Comparative Analysis of the Purpose of the Prophets' Mission in the Thought of Wahhabism and Sayyid Qutb

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Visiting researcher, World Intellectual and Cultural Flows Group, Imam Reza (PBUH) International Research Institute affiliated with the Al-Mustafa Society of Mashhad, and Level 3 scholar, Imams (PBUH) Seminary Higher Educational Institution, Mashhad, Iran

2 Level 3 Scholar, Imams Seminary Higher Educational Institution (AS), Mashhad, Iran

3 Department of Wahhabism, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Explaining the purpose of the mission of the prophets is a central issue in Islamic theology that plays a fundamental role in understanding the nature of religion and its relationship with human individual and social life. Despite the explicit emphasis of the Holy Quran and Islamic scholars on the similarity of the terms "worship" and "obedience"; and on the authority of monotheism and sovereignty and the connection of the principle of monotheism with divine sovereignty, some emerging groups have presented a specific reading of monotheism and interpreted the centrality from sovereignty to worship. With the aim of analyzing the philosophy of the mission of the divine prophets, this article conducts a comparative study of the views of two contemporary but distinct views, namely Wahhabism and Sayyid Qutb, on the ultimate purpose of the mission of the prophets in order to clarify their teleological distinctions in rereading religious texts. The findings of the research show that Wahhabism, by focusing on "worship monotheism", reduces the purpose of the mission to individual rituals and does not consider the social, political, and legislative aspects of the mission to be intrinsically relevant. By limiting the concept of polytheism to religious matters and a minimal interpretation of the taghut, this view has led to the rejection of the structural role of religion in organizing social life and has paved the way for the formation of a secular reading of religion; a reading that, despite emphasizing Sharia at the individual level, weakens religious authority in the field of social order. In contrast, Sayyid Qutb emphasized the centrality of "divine sovereignty" and considered the purpose of sending messengers to be the negation of human legislative authority and the establishment of a social order based on revelation. The results of this study showed that the difference between these two trends is a fundamental difference in the relationship of religion to social life.

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12- Studies Religion Muslems
Volume 11, Issue 22 - Serial Number 22
February 2026
Pages 135-150

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