Do you think Sayyid Qutb is better than Hasan al-Banna?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Well, in your opinion, O our Shaykh, is Sayyid Qutb better than Hasan al-Banna?
The Shaykh : Sayyid Qutb is better than him in what concerns his understanding of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) first, and in his frankness and outspokenness in telling the truth, especially in the memoirs that were recently published.
The questioner : *Why Did They Execute Me?*
The Shaykh : Ah, they were published among the Muslims, and the truth is that whoever reads these memoirs thinks he is a Salafi.
The questioner : He is so in the matter that there is no benefit from coups; one must first educate the youth, which is the same thing we say.
The Shaykh : Yes, that is it, so praise be to Allah, but unfortunately the Muslim Brotherhood did not benefit from him at all; rather, there were those who refuted him, perhaps it has reached you?
The questioner : No, it has not reached me.
The Shaykh : Some books were published in refutation of him.
The questioner : Refutation of this?
The Shaykh : Yes, I do.
The questioner : Glory be to Allah!
The Shaykh : Then it appears that this intellectual clarity came to him because of the prison that was imposed on him by force; otherwise, for example, when you read his book *Social Justice*, you do not find in it any spirit of Salafism at all, but rather he deals with issues, the issues of workers and workers' wages, just as the philosophers among the Islamic writers deal with them, finding solutions to their problems based on their logic and their desires, which they imagine to be, meaning, derived from or intended for the benefit of the Muslims. So they prohibit and permit without feeling the responsibility of speaking without knowledge.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Sayyid Qutb is better than him in what concerns his understanding of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) first, and in his frankness and outspokenness in telling the truth, especially in the memoirs that were recently published.
The questioner : *Why Did They Execute Me?*
The Shaykh : Ah, they were published among the Muslims, and the truth is that whoever reads these memoirs thinks he is a Salafi.
The questioner : He is so in the matter that there is no benefit from coups; one must first educate the youth, which is the same thing we say.
The Shaykh : Yes, that is it, so praise be to Allah, but unfortunately the Muslim Brotherhood did not benefit from him at all; rather, there were those who refuted him, perhaps it has reached you?
The questioner : No, it has not reached me.
The Shaykh : Some books were published in refutation of him.
The questioner : Refutation of this?
The Shaykh : Yes, I do.
The questioner : Glory be to Allah!
The Shaykh : Then it appears that this intellectual clarity came to him because of the prison that was imposed on him by force; otherwise, for example, when you read his book *Social Justice*, you do not find in it any spirit of Salafism at all, but rather he deals with issues, the issues of workers and workers' wages, just as the philosophers among the Islamic writers deal with them, finding solutions to their problems based on their logic and their desires, which they imagine to be, meaning, derived from or intended for the benefit of the Muslims. So they prohibit and permit without feeling the responsibility of speaking without knowledge.
The questioner : Yes.