The concept of God’s sovereignty according to Sayyid Qutb in Tafsîr fî Zhîlâl Al-Qur’an

In the Shade of the Qur'an or Fî Zhilâl al-Qur'ân is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an, written during 1951-1965 by Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood. Most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surah) were written (or re-written) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. The book outlines Qutb's vision of an Islamic state and society. It is considered by some to be a comprehensive and far-reaching tafsîr (commentary) that takes a clear and lucid interpretation of the Qur'an. However, it has also been criticized by some modernists and traditional Ulama alike, as an extended personal opinion or essay rather than a well-evidenced textual commentary, and for not adhering to the traditional structure for a tafsîr. It has much influence throughout the Islamic world, especially amongst the ordinary lay practitioners of Islam in the Arab world This research is going to study the concept of Sovereignty of God in Sayyid Qutb’s interpretations at Tafsîr Fî Zhilâl al-Qur'ân, his consistency and differential aspect of Sayyid Qutb. Collected data either form primer sources; Fi Zhilal Al-Qur’an and another Sayyid Qutb works or secondary sources are analyzed throughout descriptive-analytics. The concept of hâkîmiyyah is central to the discourse espoused by Sayyid Qutb. Only through the concept of hâkîmiyyah is humankind able to achieve a just society. As he states in Milestones, ‘Anyone who serves someone or something other than Allah in this sense is outside the din of Allah: although he or she may claim to profess Islam as a religion.’ Qutb is not an advocate of the majesty of human reason. The apprehension of knowledge is not a matter of intellectual activity but of the reception of truths that are absolutely divine in their origins. In his perspective, the workings of discursive logic or inductive analysis are not necessary for, and are actually inimical to, the triumph of mankind in Allah’s universe. Rather, that triumph is vouchsafed by the ability and willingness of the human mind to absorb self-evident truths whose secrets are unlocked by divine texts. Scripturalism, in all of them, would remain the main source of Qutb’s ideology. Certainly, the Qur’an has privileged positions within Qutb’s discourse and ideology. Yet Sayyid Qutb has used it and its verses as a context rather than actually deriving his ideology