The peckerwood vision of Sayyid Qutb.

I was introduced to the writings of Matthew Arnold when I was an undergraduate. I was probably tied to a chair at the time and forced to read him. My pursuit of knowledge was never much at a white heat, except for relatively rare moments where something of particular interest fell across my path or violence was threatened. Dreams about appearing for final exams completely unprepared were quite unremarkable to me for their amazing resemblance to real life experience.

Notwithstanding, at that time and since I've always been drawn to Arnold. He illuminated for me the fundamental separateness that is man's lot. His "Dover Beach" and "Isolation. To Marguerite" are wonderful examples of this insight. Marcus Aurelius also resonated with me for the solitary inner life he too seemed to lead.

I especially remember this passage from Arnold about a too-narrow vision in life and having one's focus cranked down too short on the breakfast toast instead of Andromeda, Draco, and Corona Borealis:

But men of culture and poetry, it will be said, are again and again failing, and failing conspicuously, in the necessary first stage to perfection, in the subduing of the great obvious faults of our animality, which it is the glory of these religious organisations to have helped us to subdue. True, they do often so fail: they have often been without the virtues as well as the faults of the Puritan; it has been one of their dangers that they so felt the Puritan's faults that they too much neglected the practice of his virtues. I will not, however, exculpate them at the Puritan's expense; they have often failed in morality, and morality is indispensable; they have been punished for their failure, as the Puritan has been rewarded for his performance. They have been punished wherein they erred; but their ideal of beauty and sweetness and light, and a human nature complete on all its sides, remains the true ideal of perfection still; just as the Puritan's ideal [28/29] of perfection remains narrow and inadequate, although for what he did well he has been richly rewarded. Notwithstanding the mighty results of the Pilgrim Fathers' voyage, they and their standard of perfection are rightly judged when we figure to ourselves Shakspeare or Virgil, -- souls in whom sweetness and light, and all that in human nature is most humane, were eminent, -- accompanying them on their voyage, and think what intolerable company Shakspeare and Virgil would have found them! In the same way let us judge the religious organisations which we see all around us. Do not let us deny the good and the happiness which they have accomplished; but do not let us fail to see clearly that their idea of human perfection is narrow and inadequate, and that the [Puritans'] Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion will never bring humanity to its true goal. As I said with regard to wealth, -- let us look at the life of those who live in and for it; -- so I say with regard to the religious organisations. Look at the life imaged in such a newspaper as the Nonconformist; -- a life of jealousy of the Establishment, disputes, tea-meetings, openings of chapels, sermons; and then think of it [29/30] as an ideal of a human life completing itself on all sides, and aspiring with all its organs after sweetness, light, and perfection!^[1]

This way of making an initial assessment of something is often in the back of my mind for one of the great mysteries to me is, What is it that makes someone a big person, a person with a greatness of spirit, a person with an impulsive magnanimity or generosity of outlook? If I ever write a novel -- and the thought intrigues me -- I think it will be with this question in mind.^[2]

In particular, when I read some of the Muslim websites devoted to discussions of ablutions, diet, conduct, transformation of najis things into pak things, and the like, I am struck by the cramped vision of the people who write in for advice and the grown men who spend actual moments of their lives to concern themselves the most pedestrian details of life that could be figured out in an instant by someone with some common sense AND a mind free enough to exercise that sense.^[3]

I was struck by this cramped vision all the more when I read about Sayyid Qutb's views on jazz (hat tip to Marcus at Harry's Place^[4]) and all that they conveyed about the small mind that resided in that man's head.

Mr. Qutb was an Egyptian teacher and Islamicist theoretician who spent time in Colorado in the late 1940s. He wrote some of the seminal works on Islamic fundamentalism and the need for Muslims to take over the world, a world then in a state of grand funk like unto the days before the arrival of Mohammed himself. An A Number 1 Fruitcake with Oak Leaf Cluster, Mr. Qutb proved to be the intellectual inspiration to that great bunch of kidders, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Here's a small peak into Mr. Qutb's mental wasteland:

Qutb believed the Quran (Surat al-Nisa, 4:32) taught women that `Men are the managers of women's affairs ...' Qutb lamented to his readers that he was never able to find a woman of sufficient "moral purity and discretion" and had to reconcile himself to bachelorhood.

Qutb was extremely critical of many things in the United States, its racism, materialism, individual freedom, its economic system, poor haircuts, triviality, restrictions on divorce, enthusiasm for sports, "animal-like" mixing of the sexes (which went on even in churches), and lack of support for the Palestinian struggle. In an article published in Egypt after his travels, he noted with disapproval the sexuality of Americans

the American girl is well acquainted with her body's seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs -- and she shows all this and does not hide it.

... and their taste in music

Jazz is his preferred music, and it is created by Negroes to satisfy their love of noise and to whet their sexual desires ...

Qutb concluded that major aspects of American life were "primitive" and shocking. His experiences in the U.S. partly formed the impetus for his rejection of Western values and his move towards radicalism upon returning to Egypt.^[5]

All that seductiveness! In the face, the eyes, the thirsty lips (yes), the round breasts (doubleplusgood), the full buttocks (yum), the shapely thighs (kisskiss), the sleek legs . . . . If the internet had been around in the 40s he would have been half way to a pretty good profile on Matchdoctor.com. "Repressed Eqyptian visitor seeks lucious lady with thirsty lips."

It was a sad moment in human history when Sayyid Qutb came to be the intellectual Lord High Pissant of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and inspired them and countless other rudderless Muslims to head straight for the sewers and garbage dumps of existence, there to plot misery and death for thousands and thousands of their fellow beings.

Both Arnold and Qutb were educators but the things that were fascinating to them and the influence they sought to have in their lives were polar opposites. What inspired Qutb was neither sweetness nor light. It was something bitter and rank and it threatens a long, dark night for decent people everywhere.

Of the two, we'll wager that Shakespeare and Virgil would have welcomed the company of Arnold on a voyage to Staten Island or Tierra del Fuego, one . . . but reached for the barfbag while on a one-story escalator ride with Qutb.

Notes
^[1] Culture and Anarchy (1869)(emphasis added). <-- Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D.
^[2] I initially thought that it would be better to come at the issue by starting with what the quality of smallness (possible title Invasion of the Pissants) but that would guarantee that my focus would be cramped and limited from the start. I have a much finer title in mind.
^[3] E.g., "Ruling on putting flowers and plants in the bathroom." Islam Q&A, Question 85345.
^[4] "Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing." Marcus, Harry's Place, 9/13/06.
^[5] Sayyid Qutb. Wikipedia (footnotes omitted).