SAYYID QUTB AND HIS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb, known popularly as Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian educator, revo-
lutionary, Islamic theorist, poet and writer who was and is one of the foremost figures in mod-
ern Sunni Islamic revivalism in the twentieth century. However, for much of his life he was a
member of Egypt’s liberal intelligentsia, and he published a number of works ranging from
literary criticism to romantic fiction. It was his disillusionment with the corrupt parliamentary
democracy of pre-Revolution Egypt that led him to turn to Islam as the solution to all problems.
Qutb became the main ideologue of the Muslim Brother’s Society in the early 1950s. Impriso-
ned in 1954, he wrote the bulk of his Islamist works in jail, where his thought became increasi-
ngly radical. In 1966, he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian President Gamal
Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging. He is considered as “the Father of Salafi jihadism”,
the religio-political doctrine that underpins the ideological roots of Global Jihadist organizations
such as al-Qaeda and ISIL.

Early Life:
Sayyid Qutb was born on 9 October 1906. He was raised in the Egyptian village of Musha,
located in Upper Egypt’s Asyut Province. His father was a Upper Egyptian landowner and the
administrator of the family estate, but he was also well known for his political activism, holding
weekly meetings to discuss the political events and Quranic recitation. At this young age, Sayyid
Qutb first learned about melodic recitations of the Quran, which would fuel the artistic side of
his personlity. He eventually memorized the whole Quran at 10. When he was 15, Sayyid was
sent to Cairo to complete his education at the Dar al-Ulum teacher training college. He stayed
with an uncle, who introduced him to the intellectual circles of the capital and to the Wafd
party. Sayyid became a member of the latter and a disciple of writer and philosopher ‘Abbas al-
Aqqad. Over the next twenty years, he published articles, essays, book reviews, poetry, two
autobiographies, even a romantic novel, and in 1939, became a functionary in Egypt’s Ministry
of Education (wizarat al-ma’arif). But he found his teaching career unrewarding so sought to
resign. However, Taha Husayn, who worked at the Ministry of Education at the time, persuaded
him to withdraw his resignation.

In the mid-1940s Qutb’s writings acquired clear political overtones. He attacked the Egyp-tian
elites that, instead of fighting the British occupation, only cared for their own interests. At
around the same time he abandoned the Sa’adist Party, a breakaway faction of the Wafd nam-
ed after party founder and former Prime Minister Sa’ad Zaghlul, and started criticising the mul-
tiparty system. He was also concerned by what he saw as the moral decay of the country. Nev-
ertheless, his writings only became unequivocally Islamist in 1948, when he wrote al-‘Adala al
ijtima’iyya fi-l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam). In this work, Qutb argued that Islam was the only
system that guarantees justice because it is based on equality and social solidarity. Moreover,
he considered capitalism and communism to be similar in that they both rest on a materialistic
philosophy, and prophesized that the real battle would be between those doctrines and Islam.
Such ideas were close to those of the Jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brothers’ Society,
better known as the Muslim Brotherhood).

Two years in the United States:

Notwithstanding his tenous position in politics, in 1948 he was asked by the Ministry of Ed-
ucation to travel to the US ostensibly to study modern pedagogical methods.over two years, he
worked and studied at Wilson Teachers’ College in Washington D.C, Colorado State College for
Education in Greeley, and Stanford University. He visited many cities of the United States and
spent time in Europe on his journey home. His superiors probably hoped that his stay in the
richest country on earth would put an end to his Islamist drift, but in reality the exact opposite
happened. Qutb concentrated on what he considered as the most negative features of Ameri-
can society: materialism, sexual permissiveness and racism. This trip represents his decisive
experience with the West, which catalysed his conviction that only Islam can answer the fund-
amental question of how one should live one’s life and how society should be organized. Social
Justice in Islam was published while he was in the US.

Return to Egypt:
On his return to Egypt, Qutb published “The America that I Have Seen”, where he became
explicitly critical of things he had observed in the United States, eventually encapsulating the
West more generally. While abroad, Qutb learned of Al-Banna’s assassination in 1949, which
was reported as good news in the US. Qutb returned to Egypt with a kindered spirit for the
Muslim Brotherhood and started working for the organization. In 1953, he was promoted to
editor-in-chief of the Brotherhood’s weekly publication, Ikwan al-Muslimoon. He then became
the Brotherhood’s ideological spokesperson when he was given posts in the Working Commit-
tee and the Guidance Council, the latter consisting of the upper echelon of the Brotherhood’s
members. Under Qutb’s guidance, the Brotherhood began to publish extensively on religion
and politics.

Nasser and Qutb’s death:

The close yet fraught relationship between the Brotherhood and Nasser’s revolutionary pa-rty,
the Free Officers, was forged in an overthrow of Egypt’s monarch Farouk in 1952. All politi-cal
parties were banned except for the Brotherhood. The group was popular as it was at the center
of Islamic propagation; yet Nasser was supported by lay Egyptians and controlled the military.
However, the pact between these groups had deep fissures. From the Brotherhood’s
perspective, Nasser and the Free Officers were not devout, so they sanctioned Nasser’s revo-
lutionary regime because they believed it was transitional. Consequently, at the behest of the
Revolutionary Council, the Brotherhood’s members refused a direct participatory role in gove-
rnment. The regime did not want to share political power as much as co-opt the Brotherhood.

A public dispute began between the regime and the Brotherhood when the organization openly
criticized the Anglo-Egyptian pact reached on July 7, 1954. Specifically, criticism was lodged at
the government because the British reserved the right to enter Egypt on the basis of security.
Moreover, British troops would remain perpetually deployed around the Suez Canal. On
October 26, 1954, there was an assassination attempt on Nasser, whivh was blamed on the
Brotherhood. The regime cracked down on the organization: it was declared illegal, six mem-
bers were sentenced to death, and an estimated 50000 members were arrested, including
Qutb. In 1955, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Yet, soon after his prison sentence
began, Nasser offered him both his freedom and a position in the Ministry of Education, but on
a condition that Qutb officially request for pardon. Qutb replied, ‘I am surprised at people who
ask the oppressed to beg for pardon and mercy for the oppressor. By God, if a few words of ap-
ology can save me from death on the gallows, I shall not do it, and will go before my Lord in a
condition that I am well pleased with Him and He with me’. Astonishingly, the offer was repea-
ted various times, and Qutb’s response was again filled with conviction, ‘If I am imprisoned
justly, then I accept my punishment as just and right, but if unjustly, then I cannot bow down
pleading for mercy before injustice and error’.

Qutb remained in prison until 1964. Early on, he was tortured and harassed, but was left alone
for the majority of his sentence. This solitary time allowed Qutb to devote himself comp-letely
to the study of the Quran and his multivolume work, In the Shade of the Quran. In 1965, Qutb
was freed by request of the president of Iraq, Abd Al-Salam Arif, who was on a state visit in
Egypt. However, in less than a year, he was arrested once again, on trumped-up charges of
terrorism and sedition, which were predicated on Nasser’s belief that the Brotherhood was
plotting to assassinate him. A special military tribunal tried Qutb in April 1966 and sentenced
him to death. He was hanged on August 29, 1966.

Works:
Literary Works:
1. Mahammat al-Sha'ir fi'l-Hayah wa Shi'r al-Jil al-Hadir (The Task of the Poet in Life and
the Poetry of the Contemporary Generation), 1932.
 2. Al-Taswir al-Fanni fi'l-Quran (Artistic Imagery in the Quran), 1945.
3. Tifl min al-Qarya (A Child from the Village), 1946, a memoir written just prior to Qutb’s
conversion to the Islamist cause and reflects his concerns for social justice.
4. The America I Have Seen, 1949.

Theoretical Works:
1. Al-Adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi'l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam), 1949.
2. Ma'rakat al-Islam wa'l-Ra's Maliyya (The Battle Between Islam and Capitalism),
1951.
3. Fi Zilal al-Quran (In the Shade of the Quran) is a highly influential commentary of the
Quran which was written during 1951-1965. He wrote most of the original 30 volum-
es while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian dictator Gamal
Abdel Nasser in 1954. The book outlines Qutb's vision of a Muslim state and society.
It is considered by some to be a comprehensive and far-reaching commentary that
takes a clear and lucid interpretation of the Quran.
4. Al-Islam wa Mushkilat al-Hadara (Islam and the Problems of Civilization).
5. Ma'alim fi'l-Tariq (Signposts on the Road, or Milestones), first published in 1964, is a
short book in which Qutb makes a call to action and lays out a plan to re-create the
"extinct" Muslim world on (what he believes to be) strictly Quranic grounds, casting
off what he calls Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance).

Sayyid Qutb’s Political Philosophy:

Qutb synthesized his personal experiences and intellectual development in the famous Ma'alim
fi-l-Tariq (Milestones), a religious and political manifesto for what he believed was a true Islamic
system. It was also in this text that Qutb condemned Muslim governments, such as Abd-ul
Nasser's regime in Egypt, as secular, with their legitimacy based on human (and thus cor-rupt),
rather than divine authority. This work, more than any other, established Qutb as one of the
premier Islamists of the 20th century, and perhaps the foremost proponent of Islamist thought
in that era.

Qutb's mature political views always centered on Islam – Islam as a complete system of mo-
rality, justice and governance, whose sharia laws and principles should be the sole basis of gov-
ernance and everything else in life. His political philosophy has been described as an attempt to
embody a complex and multilayer eschatological vision, partly grounded in the counter-hegem-
onic re-articulation of the traditional ideal of Islamic universalism.

1. Islam as a Political System:

Sayyid Qutb’s utopia, like all other Islamist authors, was the state established by Muham-mad
(peace be upon him) and continued by the ‘Rightly-Guided Caliphs’ in seventh-century Medina.
He offered an extremely idealised picture of that first Islamic state, supposedly created by God
to save men from their misfortunes and their corruption and show them the model to follow.
Qutb considered the Prophet’s Companions to be a unique generation in history because they
completely abandoned the jahiliyya and drank from a single source, the Quran. They did not
seek worldly power rather yearned for paradise, and it was only because their hearts were free
of the chauvinisms of lineage, nation and tribe that God entrusted them with the establishment
of His sovereignty on earth. The countries they took over were ‘conquered for freedom, light
and joy’, and for a thousand years Muslims basked in the blessings of that first period.

Unfortunately, as Qutb explained, foreign elements – notably Greek philosophy, Persian

mythology, Jewish tales and Christian theology – soon started to mix with Islam, gradually cont-
aminating it. Moreover, the enemies of Islam, who only come together to combat this religion,
have continually plotted against it. He believed that the most destructive of their attacks was
that of ‘Crusader imperialism’, which combined the fanaticism of the Crusades with the conv-
iction that the Islamic spirit was an obstacle to imperialism and to its ally, international Zionism.
He lamented that as a result of those conspiracies, Islam had effectively ceased to exist, ‘altho-
ugh there are still mosques and muezzins, prayers and rituals, to appease those who retain a
vague emotional attachment to this religion’. Nevertheless, Qutb was certain that Muslims have
a gift for humanity, and confidently stated that the hour of Islam was near. However, he
refused to propose concrete policies for the future Muslim state, alleging that such legislation
would rise organically once the Islamic society be in place. Nevertheless, he did identify the
guiding principles of an Islamic government: justice on the part of the ruler, obedience on the
part of the ruled and consultation (shura) between the ruler and the ruled. Qutb maintained
that, in Islam, shura is as compulsory as prayer (salat) or legal alms (zakat) – although the actual
method of consultation was left to the Muslims of every period to decide. As for the ruler of an
Islamic state, he – and it is always a ‘he’ – derives his legitimacy from him being elected by the
community and from his submission to God. He has no privileges over other Muslims, and is
only obeyed as long as he himself adheres to the Shari‘a.

i. Islam and Other Systems:

Qutb dismissed the ideological differences between the rival Cold War blocs. In his eyes, they
were both based on a materialistic notion of existence that downgrades men to the status of
animals or machines. He was convinced that the real fight would be between Islam and all
other systems. In addition, he felt that neither the communist nor the capitalist system were
able to provide the all-encompassing conceptions, values and spirituality that human beings
need, and he predicted that such a failure would lead to ‘the end of the white man’s suprema-
cy’.

 Islam and Capitalism:

According to Qutb, the roots of the capitalist system were to be found in the Muslim World: the
crusaders saw that in the land of Islam the shari‘a was applied to rich and poor alike, and that
all citizens were free and equal. That led them to question their system of feudalism, and out of
that questioning capitalism was born. However, unlike Islam, capitalism is based on usury –
fundament of the Jewish economy – and the consequent accumulation of wealth. That, in turn,
leads to the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable and to the appearance of an idle class that
wastes time and money on immoral behaviour such as gambling, alcohol and prostit-ution.
Qutb added that it is that idle class, and no other, that enjoys the benefits of democracy. In a
reference to the post-Second World War welfare state, he considered the fact that the We-st
had started to copy the socialist system as symptomatic of its decadence. However, much of
Qutb’s criticism of the West was based on the thought of Western authors that were critical of
modernity, whom he quoted at length: French surgeon – and Nazi sympathiser – Alexis Carrel,
British biologist and author Julian Huxley, British philosopher Bertrand Russell, etc.

 Islam and Marxism:

As for Marxism, it was a popular ideology in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in the
newly decolonised countries of Asia and Africa, and Qutb devoted great attention to undermin-
ing its arguments. He wrote that communism directs its attention on the satisfaction of the bas-
est needs, those that men share with animals, and ignores their spirituality. He argued that in
its attempt to go beyond racial or patriotic chauvinism, communism relies on another reprehe-
nsible feeling: class resentment. Furthermore, it only transfers submission from the rich class,
that benefit from capitalism, to the state and the party. He asserted that, due to its incompatib-
ility with human nature (fitra), communist systems had to resort to tyranny and violence to sur-
vive. Finally, he mocked the communists’ naive idealism, whereby just by destroying the bourg-
eoisie and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, people become angels.

 Islam and Nationalism:

Another of Qutb’s bêtes noires was nationalism. He believed that all tribal, racial or territo-rial
chauvinisms belonged in the state of jahiliyya and had been superseded by Islam. He pain-ted a
very negative picture of pre-Islamic Arabia by stressing that only Islam had succeeded in
rescuing the Arabs from their barbarism and in giving them significance in the history of huma-
nkind. He argued that the Prophet carefully avoided turning Islam into a call to Arab proto-
nationalism, even though that would have rendered his task easier, and that the civilisation he
launched was Islamic, not Arab. He regarded fatherland and race as ‘idols’, and denounced nat-
ionalism as a Jewish conspiracy that had succeeded in destroying Europe’s Christian unity and
was out to destroy Islam as well. He also proclaimed that a Muslim’s country is wherever the
shari‘a is being implemented, that his only nationality should be his creed, and that the only
land he should defend is the Abode of Islam (Dar al-Islam).

 Islam is the Solution:

Islam is the alternative to all of those flawed, man-made systems. The Islamic programme is the
only one that is adapted to men’s fitra, which is both spiritual and material, and therefore it
alone can guarantee happiness in this life and the next. Its system views all men as equal and
guarantees the welfare of the individual, the group and future generations. It has also granted
men a dignity that no Magna Carta or Universal Declaration of Human Rights can compare
with: that of being God’s vicegerent on Earth. In addition, Islam successfully deals with social
blights such as poverty and crime because it prohibits usury, guarantees the redistribution of
wealth through its inheritance laws and legal alms (zakat) and prescribes harsh, dissuasive laws
(hudud, e.g. lapidation, amputation and flogging).

2. Concept of Sovereignty (Hakimiyyah and Jahiliyyah):

 Hakimiyyah:
Quranic meaning of hakimiyyah is ‘Sovereignty in which rests the highest legal and govern-
mental authority’. Qutb agrees with the Quranic meaning of the word hakimiyyah, which is
significant to his ideology because he emphasizes the political meaning of hakimiyyah; ‘Allah is
the only “Hakim” or Sovereign and He has the right to legislate and ordain the programme of
human life’. And acknowledging, that hakimiyya (sovereignty) only belongs to God is the true
meaning of the shahada (la ilah illa Allah, ‘there is no god but God’).

In practice, hakimiyyah is a government and society that follows shari’ah. For Qutb the me-thod
of arriving at a government that obeys shariah is not as important as whether the govern-ment
remains faithful to shariah. An Islamic political theory rests on the justice of the rulers,
obedience on the part of ruled, and consultation between ruler and ruled. Qutb writes, ‘the love
of the Divine Law, shari’ah, should be a consequence of pure submission to Allah and of freed-
om from servitude to anyone else. The laws of His creatures can hardly be compared to the
laws given by the Creator’. It is a problem for Muslims when the government departs from Isla-
mic law. Qutb insists on the adherence to divine will and sharply contrasts human and Islamic
law, which is the eternal will of God and is manifested in the shari’ah. Therefore, for him, any
rejection of hakimiyyah is tantamount to jahiliyyah.

 Jahiliyyah:
Based on his idea of hakimiyyah, Qutb articulates a philosophical understanding of jahiliyy-ah.
This broad idea means more than just a pre-Islamic historical epoch to describe both the non-
Muslim world and any nominally Muslim people that reject God’s sovereignty. According to
Sayed Khatab, Qutb’s idea of jahiliyyah ‘is a comprehensive concept that can exist in any sph-ere
of human conduct, in any society where Islamic law is not implemented’. Consequently, Qutb
viewed not only the West, but Egyptian society as well, as being in a state of jahiliyyah sin-ce
Nasser’s government was a secular nationalist dictatorship.

 Jahili Society:
In Qutb’s political thought, jahiliyyah can refer to either Muslim or non-Muslim societies. Jahili
society can be a mix of religious and antireligious groups, modern or traditional, authorita-rian
or liberal. In sum, jahiliyyah divides the world between Islamic society and jahili societies. This
dichotomy might seem oversimplified, but Qutb takes particular care to explain the compl-exity
of jahili societies, especially why they tend to eternize themselves. These active entities operate
under their own logic, which is strengthened by a set of practices, beliefs, and values. As
functional systems, jahili societies create cooperation among individuals and loyalty to their
moral and political doctrines. The dynamic nature of a jahili society enables its survival because
it demands both human and structural agents to defend its preservation.

Qutb’s account of jahili society as a dynamic and active force in no way praises that societ-y’s
strength. Rather, he seems to raise alarm for how deeply jahiliyyah can embed itself institut-
ionally and psychologically. These societies induce their people to love it before anything else.
Moreover, jahiliyyah establishes both habits of mind and heart, appeals to self-interest and pe-
oples’ passions, raises human thought to the highest standard, and makes the people soverei-
gn. That is the reason why Qutb saw America as a quintessential jahili society. Although the
US’s superior scientific and material progress generates great power and affluence, its moral
standards continuously move toward more debased tendencies.

Although resolute and full of vigor, Qutb describes jahili societies as intrinsically flawed, mo-
rally obtuse, and, due to their refutation of the divine, unceasingly ill-guided. They are predica-
ted on a philosophic and scientific understanding of humanity, which inevitably produces an at-
omistic view of the human being and anthropocentric view of the universe. Conversely, Islam
seeks a harmonious agreement between human nature and the universe. Politically, jahili socie-
ties are built on secular concepts and base passions. For example Communism centers on notio-
ns of class conflict and economic subsistence, Roman society was rooted in greed and race, and
the modern European empires were grounded in oppression and exploitation. Only Islam coun-
tenances a society based on a universal creed, which Qutb does not identify strictly as a pan-
Arab identity; his idea of community takes priority over any nationality.
Qutb’s idea of jahiliyyah seeks to invert the Western view that the world is divided between
developed states and the developing world. In Qutb’s lifetime, Islamic countries were perceived
to suffer from political, economic, and social backwardness. Yet he observes the reverse, as cur-
rent jahili societies will become completely atheist. Thus, he sees greater backwardness in the
deficit of spiritual values. The West has forgotten morality in its quest for ever greater material
progress. Jahiliyyah and Islam can never coexist:

‘Islam cannot accept any compromise with jah-iliyyah, either in its concept or in the modes of
living derived from this concept. Either Islam will remain, or jahiliyyah; Islam cannot accept or
agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah. Command belongs to Allah, or else
to jahiliyyah. The Shari’ah of Allah will prevail, or else people’s desires’.

3. Concept of Jihad:
Although Qutb was convinced that God’s law would eventually rule the world, he admitted that
the path would not be easy and that it would require enormous sacrifices. The process would
be similar to the creation of the first Islamic state: first, a vanguard (tali‘a) of young men would
have to free their conscience of jahiliyya and direct their worship only to God. Once firm-ly
established, that vanguard would invite the rest of humanity to follow their example by sub-
mitting solely to God. The members of this vanguard would have to be kind and compassionate,
but also extremely frank and willing to tell the people the truth.

Qutb trusted that by presenting Islam in a complete and accurate fashion, the people’s fitra
would answer the call (da‘wa) and they would be ready to embrace Islam. However, preaching
alone would not be enough to establish an Islamic state, because the usurpers of God’s divinity
will not give up power voluntarily. The answer was jihad, which Qutb saw as a tool to protect
the believers, eliminate obstacles in the way of the da‘wa and erect an Islamic system that
would free men from all authority except that of God.

Qutb writes, ‘Islamic society should enter the battlefield with a determination that its strat-egy,
social organization, and interpersonal relationships will be firmer and more powerful than the
existing jahili system’. He is very precise about jihad in his work In the Shade of the Quran. He
sees Islam itself as a movement and as an approach that confronts and acts to oppose jahili-
yyah. Although his call to action is vague, specifically with regard to who are the specific actors
of confrontation and how it will work, he is explicit that Islam must confront its opposition on
two fronts: It presents its arguments and proofs to correct concepts and beliefs; and it strives
with power to remove the systems and authorities that prevent people from adopting the right
beliefs, forcing them to follow their errant ways and worship deities other than God Almighty.
Islam is a revolutionary movement that seeks to abolish systems of oppression and, thus,
change the environment for believers and non-believers alike. For Qutb, the ultimate goal is a
universal liberation of man from authorities who are not God and an acceptance of God’s sove-
reignty over the universe and everything in it. Thus, the Islamic revolution is all-encompassing
and world-wide. Although he reiterates that Islam strikes hard against jahili systems, he argues
as well that Islam does not impose its beliefs on people. In genuine Islamic society, all are free
to choose their faith, but they can never re-establish an alternative system of authority that co-
ntravenes Islam. In this sense, he sees jihad as an internal struggle, in which war only plays a
partial role.

 Jihad and Din:

In Milestones, Qutb discusses jihad in relationship to din (religion), which he describes as a
movement and set of stages that uses practical means to confront jahiliyahh. Din is the catalyst
for jihad because as a movement it must inevitably come into conflict with jahiliyyah. This confl-
ict emerges in two ways. First, jahiliyahh is diffused throughout all society: politics, science, and
culture, all realms supported by knowledge and values. Islam is necessarily faced with the chall-
enge of combating jahiliyyah in all these realms. As such, it must foster its ideas, values, and ha-
bits in a way that is stronger than jahili notions:

‘it uses physical power and jihad to abolish org-anizations and authorities of the jahili system
which prevent people from reforming their ideas and beliefs, forces them to follow deviant
ways, and make them serve other humans instead of their Almighty Lord’.

In this stage of conflict, din enjoins Muslims to secure their freedom from human sovereig-nty
by obeying God.

Jihad and its relationship to din are predicated on Qutb’s understanding of freedom to wor-ship
Allah alone, which encompasses the implementation of shariah as well. In Qutb’s more co-
mplex account, jihad is the phenomenon of struggle against the oppression of human systems
on Islam for the sake of the believer’s freedom to worship Allah alone: ‘But life without belief is
worthless, and life without freedom is degrading’. When such freedom is in jeopardy, Muslims
are obliged to challenge their oppressors on two fronts: intellectual and practical. The battle of
ideas and values is fought through preaching; the restoration of freedom is achieved through an
activist movement, and the political powers that ‘force people to bow their will and authority,
defying the commandments of Allah, and denying people the freedom to listen to the message
of Islam’ should be struck hard.
For Qutb, Islam is a universal cause, and as such jihad does not mean war but ‘stands for ex-
erting one’s utmost endeavor to promote a cause’. Yet, Qutb does not preclude the use of for-
ce. He quotes the Quran on this point:

‘Fight them, until there is no more oppression, and all submission is made to God alone’.

(Surah al-Anfal, 8:39)