Monotheism and Polytheism in Professor Motahari and Seyed Qutb Viewpoint

Motahari and Seyed Qutb share the same idea regarding the definition and classification of monotheism and polytheism. Although Qutb’s remarks on this issue are dispersed, analyzing some of his books and specially his interpretation of the verses of Holy Quran about monotheism and polytheism, in his book Tafsir Fi Zelal Al-Quran, we can infer that he has looked upon monotheism from two angles; belief and deed. In his idea monotheism in belief can be divided into unity of the Divine Essence and the unity of Divine Attributes. And monotheism in deeds can be divided into monotheism in worship and agent. One kind of monotheism that seems important for him is monotheism in ruling under which unity in belief and deeds are connected. In other words since unity is divine so the ruler must be one and obedience and devotion only belongs to him. Hence obeying any illegitimate ruler is considered a kind of polytheism. Motahari also believes that obeying any illegitimate ruler is polytheistic, but in his opinion the criterion in monotheism in belief is the fact that everything comes from him, on the other hand the criterion in monotheism in deeds is the fact that everything goes toward him. And obeying the ruler is mutual conquering relation. In Motahari idea only obvious polytheism deserves disbelief. On the contrary, with regard to monotheism in ruling, Seyed Qutb specifies human deeds as the criterion for being Muslim or infidel. And hence, he put obeying the illegitimate ruler as obvious polytheism and calls them all infidels.