“They were all tyrannical and transgressors, and infested the landwith much corruption” Surah Al Fajr (89) verses 11-12
Corruption is an inevitable result of tyranny, and it affects the tyrant and his subjects alike. Indeed tyranny ruins all human relations. It forces human life out of its healthy, constructive and straight path and diverts it into a line which does not lead to the fulfillment of man’s role as Allah’s vicegerent on earth. Tyranny makes the tyrant captive of his own desires because he is uncommitted to any principle or standard and unrestrained within any reasonable limits. Thus the tyrant is always the first to be corrupted by his own tyranny. He assumes for himself a role other than of a servant of Allah, entrusted with a specific mission. (…)
Tyranny also corrupts the masses, as it humiliates them and compels them to suppress the discontent and the hatred they feel towards the tyrant. It kills all feelings of human dignity and wastes all creative talents, which cannot flourish except in an atmosphere of freedom. A humiliated soul inevitably rots away and becomes a breeding ground for the germ of sickly desires. Hence digression from the right path becomes the order of the day as clear vision becomes an impossibility. In such conditions no aspiration to a higher standard can be entertained. The net result of all this is spreading corruption.
Tyranny also destroys all standards and concepts because they become a threat to its existence. Hence, values are falsified and standards are distorted so that the repulsive idea of despotism becomes acceptable as natural. This, in itself, is great corruption.
Comments by Sayyid Qutb (In the Shade of the Qur’an).
