. 322-3.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 93

men& of the A/3ten2hStsz7published i n 1880, al-Afghani strongly chal-

lenged socialist doctrines and indicated his sympathy w i t h liberal thought,
These three factions agree in following this way [atheistic material-
ism], and camouflage their program under the claim that they sup-
port the weak and champion the rights of the poor. In spite of the
fact that each faction colors its goals in a way that makes each appear
to be in opposition to the others, their principal goal is to abolish all
human distinctions and share everything. They shed much blood,
demolished construction, destroyed civilization, spread tribulation and
exhibited corruption in order to achieve these evil demands. They
all agree that all that is desired on earth is offered and granted by
nature. They also claim that religion and kingship are two great
obstacles and barriers [to human fulfillment]. . . . They all cooper-
ate to declare their false fantasies, and as such their parties increased
in members and their followers grew in all European kingdoms, es-
pecially the Russian kingdom. There is no doubt therefore that if
these factions spread further and increase their power to realize their
goals, they are most likely to be the cause of the extinction of man-
kind, may God protect us from the evils of their sayings and doings.Z8

In attacking t h e ideological foundations of socialist thought, al-Afghani

maintained,

This faction. . . seeks to achieve commonality of wants, abolishment

of the boundaries of privilege and the elimination of specialization
in order that no one ascends above the other. . . and all people live in
equality with no variations in their good fortune. If this faction
achieves success in its endeavor, and if this evil thought is accepted
in the minds of people, the spirit would be inclined toward taking
what is easier and better such that we shall find no one willing to
undertake hardships or practice lower status occupations, seeking
instead equality. . . . The ideas of these insane people produce noth-
ing better than this result. Even if we assiiiiie that mankind could
live in this deviant way, there is no doubt that all virtue. . . and arts
of practical beauty shall be abolished, human thought shall have no
influence and man shall lose all apparent and hidden beauty, tan-
gible and intangible.29

Al-Afghani’s vitriolic rejection of socialist doctrines w a s based upon

t h e association of atheism w i t h them. I n his later years, however, h e be-
c a m e m o r e sympathetic to socialist thought because of t h e conditions of
social exploitation it addressed. T h i s is clear in h i s changed perspective
94 THE MUSLIM WORLD

of the French revolution which he had initially attacked as the product of

”the blasphemies of the two materialists, Voltaire and R o u s s ~ ~ uIn
. ”his
~~
later years, he defended i t , stating:
The call for freedom in France was a just claim. Its people had suf-
fered tragedies a n d death, and their blood flowed; yet today they are
respected. This is the same with the socialist claim. . . even if its
advocates are few. It shall inevitably dominate the world the day
when true knowledge prevails and man recognizes that he and his
brother are from the same nature and ~ p i r i t . ~ ’

In a similar vein, he warned Ngsser al-Din, the despotic Shah of Iran:

The peasant, the worker and the artisan are more useful to the king-
dom than you and your princes. There is no doubt, your Majesty,
that you have seen and read about nations that were able to live
without a King, but have you seen a King who lived without a nation
or subjects. 32

Thus, while al-Afghani was preoccupied with the external threat of

European imperialism throughout most of his career, the Islamic con-
ception of the responsibility of government for the general welfare of the
community was the foundation of his ideas. In focussing on the problems
of despotism in his later years this assumption was manifest. Although
he rejected the European concept of socialism as based on revenge of the
oppressed masses, he did accept the fundamental principles of social jus-
tice the doctrine espoused, arguing that Islam already presupposed them
in the framework of Islamic social, political and economic institutions.
Muhammad h b d u h (1849-1905)
Muhammad ‘Abduh, a disciple of al-Afghani. continued the intellec-
tual tradition of his mentor of attempting to purify Islam of corrupting
influences and reconciling Islamic doctrine with modern thought. In a
distinguished career as educator and jurist, culminating as Grant Mufti of
Egypt (supervisor of religious courts and advisor to the government on
matters of Islamic law), ‘Abduh effected many educational and legal re-
forms. As a prolific scholar, he left a deep imprint on the Islamic reform
movement sparked by the progressive disintegration of the Ottoman Em-
pire and encroachments of European imperialism. 33

30 /bid, pp. 108-11.

31 ‘Irnirah. p. 108.
/bid
For accounts of ‘Abduh’s life, works and influence. see Hourani, pp. 130-92: Kerr. 103-52.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 95

Muhammad ‘Abduh’s social thought became apparent in his hhv3 (le-

gal opinion) regarding a question offered to him by Farah Anton concern-
ing a labor strike which took place in 1899, and the right of the state to
interfere between the employers and employees. His answer is considered
to be the first Islamic h t w g t h a t explicitly indicated that the spirit of Is-
lam actually opposed the individualist philosophy on which capitalism is
based. It also emphasized that the government has the duty to interfere
in the economic affairs of the nation for the welfare of the community,
whether through establishing industries, controlling prices or guarantee-
ing the rights of the workers:
Establishing industries is a delegated duty: that is, the nation must
have a group within it which provides the industries necessary for
the provision of life. . . . If the industries are not available, it is the
responsibility of whoever is guarding the affairs of the nation to un-
dertake the means to reestablish them in order to provide for the
needs and necessities of the people. Also, if the merchants who
control the goods increase their prices to unacceptable limits, the
ruler, in many Muslim schools of thought, has to set limits on the
prices. As such, the ruler interferes in the affairs of the people and
their industry if he fears a general harm from their posture.

Thus, if the workers in a nation go on strike and stop working in a

field, t h e result of which may be important to the necessities of this
nation and the strike is damaging to the general welfare, the ruler
has the right to interfere and judge according to the public interest.
If he found the right to be on behalf of the workers who are assigned
by the employers to tasks that are beyond their capacity, he should
force the employers to become more equitable, whether through
increasing wages or reducing working hours, or both. 34
Like al-Afgh%ni,‘Abduh attempted to demonstrate the relevance of
Islamic thought to the solution of modern problems. Islam provided not
only a doctrine of personal salvation, but a doctrine of social salvation
too-an integration of the here and hereafter. Rather than a doctrine of
personal piety and acquiescence to the social conditions of life as a per-
sonal tribulation, then, Islam dictates that the spiritual welfare of the in-
dividual is related to the social welfare of the community, and the path to
spiritual salvation is manifested in social organization. In addressing the
overwhelming problems of poverty in Egypt, for example, he observed “if
the poverty of the poor is a will of God, the abolishment of this poverty, or
helping to poor to overcome i t , is also a will of God.”35 Personal piety

Jl ‘Imarah. vol. 1. p. 128.

35 Jhd. pp. 133-4.
96 THE MUSLIM WORLD

could not be separated from social organization, and the social conditions
of poverty could not be separated from the social conditions of wealth.
Reflecting this, he noted:

In many countries which do not care about piety. . . no one becomes

honored unless his father or predecessors were honored. Moreover,
the owner of wealth and prestige does not fall from his position since
his wealth protects him. . . even if he lacks every virtue and is void
of any human characteristic. Classes in such countries thus become
fixed along time; the poor remain poor and the rich remain rich. It
is very rare that a poor m an becomes rich which perpetuales tyr-
anny and oppression on the part of the high classes, and humiliation
and slavery among the low classes.
In such countries, some poor people a n d individuals may acquire
honor and prestige, not from their natural endowments but through
humiliating themselves, becoming hypocrites and showing sub-
missiveness to those above them. If this person remains such, his
superiors may become indulgent and help him to rise along the lad-
ders of prestige until he becomes one of them. I t is by these meth-
ods that hearts deviate. . . and piety becomes n e g l e ~ t e d . ~ ~

Muhammad ‘Abduh’s social thought can be summarized accordingly:

1.The belief in collective social welfare:
Man gains wealth from people by his talent and works with
them. If some people are not able to make a living due to a
handicap in mind or soul, or a sickness in body, the others
should reach out and help in order to protect the totality [of
people] whose interests relate to each other.’37
2. The belief that economic injustice is the most severe kind of injus-
tice:
“If you weighed all types of injustice which emanate from
mankind, you will find that the heaviest is the injustice of
the greedy who do not want to share their wealth with the
poor, the needy, or the public interest which preserves the
nation from destruction, raises i t above other nations, fills
in the gaps which occur in the religious structure, or re-
moves obstacles and problems from the path of the Mus-
lims. This is the kind of injustice which can have no excuse
whatsoever. . . . These kinds of people do not deserve to be
Muslims because no soul in them has a vein which feels

l6 f b d . p. 132.
l7 f h d . p. 136.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 97

pain for the calamities of Islam and its people. Whoever is

so is a real heretic even if he calls himself a Muslim.N38
3. The belief in the danger of capital dominating society:
”Wealth is not inherently evil in God’s religion; nor is it de-
tested by Him. . . . It is as if God is saying, ‘We do not want
you to squander wealth or neglect it; nor do We forbid its
investment and exploitation; instead, We order you to gain
it by honest means and spend it in charity.’”39

On the other hand, regard‘ing the conflict between capital and la-
bor which was manifest in Egypt at the time, he observed:
“The social issue, which is the problem of the laborers‘ re-
volt against the capitalists, and their strikes time after time,
leaving work and keeping factories idle, is a result of the
fact that the owners do not appreciate their work and give
them less than they deserve.”@
4.The belief that the distribution of wealth is related to the social
welfare of the community. ‘Abduh strongly advocated the posi-
tion that the alms tax /zaA20 alone does not satisfy the civil du-
ties of a Muslim in fostering social welfare. The amount of tax
obliged must be determined by the conditions of time and place,
and as such is not limited to any specific amount nor is it confined
to charity but is dictated by the general public elf are.^' “The
richest countries,“ he argued, “are those countries in which wealth
has been distributed among most of the people,”42 maintaining
that wealth is a public property that belongs to the poor as much
as it belongs to the rich.
While ‘Abduh, like his mentor, was a political activist in his early ca-
reer, after the collapse of ‘Urabi’s nationalist regime in Egypt and Britain’s
occupation of the country in 1882, he disdained political activism and
directed his attention to educational and legal reform. Disillusioned by
politics, it was his conviction that the transformation of the political sys-
tem would follow logically from the transformation of the social ethic in
Muslim society to the original path of Islam, not vice versa. Implicit in
his writings, however, is the overriding assumption of government respon-
sibility for the social welfare of the community. It is government, after

38 /bd. pp. 137-8.

39 /bid, p. 138.
/bid. pp. 139-40.
“ f6id.pp. 140-3.
42 fb/bl.p. 144.
98 THE MUSLIM W O R L D

all, that is charged with the responsibility of protecting the moral and
ethical standards of Islam, and the community’s social welfare is directly
dependent upon this. Muhammad ‘Abduh’s message, in effect, was an
implicit call for revolution against the powers that stood in the path of the
manifestation of the Islamic social ethic and the realization of the general
welfare of the Muslim community.
QHsim AmIn (1 865-1908)
Qiisim Amin, a disciple of Muhammad ‘Abduh, focussed on specific
social problems in Egypt. His most controversial work, Women’sh&m-
//b/143published in 1899, earned him the title of pioneer of women’s eman-
cipation. In it, he related the oppression of women directly to the forms
of oppression in society, arguing:

A government is founded in the image of the family. The government

which is based on despotism is not expected to allow women to gain
their rights and freedom. There actually exists a close association
between political conditions and the conditions of the family in ev-
ery country. In every place where man degraded women and treated
them as slaves, he actually degraded himself and lost his sense of
freedom. On the other hand, in the countries where women enjoy
their personal freedom, men enjoy their political freedom. The two
cases are completely associated.

If someone asks which case influenced the other, I would say they
react on each other, and each has its own respective influence. In
other words, the form of government influences domestic behavior,
while domestic behavior influences the social structure.

Look at the Eastern countries: we find that woman is enslaved to

man and man is enslaved to the ruler. He is unjust in his house,
subject to injustice out of it. Then look at the European countries:
you find that their governments are based on freedom and the re-
spect of personal freedom. Women’s condition thus improved to high
degrees of respect, and freedom of thought and

Amin argued that the enslavement of women is based upon maintain-

ing them in a state of ignorance and social dependency:
The women among us are equal in ignorance and there is no differ-
ence among them except in clothing and jewelry. It is possible to

‘Ta&> .?/-Ahr2h” in Muhammad ‘Imirah, Q.ism Aimn: z/-ilina/ a/-KgmiYah /QJsi;n

Amin: Compete Mhrk.5) (Beirut: al-Mu’asasah al-‘Arabiyah lil Dirasat wa al-Nashr.’October
1976).
‘‘ f b d , pp. 77-0.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 99

say that whenever the wealth of a woman increases, her ignorance

also increases. The lowest classes of the nation’s women are the
rural women. They are more intelligent by comparison. The farm
woman knows everything that the farm man knows. Their mental
setting is at the same level. . . while we find the upper and middle
class.women lagging far behind because the men in these classes
educate their minds and are enlightened-with science, but the women
are unable to follow in this direction. Rather, they are blocked in
this direction. This lag is one of the greatest reasons for the misery
of both men and women.45

Therefore, he called for the education of women and their right to

achieve economic independence through employment. “If Muslims look
deeply,” he contended, “they will realize that the prevention of the woman
from her first duty, which is the ability to earn her living, was the main
cause of the abrogation of her rights.”46
The enslavement of women, Amin maintained, is manifested in three
customs that keep them socially isolated and insecure-their seclusion,
represented by the veil, divorce and polygamy. Using the method of (Abduh
to reform customs by reasoning based upon the textual sources and invok-
ing the doctrine of mc?s/aaas the founding principle of Divine Law, Amin
distinguished among customs that have no basis in textual sources, those
that are in contradiction with textual sources and those that are founded
in textual sources. He maintained that the practice of the seclusion of
women is the first type, being based upon tradition that has no foundation
in the Sharhh. The widespread practice of unconditional divorce of
women, he argued, contravened the Qudanic injunction of requiring wit-
nesses and public announcement, the object of which was to ensure
contestability. While polygamy, on the other hand, had apparent legality
based upon the Q u r h , based upon the doctrine of m+sfa&a,he argued:

Such legality like all other kinds of legalities, is subject to other legal
rules such as prohibition, restriction, and others, according to what
results from it in terms of the corruption of public interest. Thus, if
the injustice among wives prevails among people-as we see in our
times-or corruption spreads among families as a result of polygamy,
leading to the transgression of the legal limits and the creation of
enmity among family members, the ruler has the right-in order to
protect the general interest-to prevent polygamy, conditionally or
unconditionally, according to what he perceives in accordance with
the interests of the nationU4’

45 f6id.p. 86.
fbid, p. 78.
” f b d , p. 69.
100 THE MUSLIM WORLD

Amin advocated a significant change in the status of women, but not

their full equality with men. Explaining his equivocation on this, he noted:
I do not demand equality between women and men in all privileges
and political rights, not because I believe that prevention of women
from working in the public sector is a necessity for the social system
[of Islam], but because I see that until now we are still in great need
of men who can do good public work, and that the Egyptian woman
is not ready today for anything at all. She still needs to spend years
to educate her mind with knowledge and experience in order to be
ready to compete with men in the field of public life.48

‘A bd al-Rahm8n al-Kawakibi (1 854- 1 902)

‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kaw2kibi was also a disciple of ‘Abduh. Adopting

‘Abduh’s approach, he analyzed the problem of poverty and its relation-
ship to despotism, arguing that Islam as a system of government was based
on a socialist philosophy and that Islamic politics during the time of the
first four Caliphs was “parliamentary socialism, that is completely demo-
c r a t i ~ . ’This
~ ~ was due to the fact that the early Caliphs “understood the
meaning of the Qur’Bn, worked by it, and took it as their guide. Thus,
they created a government. . . [based upon] a socialist way of life.”50
Al-Kawakibi maintained that poverty in any society is the creation of
a small minority that monopolizes the wealth of the nation,
Mankind distributed the miseries of life in an unfair way too. Men
of politics and religion and their entourage-who comprise not more
than one percent [of the population]-enjoy half the wealth produced
[by the people] . . . and spend it on luxury and in lavishness. An
example of that is that they decorate the streets with millions of lamps
because they occasionally pass through them, without thinking about
the poor millions who live in their houses in darkness. Then there
are the craftsmen of luxury goods, the monopolizing merchants and
the likes of their class-who are also estimated to constitute one per-
cent [of the population]-just one of them earns as much as ten, a
hundred or a thousand tinies what the artisans and farmers earn.5’

Arguing that wealth could not be amassed by honest means, al-

Kaw Bki bi maintained :

48 /bid, p. 84
49 Muhammad ‘Imarah. a/-2ma/a/-h2/ni/ahLi ilbd dRahmSn a/-h21igkibi- iThe Comp/ete
M’o/ks of h46d a/-RahmJn a/-Abri.#k/’bfi
(Beirut: al-Mu’asasah al-‘Arabiyah lil Dirssal wa al-
Nashr. July 1975). p. 66.
5o fbid
/bid. p. 67.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 101

Making a big fortune in the time of a just government is extremely

difficult and could not be attained except through usury with deca-
dent nations, large commercial monopolies, or cooperating with im-
perialism. 52
Focussing on the relationships between imperialism and despotism,
despotism and poverty, al-Kawakibi identified the central cause of the
social conditions of the Arab people as political oppression. The shift
from al-Afghani’s and (Abduh’s stress on social ethics to al-Kawakibi’s stress
on social forces was a logical progression from the symbolic universe of
Islam to the social realities of the late nineteenth century. The unifying
logic was based upon the fundamental assumption of government respon-
sibility for the social welfare of the community.

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)

By the end of the First World War, the historical processes of disinte-
gration of the Ottoman Empire and the encroachment of European impe-
rialism culminated with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the po-
litical control of the Arab provinces divided among European powers. This
was the reality Sayyid Qutb, a n Egyptian man of letters of both of classi-
cal and modern education, grew up in. In the milieu of European politi-
cal and economic domination, the imposition of European social ideals
and cultural perspectives completed the disintegration of the political,
economic and social fabric of Arab society. Protesting this, Qutb wrote:

We cast aside our own fundamental principles and doctrines, and we

bring in those of democracy. or socialism, or co~iiniiinisni. It is to
these that we look for a solution of our social problem. although our
circumstances. our history, and the very bases of our life, material,
intellectual, and spiritual alike, are quite out of keeping with the
circumstances of people across the deserts and beyond the seas.j3

In his seminal work on - h - i i / / ~ i i i/i/

~ Miin. Qutb attempts to dem-
onstrate: first, that Islam “prescribes tlie basic principles of social justice,
and establishes the claim of the poor to the wealth of the rich; it lays
down a just principle for power and money. , , .”;54 second, the relevance
of these principles to the contemporary social problems of poverty, in-
equality and inequity. Arguing that social justice must be based upon the
unity of moral, spiritual and material values manifested in the political,
economic and social organization of society, Qulb maintains that the laws

52 /6id
53 /i/L h n tr.
Sayyid Qutb. Sock/.~/s/i~-c ~ J. B. Hardie i N r w York: Octagon B o o k s , 19701. p.
1.
102 T H E MUSLIM WORLD

of Islam resolved the conflict between individualism and collectivism that

dominated European social thought:
So the regulations lay down the rights of the community over the pow-
ers and abilities of the individual; they also establish limiting bound-
aries to the freedom, the desires, and the wants of the individual but
they must also be ever mindful of the rights of the individual; and
over all there must be the limits which the community must not over-
step. and which the individual on his side must not t r a n ~ g r e s s . ~ ~

Qutb maintains that social justice in Islam is manifested in the state's

responsibility to implement Divine legislation in accordance with the three
main social ethics established in the Qur'an: freedom of conscience;
human equality; social responsibility. Freedom of conscience is based
upon the unity of spiritual a n d material freedom. In the spiritual di-
mension, the cornerstone of the foundation of social justice in Islam, it
derives from the absolute unity of God and the unmediated relationship
between the individual and God "so every individual can make his own
practical relationship with his Creator."56 By "freeing the human con-
science from servitude to any except Allah and from submission to any
save Him.'Is7 personal fear of social oppression is replaced by the per-
sonal quest for spiritual salvation which manifests itself temporarily in
the struggle for social justice:
When the conscience is freed from the instinct of servitude to and
worship of any of the servants of Allah; when it is filled with the
knowledge that it can of itself gain complete access to Allah; then it
cannot be disturbed by any feeling of fear of life, or fear of its liveli-
hood, or fear from its station. This fear is an ignoble instinct which
lowers the individual's estimation of himself, which often makes him
accept submission, or abdicate much of his natural honor or many of
his rights. But Islam insists strongly that glory and honor are the
rights of man, and that to be proud of his rights and to persevere in
the search for justice is deep-seated in the human soul. By reason of
all this-over and above its religious laws-it insists on the guarantee
of an absolute social justice, under which man shall not suffer from
neglect. Therefore, it is particularly anxious to oppose the instinct
of fear, whether of life or of livelihood. or of station. For life is in the
hand of Allah, and no creature has the power to shorten that life by
one hour or by one minute. 58

55 f h d . p. 26.
56 f6d,Q 34.
57 fbd. Q 32.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN MODERN ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 103

The material dimension of freedom of conscience is the elevation of

human nature above submission to the demands of material necessity.
Because of the fundamental unity of spirit and body, this cannot be
achieved unless the basic material necessities in life are secure. Thus,
freedom of conscience in Islam “stipulatesthat first the needs of the body
and the material necessities of life must be guaranteed, alike by the au-
thority of the law and by the authority of the conscience.’59
The second ethic of social justice-equality-derives directly from free-
dom of conscience which renders all people equal before God Who recog-
nizes “no virtue except in good deeds and no nobility except in piety.”60
Social discrimination based upon racial, religious or class differences is
transcended in Islam by freedom of conscience and manifested temporally
by the condemnation of it in Divine Law. As for sexual discrimination
embodied in Islamic law, Qutb maintains that Islam “has permitted no
discrimination except in some incidental matters connected with physical
nature, with customary procedure, or with responsibility.”61 Freedom of
conscience from spiritual and material servitude and equality before the
law, then, are the basis for the ethic of social equality in Islamic society.
The ethic of social responsibility constitutes the limits of individual
freedom in the Islamic community. “For there is the important matter of
the welfare of society, short of which the freedom of the individual must
stop. ”62 Community responsibilities include care and protection of the
weak, provision to the needy, and the guardianship against evildoing
through enforcement of Law. While the state is empowered to execute
these responsibilities on behalf of the community, the individual is none-
theless responsible to ensure their enforcement, for community welfare is
itself an expression of the piety of its individual members.
Thus every individual will be held responsible for every evildoing in
the community, even if he has had no part in it. For society is a unity
which is harmed by any evildoing, and the duty of every individual is to
guard and to protect it.
The whole community is to blame and merits injury and punishment
in this world and in the world to come if it passively accepts evildoing in
its midst by some of its members.63
The system of social ethics established in the Qur’Bn is mandated
through exhortation and legislation. While exhortation addresses the pi-
ous dimensions of spiritual motivation and is therefore beyond the pale of

59 16/2, p. 32.
/bid.p. 46.
6’ [bid. p. 49.
62 fb/Z, p. 56.
63 /bid,p. 63.
104 THE MUSLIM WORLD

human regulation, legislation addresses the practical demands of external

behavior and is within the scope of human regulation. The state, then, is
responsible for the implementation of Divine Legislation in accordance
with the three main social ethics of Islam.
In addressing the economic basis of social justice in Islam, then, Qutb
considered its legislative framework constituted in seven sacrosanct prin-
ciples of state economic policy:
1.The right of individual possession of property is explicitly stated
in the Qur)Bn and is ratified by the left laws which provide severe
punishment for unlawful infringement and by inheritance laws
which presume the right of possession and intergenerational trans-
mission. The right of possession, however, is based upon stew-
ardship rather than ownership, since ownership theoretically be-
longs to God. 64
2.l'he right of disposal of property which is regulated by the state in
accordance with the requirements of social justice to maintain
community welfare and prevent the concentration of wealth and
diffusion of poverty. This is the practical limitation on individual
property rights based upon a concept of stewardship rather than
ownership. 65
3.The legal methods of individual acquisition of property which is
regulated by law and limited to productive work in the following
categories: hunting, irrigating waste land which has no owner,
mining, war booty, and wage labor. In addition, the state can as-
sign communal property to individual possession and must allo-
cate to the poor and needy. 66
4.The legal methods of increasing wealth through business enter-
prise which include agricultural production, industrial production
and retail trade, but specifically prohibit monopoly and usury. 67
5.The disposition of private wealth which is not specifically regu-
lated in Divine Law but through exhortation implies the state's
right of regulation for the specific and sole purposes of maintain-
ing an equitable standard of living and preventing immorality in
the community.68
6.The poor tax /iaX-a)is a compulsory tax on property that pro-
vides the minimum basis for state redistribution from the wealthy
to the needy. 69

'' fbJd,pp 102-4.

65/ b d . pp. 104-10.
" f b d . pp 110-18.
''fbid,pp. 118-24.
f h d ,pp. 124-33.
b9 f h d .pp. 133-7.
 SOCIAL WELFARE IN M O D E R N ARAB SOCIAL THOUGHT 105

7. Other statutory taxes which gives the state the power to increase
taxes above the poor tax for the general welfare of the commu-
nity. 70
Thus, Qutb recognized for the state broad economic powers-powers
that derived from the responsibility of the state for the social welfare of
the community. Maintaining that if the state performed its functions in
accordance with the principles and precepts of Islamic law, the problems
of poverty, inequality and inequity that undermined the welfare of Mus-
lim society would be resolved and Islamic civilization revitalized, Qutb
placed the responsibility for the malaise of Muslim society in the political
sphere. Indeed, the J ~ J S O Id’etreof
I the state is the welfare of the commu-
nity and the social conditions of the community reflect the government’s
negligence of its duties in Islamic law. Furthermore, he argued, since
government in Islam derives its authority from Islamic law, it is the duty
of Muslims to depose a government that does not uphold the law. 71 Thus,
Qutb moved from a consideration of social ethics in Islam to social revolu-
tion in his vision of the just society and the responsibility of government
in realizing it.

Conclusion
The emergence of modern Arab social thought, catalyzed by the chal-
lenge of European imperialism and Ottoman decline, was fundamentally
a response to the deteriorating social conditions in Arab society. The con-
trast presented between European vitality and Ottoman impotency, be-
tween European democracy and Ottoman despotism, between industrial
mobility and feudal stagnation all profoundly influenced the thinkers of
the modern age and broadened their conceptions of what was possible-
that is, what was within the realm of human control. But it did not funda-
mentally alter their conceptions of what was desirable. Islamic cultural
ideals of a collective social ethic as the moral basis of society and of gov-
ernment responsibility for the protection, maintenance and enforcement
of that social ethic remained at the heart of their consideration of the
social conditions of Arab society. The fundamental assumption of gov-
ernment responsibility for the social welfare of the community focussed
increasing discontent on governments as social conditions deteriorated,
and from al-Tahtawi to Qutb there is a progressive change in tenor from
reform to revolution as the prescription for the improvement of the gen-
eral welfare of Arab society.
106 THE MUSLIM WORLD

By the end of World War 11, the European colonial system in the Middle
East was dismantled and replaced by nominally independent nation-states.
In this framework, political movements became the dominant vehicle for
the expression of social thought.

Faculty of Social Work JACQUELINE S. ISMAEL& TAREQ

Y. ISMAEL
Pobtical Science Departinmt
The Un;r.crsity of Ca/gaT
Alberta. Canada