Between ijtihad and jahiliyya

The socio-political fragmentation of religion in Egypt based on Sayyid Qutb's analyses: It is always important to analyse emerging political ideologies in their historical context and to include social structures and religious content in the respective approach. The discourse of the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt towards the end of the Second World War arose from a reality that was understood by Egyptians and Muslims alike and cannot be viewed in isolation from the political legacy of the Egyptian nation state. Sayyid Qutb who is authoritatively cited here as a representative of Egyptian sentiment provides a rich insight into the contemporary understanding of religion and politics in his works which he continually specifies in the course of his tragic biography. The following section attempts to decipher Egyptian historicity anthropologically from an Islamic studies and socio-economic perspective.