Sayyid Qutb

Sayyid Qutb
سيد قطب
Qutb on trial in 1966[Note 1]
Personal
Born
Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb

(1906-10-09)9 October 1906
Mūshā, Asyut Governorate, Khedivate of Egypt
Died29 August 1966(1966-08-29) (aged 59)
Cairo, United Arab Republic
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
ReligionIslam
NationalityEgyptian
EraModern era
JurisprudenceShafi'i
CreedModern Sunni
Main interest(s)Islam, politics, Quranic exegesis (tafsir)
Notable idea(s)Jahiliyyah, Ubudiyya
Notable work(s)Milestones, In the Shade of the Quran
RelativesMuhammad Qutb (brother)
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb[a] (9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is dubbed the "father of Salafi jihadism:, the religio-political doctrine that underpins the ideological roots of global jihadist organisations such as al-Qaeda and ISIL.

Author of 24 books,[5] with around 30 books unpublished for different reasons (mainly destruction by the state),[6] and at least 581 articles,[7] including novels, literary arts critique and works on education, he is best known in the Muslim world for his work on what he believed to be the social and political role of Islam, particularly in his books Social Justice and Ma'alim fi al-Tariq (Milestones). His magnum opus, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the Qur'an), is a 30-volume commentary on the Quran.[8]

During most of his life, Qutb's inner circle mainly consisted of influential politicians, intellectuals, poets and literary figures, both of his age and of the preceding generation. By the mid-1940s, many of his writings were included in the curricula of schools, colleges and universities.[9] In 1966, he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging.

Even though most of his observations and criticism were leveled at the Muslim world, Qutb also intensely disapproved of the society and culture of the United States,[10][11] which he saw as materialistic, and obsessed with violence and sexual pleasures.[12] He advocated violent, offensive jihad.[13][14] Qutb has been described by followers as a great thinker and martyr for Islam,[15][16] while many Western observers (and some Muslims)[Note 2] see him as a key originator of Islamist ideology,[18] and an inspiration for violent Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda. Qutb is widely regarded as one of the most leading Islamist ideologues of the twentieth century. Strengthened by his status as a martyr, Qutb's ideas on Jahiliyya and his close linking of implementation of sharia (Islamic Law) with Tawhid (Islamic monotheism) has highly influenced contemporary Islamist and Jihadist movements.[19] Today, his supporters are identified by their opponents as "Qutbists"[20] or "Qutbi".[21]


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  1. ^ Benjamin, Daniel; Simon, Steven (2002). The Age of Sacred Terror. New York: Random House. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-58836-259-9. It was Sayyid Qutb who fused together the core elements of modern Islamism: the Kharijites' takfir, ibn Taymiyya's fatwas and policy prescriptions, Rashid Rida's salafism, Maududi's concept of the contemporary jahiliyya and Hassan al-Banna's political activism
  2. ^ Gumus, M. Siddik (2017). Islam's Reformers. Istanbul: Hakikat Kitabevi Publications. p. 183. Sayyid Qutb... announced his admiration for Ibn Taimiyya and Muhammad 'Abduh in almost all his books.
  3. ^ Walker, Simon (2009). Leading with Everything to Give. Piquant Editions Limited. p. 17. Qutb had devoured Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West, Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which all portrayed the West as degenerate and profane
  4. ^ "Qutb". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  5. ^ John L. Esposito, Islam and Politics, Syracuse University Press (1998), p. 139
  6. ^ Badmas 'Lanre Yusuf, Sayyid Quṭb: A Study of His Tafsīr, The Other Press (2009), p. 89
  7. ^ Badmas 'Lanre Yusuf, Sayyid Quṭb: A Study of His Tafsīr, The Other Press (2009), p. 85
  8. ^ Sayed Khatab, The Political Thought of Sayyid Qutb: The Theory of Jahiliyyah, Routledge (2006), p. 161
  9. ^ The Political Thoughts of Sayyed Qutb, Ch. 3, p. 56
  10. ^ "America at a Crossroads | JIHAD: The Men and Ideas behind Al Qaeda". PBS. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  11. ^ David Von Drehle, A Lesson In Hate Smithsonian Magazine
  12. ^ "'Qutb: Between Terror And Tragedy' by Hisham Sabrin". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) quoting Hourani, A. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939. Cambridge University Press, 1962. and Mitchell, Richard S. The Society of The Muslim Brotherhood. Oxford University Press, 1969.
  13. ^ Stahl, A.E. "'Offensive Jihad' in Sayyid Qutb's Ideology." International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
  14. ^ Qutb, Milestones, (2003) pp. 63, 69
  15. ^ Interview with Dr Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh – Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Archived 10 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine 8 May 2008
  16. ^ "Syed Qutb". Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  17. ^ Social Justice in Islam by Sayyid Qutb, translated by John Hardie, translation revised and introduction by Hamid Algar, Islamic Publications International, 2000, p.1, 9, 11
  18. ^ The Osama Bin Laden I Know, Peter L. Bergen] pp. 18–20
  19. ^ "Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021.
  20. ^ Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism Archived 9 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine by Dale C. Eikmeier. From Parameters, Spring 2007, pp. 85–98.
  21. ^ Pioneers of Islamic revival By ʻAlī Rāhnamā, p. 175


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