Page 141 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

The Age of Peace

government, whether it’s the Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Arts, etc.” Qutb refused every offer.’
1
Sayyid Qutb was a very important leader of the Arab
world and the acceptance of any one of the above proposals
would have opened up great opportunities for him. In ancient
Egypt, the Prophet Joseph was likewise offered a post in the
department of agriculture by the then reigning king. Now, in
the same country, Sayyid Qutb was offered the position of
head of the department of education by the contemporary
government. It would have been highly advisable for Sayyid
Qutb to accept the offer and then make plans to educate his
people. Had he done so, he would have been very well placed
to have an effective influence on a whole new generation
in Egypt. In this way, he would have been better able as an
educator to bring the Islam he wanted into his country than in
the position of an administrator.

The same happened in Pakistan. When General Ayub
Khan became the president of Pakistan in 1958, Sayyid Abul
Ala Maududi and his party were active in the name of the
‘Islamization of Pakistan’. At that time the same series of
events took place in Pakistan as in Egypt.
In The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jamaʻat-i
Islami of Pakistan, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr writes:
‘During a trip to Lahore in 1962 he [General Ayub
Khan] invited Mawdudi to the governor’s mansion
and suggested that he leave politics to the politicians
and dedicate himself to religious studies instead. For
encouragement he offered Mawdudi the post of vice-
chancellor of the Bhawalpur Islamic University. In no
mood to be appeased, Mawdudi rejected both the offer
2
and the counsel.’
This offer by Ayub Khan was a golden chance for Sayyid
Abul Ala Maududi. By accepting this offer, he would have been

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