Sayyid Qu?b, in full Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Sayyid Qutb, born Oct. 9, 1906, near Asyut, Egypt\u2014died Aug. 29, 1966, Cairo, Egyptian writer who was one of the foremost figures in modern Sunni Islamic revivalism. He was from a family of impoverished rural notables. For most of his early life he was a schoolteacher. Originally an ardent secularist, he came, over time, to adopt many Islamist views. Following a brief period of studying in the United States (1948\u201350), he became convinced of the corruption of Western secularism and on his return to Egypt joined the Muslim Brotherhood. He was at first on good terms with the revolutionary regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser but was imprisoned (1954\u201364) along with other Brotherhood leaders on charges of sedition. His prison years were his most productive. The brutal treatment he received convinced him that Egypt, like the West, was corrupt, and, drawing on the work of early Muslim scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah, he argued that much of modern Muslim society had fallen in apostasy and was, therefore, a legitimate target of jihad. He penned these ideas in several books, including Signposts in the Road (1964), which became a template for modern Sunni militancy. Released from prison in 1964, he was soon rearrested, tried for treason, and executed.
\nAccording to en.wikipedia.org, Sayyid Qutb, during most of his life,his 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 officially among the curricula of schools, colleges and universities.
\nEven though most of his observations and criticism were leveled at the Muslim world, Qutb is also known for his intense disapproval of the society and culture of the United States, which he saw as obsessed with materialism, violence, and sexual pleasures. Views on Qutb vary widely. He has been described by followers as a great thinker and martyr for Islam, while many Western observers see him as a key originator of Islamist ideology. Others in the West believe Qutb is an inspiration for violent groups such as al-Qaeda. Today, his supporters are identified as Qutbists or \u201cQutbi\u201d (by their opponents, not by themselves).<\/p>\n
Early childhood:<\/strong> Two Years in America:<\/strong> Qutb noted with disapproval the sexuality of American women: He also commented on the American taste in arts:<\/strong> Return to Egypt:<\/strong> Nasser and Qutb\u2019s Death:<\/strong> Evolution of thought, views and statements<\/strong> Secularism:<\/strong> Events that led from secularism to Islam<\/strong> Political philosophy:<\/strong> Antisemitism<\/strong> View on the harmony of man<\/strong> Jahiliyyah versus freedom<\/strong> Criticisms:<\/strong> Legacy:<\/strong> Literary:<\/strong> Theoretical:<\/strong> By: S. A. Sagar<\/strong><\/em> Sayyid Qu?b, in full Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Sayyid Qutb, born Oct. 9, 1906, near Asyut, Egypt\u2014died Aug. 29, 1966, Cairo, Egyptian writer who was one of the foremost figures in modern Sunni Islamic revivalism. He was from a family of impoverished rural notables. For most of his early life he was a schoolteacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c42-articles","category-editors-choice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nQutb was born on 9 October 1906. He was raised in the Egyptian village of Musha, located in Upper Egypt\u2019s Asyut Province. His father was a landowner and the family estate\u2019s administrator, but he was also well known for his political activism, holding weekly meetings to discuss the political events and Qur\u2019anic recitation. At this young age, Sayyid Qutb first learned about melodic recitations of the Qur\u2019an, which would fuel the artistic side of his personality. In his teens, Qutb was critical of the religious institutions with which he came into contact, holding in contempt the way in which those institutions were used to form public opinion and thoughts. He had a special disdain, however, for schools that specialized in religious studies only, and sought to prove that local schools that held regular academic classes as well as religion were more beneficial than the unevenness of the religious school program. At this time, Qutb developed his bent against the imams and their traditional approach to education. This confrontation would persist throughout his life.
\nHe moved to Cairo where between 1929 and 1933 he received an education based on the British style of schooling before starting his career as a teacher in the Ministry of Public Instruction. During his early career, Qutb devoted himself to literature as an author and critic, writing such novels as Ashwak (Thorns) and even helped to elevate Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz from obscurity. In 1939, he became a functionary in Egypt\u2019s Ministry of Education (wizarat al-ma\u2019arif).
\nFrom 1948 to 1950, he went to the United States on a scholarship to study its educational system, spending several months at Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado) in Greeley, Colorado. Qutb\u2019s first major theoretical work of religious social criticism, Al-\u2018adala al-Ijtima\u2019iyya fi-l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam), was published in 1949, during his time in the West.
\nThough Islam gave him much peace and contentment, he suffered from respiratory and other health problems throughout his life and was known for \u201chis introvertedness, isolation, depression and concern.\u201d In appearance, he was \u201cpale with sleepy eyes.\u201d Qutb never married, in part because of his steadfast religious convictions. While the urban Egyptian society he lived in was becoming more Westernized, Qutb believed the Quran taught women that \u2018Men are the managers of women\u2019s affairs \u2026\u2019 Qutb lamented to his readers that he was never able to find a woman of sufficient \u201cmoral purity and discretion\u201d and had to reconcile himself to bachelorhood.
\nIt was clear from his childhood that Qutb valued education, playing the part of a teacher to the women in his village:
\nSyed Qutb from a young age would save up his money for a man called Amsaalih, who used to sell books around the local villages. He would have a big collection of books, and another small collection specifically for Syed Qutb. If Syed never had the money, he would tell him that I don\u2019t have the money now, so let me borrow it and I\u2019ll give it you next time you come around. And Amsaalih would let him do that. At the age of 12, he had his own library collection of 25 books, even though books were really expensive during that time. He would imitate the scholars by reading the books, and then give lectures to the rest of the village. If any women needed any information, they would wait till Syed Qutb came back from school, and ask him to share the knowledge he had to them. In many occasions he would be shy because he was a young man, but in some occasions he would go and teach the knowledge he had to the people who asked him.<\/p>\n
\nTime in the United States, pursuing further studies in educational administration, cemented some of Qutb\u2019s views. Over two years, he worked and studied at Wilson Teachers\u2019 College in Washington, D.C. (one of the precursors to today\u2019s University of the District of Columbia), Colorado State College for Education in Greeley, and Stanford University. He visited the major cities of the United States and spent time in Europe on his journey home.
\nOn his return to Egypt, Qutb published \u201cThe America that I Have Seen.\u201d He was critical of things he had observed in the United States: its materialism, individual freedoms, economic system, racism, brutal boxing matches, \u201cpoor\u201d haircuts, superficiality in conversations and friendships, restrictions on divorce, enthusiasm for sports, lack of artistic feeling, \u201canimal-like\u201d mixing of the sexes (which \u201cwent on even in churches\u201d), and strong support for the new Israeli state. Hisham Sabrin, noted that:
\nAs a brown person in Greeley, Colorado in the late 40s studying English he came across much prejudice. He was appalled by what he perceived as loose sexual openness of American men and women (a far cry from his home of Musha, Asyut). This American experience was for him a fine-tuning of his Islamic identity. He himself tells us on his boat trip over \u201cShould I travel to America, and become flimsy, and ordinary, like those who are satisfied with idle talk and sleep. Or should I distinguish myself with values and spirit. Is there other than Islam that I should be steadfast to in its character and hold on to its instructions, in this life amidst deviant chaos, and the endless means of satisfying animalistic desires, pleasures, and awful sins? I wanted to be the latter man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe American girl is well acquainted with her body\u2019s seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs\u2014and she shows all this and does not hide it.<\/p>\n
\nThe American is primitive in his artistic taste, both in what he enjoys as art and in his own artistic works. \u201cJazz\u201d music is his music of choice. This is that music that the Negroes invented to satisfy their primitive inclinations, as well as their desire to be noisy on the one hand and to excite bestial tendencies on the other. The American\u2019s intoxication in \u201cjazz\u201d music does not reach its full completion until the music is accompanied by singing that is just as coarse and obnoxious as the music itself. Meanwhile, the noise of the instruments and the voices mounts, and it rings in the ears to an unbearable degree\u2026 The agitation of the multitude increases, and the voices of approval mount, and their palms ring out in vehement, continuous applause that all but deafens the ears.<\/p>\n
\nQutb concluded that major aspects of American life were primitive and \u201cshocking\u201d, a people who were \u201cnumb to faith in religion, faith in art, and faith in spiritual values altogether\u201d. His experience in the U.S. is believed to have formed in part the impetus for his rejection of Western values and his move towards Islamism upon returning to Egypt. Resigning from the civil service, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1950s and became editor-in-chief of the Brothers\u2019 weekly Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, and later head of its propaganda section, as well as an appointed member of the working committee and of its guidance council, the highest branch in the organization.<\/p>\n
\nIn July 1952, Egypt\u2019s pro-Western government was overthrown by the nationalist Free Officers Movement headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Both Qutb and the Muslim Brotherhood welcomed the coup against the monarchist government\u2014which they saw as un-Islamic and subservient to British imperialism\u2014and enjoyed a close relationship with the movement prior to and immediately following the coup. Nasser would go the house of Syed Qutb and ask him for ideas about the Revolution. Many members of the Brotherhood expected Nasser to establish an Islamic government. However, the cooperation between the Brotherhood and Free Officers which marked the revolution\u2019s success soon soured as it became clear the secular nationalist ideology of Nasserism was incompatible with the Islamism of the Brotherhood.
\nNasser had secretly set up an organisation that would sufficiently oppose the Muslim Brotherhood once he came to power. This organisation was called \u201cTahreer\u201d (\u201cfreedom\u201d in Arabic). It was well known that the Brotherhood were made popular by their extensive social programs in Egypt, and Nasser wanted to be ready once he had taken over. At this time, Qutb did not realize Nasser\u2019s alternate plans, and would continue to meet with him, sometimes for 12 hours a day, to discuss a post monarch Egypt. Once Qutb realized that Nasser had taken advantage of the secrecy between the Free Officers and the Brotherhood, he promptly quit. Nasser then tried to persuade Qutb by offering him any position he wanted in Egypt except its
\nKingship, saying:
\n\u201cWe will give you whatever position you want in the government, whether it\u2019s the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Arts, etc.\u201d
\nQutb refused every offer, having understood the reality of Nasser\u2019s plans. Upset that Nasser would not enforce a government based on Islamic ideology, Qutb and other Brotherhood members orchestrated a plot to assassinate the Egyptian president in 1954. The attempt was foiled and Qutb was jailed soon afterwards; the Egyptian government used the incident to justify a crackdown on various members the Muslim Brotherhood for their vocal opposition towards the Nasser administration. During his first three years in prison, conditions were bad and Qutb was tortured. In later years he was allowed more mobility, including the opportunity to write.
\nThis period saw the composition of his two most important works: a commentary of the Qur\u2019an Fi Zilal al-Qur\u2019an (In the Shade of the Qur\u2019an), and a manifesto of political Islam called Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones). These works represent the final form of Qutb\u2019s thought, encompassing his radically anti-secular and anti-Western claims based on his interpretations of the Qur\u2019an, Islamic history, and the social and political problems of Egypt. The school of thought he inspired has become known as Qutbism.
\nQutb was let out of prison at the end of 1964 at the behest of the Prime Minister of Iraq, Abdul Salam Arif, for only 8 months before being rearrested in August 1965. He was accused of plotting to overthrow the state and subjected to what some consider a show trial.[43] Many of the charges placed against Qutb in court were taken directly from Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq and he adamantly supported his written statements. The trial culminated in a death sentence for Qutb and six other members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was sentenced to death for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate the President and other Egyptian officials and personalities, though he was not the instigator or leader of the actual plot. On 29 August 1966, he was executed by hanging.<\/p>\n
\nTheological stances
\nQutb held that belief in matters that cannot be seen (or are imperceptible) was an important sign of man\u2019s ability to accept knowledge from fields outside of science:
\nThe concept of the imperceptible is a decisive factor in distinguishing man from animal. Materialist thinking, ancient as well as modern, has tended to drag man back to an irrational existence, with no room for the spiritual, where everything is determined by sensory means alone. What is peddled as \u2018progressive thought\u2019 is no more than dismal regression.<\/p>\n
\nDifferent theories have been advanced as to why Qutb turned away from his secularist tendencies towards Islamic sharia. One common explanation is that the conditions he witnessed in prison from 1954\u20131964, including the torture and murder of Muslim Brothers, convinced him that only a government bound by Islamic law could prevent such abuses. Another is that Qutb\u2019s experiences in America as a darker-skinned person and the insufficiently anti-Western policies of Nasser demonstrated to him the powerful and dangerous allure of ignorance (jahiliyyah)\u2014a threat unimaginable, in Qutb\u2019s estimation, to the secular mind. Two excerpts of the opening of his book Milestones contain the following
\nview:
\nIt is necessary for the new leadership to preserve and develop the material fruits of the creative genius of Europe, and also to provide mankind with such high ideals and values as have so far remained undiscovered by mankind, and which will also acquaint humanity with a way of life which is harmonious with human nature, which is positive and constructive, and which is practicable.
\nDemocracy in the West has become infertile to such an extent that it is borrowing from the systems of the Eastern bloc, especially in the economic system, under the name of socialism. It is the same with the Eastern bloc. Its social theories, foremost among which is Marxism, in the beginning attracted not only a large number of people from the East but also from the West, as it was a way of life based on a creed. But now Marxism is defeated on the plane of thought, and if it is stated that not a single nation in the world is truly Marxist, it will not be an exaggeration. On the whole this theory conflicts with man\u2019s nature and its needs. This ideology prospers only in a degenerate society or in a society which has become cowed as a result of some form of prolonged dictatorship. But now, even under these circumstances, its materialistic economic system is failing, although this was the only foundation on which its structure was based. Russia, which is the leader of the communist countries, is itself suffering from shortages of food. Although during the times of the Tsars Russia used to produce surplus food, it now has to import food from abroad and has to sell its reserves of gold for this purpose. The main reason for this is the failure of the system of collective farming, or, one can say, the failure of a system which is against human nature.
\nFinally, Qutb offered his own explanation in Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq, arguing that anything non-Islamic was evil and corrupt, while following sharia as a complete system extending into all aspects of life, would bring every kind of benefit to humanity, from personal and social peace, to the \u201ctreasures\u201d of the universe.
\nIn general, Qutb\u2019s experiences as an Egyptian Muslim\u2014his village childhood, professional career, and activism in the Muslim Brotherhood\u2014left an unmistakable mark on his theoretical and religious works. Even Qutb\u2019s early, secular writing shows evidence of his later themes. For example, Qutb\u2019s autobiography of his childhood Tifl min al-Qarya (A Child From the Village) makes little mention of Islam or political theory and is typically classified as a secular, literary work. However, it is replete with references to village mysticism, superstition, the Qur\u2019an, and incidences of injustice. Qutb\u2019s later work developed along similar themes, dealing with Qur\u2019anic exegesis, social justice, and political Islam.
\nQutb\u2019s career as a writer also heavily influenced his philosophy. In al-Taswiir al-Fanni fil-Quran (Artistic Representation in the Qur\u2019an), Qutb developed a literary appreciation of the Qur\u2019an and a complementary methodology for interpreting the text. His hermeneutics were applied in his extensive commentary on the Qur\u2019an, Fi zilal al-Qur\u2019an (In the Shade of the Quran), which served as the foundation for the declarations of Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq.
\nLate in his life, Qutb synthesized his personal experiences and intellectual development in the famous Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq, 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 Abdul Nasser\u2019s regime in Egypt, as secular with their legitimacy based on human (and thus corrupt), rather than divine authority. This work, more than any other, established Qutb as one of, if not the premier Islamists of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
\nQutb told people of his shift from secularism to Islam.
\nHis journey started when he studied the Qur\u2019an in a literal way, and he slowly began to understand the principles lined in the religion. Then something happened to him in America to remove his doubts. He says; that while he was going to America, he was on the boat (ferry), and he saw the way the boat he was travelling in\u2014was rocking in the huge sea\u2014all under the control of Allah without it sinking or capsizing. At that point he realized the power of Allah. He said Iman (belief) entered into his heart due to this. His second scenario was in San Francisco, when he went on top of a mountain, and he could see the whole of creation in front of him, and he realized the beauty and harmony that existed amongst the creation as a whole. He said that, the sweetness of Iman hit him.<\/p>\n
\nSayyid Qutb\u2019s mature political views always centered on Islam\u2014Islam as a complete system of morality, justice and governance, whose sharia laws and principles should be the sole basis of governance and everything else in life \u2013 though his interpretation of it varied. Qutb\u2019s political philosophy has been described as an attempt to instantiate a complex and multilayer eschatological vision, partly grounded in the counter-hegemonic re-articulation of the traditional ideal of Islamic universalism.
\nFollowing the 1952 coup, he espoused a \u2018just dictatorship\u2019 that would \u2018grant political liberties to the virtuous alone.\u2019 Later he wrote that rule by sharia law would require essentially no government at all. In an earlier work, Qutb described military jihad as defensive, Islam\u2019s campaign to protect itself, while later he believed jihad must be offensive.
\nOn the issue of Islamic governance, Qutb differed with many modernist and reformist Muslims who claimed that democracy was Islamic because the Quranic institution of Shura supported elections and democracy. Qutb pointed out that the Shura chapter of the Qur\u2019an was revealed during the Mekkan period, and therefore, it does not deal with the problem of government. It makes no reference to elections and calls only for the ruler to consult some of the ruled, as a particular case of the general rule of Shura.
\nQutb also opposed the then popular ideology of Arab nationalism, having become disillusioned with the 1952 Nasser Revolution after having been exposed to the regime\u2019s practices of arbitrary arrest, torture, and deadly violence during his imprisonment.<\/p>\n
\nSayyid Qutb was a staunch Anti-Semite. In 1950 he published a book \u201cOur Struggle against the Jews\u201d, which forms a central part of today\u2019s Islamist Antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\nQutb felt strongly that the world was meant to serve man if understood properly. He wrote:
\n\u201cIslam teaches that God created the physical world and all its forces for man\u2019s own use and benefit. Man is specifically taught and directed to study the world around him, discover its potential and utilize all his environment for his own good and the good of his fellow humans. Any harm that man suffers at the hands of nature is a result only of his ignorance or lack of understanding of it and of the laws governing it. The more man learns about nature, the more peaceful and harmonious his relationship with nature and the environment. Hence, the notion of \u201cconquering nature\u201d can readily be seen as cynical and negative. It is alien to Islamic perceptions and betrays a shameless ignorance of the spirit in which the world has been created and the divine wisdom that underlies it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThis exposure to abuse of power undoubtedly contributed to the ideas in his famous prison-written Islamic manifesto Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones), where he advocated a political system that is the opposite of dictatorship\u2014i.e. one with no government. There Qutb argued:
\nMuch of the Muslim world approaches the Qur\u2019an as a means to simply acquire culture and information, to participate in academic discussions and enjoyment. This evades the real purpose, for rather, it should be approached as a means to change society, to remove man from the enslavement of other men to the servitude of God.
\nRather than support rule by a pious few, (whether a dictator(s) or democratically elected[61]), Muslims should resist any system where men are in \u201cservitude to other men\u201d\u2014i.e. obey other men\u2014as un-Islamic and a violation of God\u2019s sovereignty (Hakamiyya) over all of creation. A truly Islamic polity would have no rulers\u2014not even have theocratic ones\u2014since Muslims would need neither judges nor police to obey divine law. It was what one observer has called \u201ca kind of anarcho-Islam.\u201d
\nThe way to bring about this freedom was for a revolutionary vanguard. to fight jahiliyyah with a twofold approach: preaching, and abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system by \u201cphysical power and Jihad.\u201d
\nThe vanguard movement would grow with preaching and jihad until it formed a truly Islamic community, then spread throughout the Islamic homeland and finally throughout the entire world, attaining leadership of humanity. While those who had been \u201cdefeated by the attacks of the treacherous Orientalists!\u201d might define jihad \u201cnarrowly\u201d as defensive, Islamically correct Jihad (according to Qutb) was in fact offensive, not defensive.
\nQutb emphasized that this struggle would be anything but easy. True Islam would transform every aspect of society, eliminating everything non-Muslim. True Muslims could look forward to lives of \u201cpoverty, difficulty, frustration, torment and sacrifice.\u201d Jahili ersatz-Muslims, Jews and Westerners would all fight and conspire against Islam and the elimination of jahiliyyah.<\/p>\n
\nThough his work has motivated and mobilized some Muslims, Qutb also has critics. Following the publication of Milestones and the aborted plot against the Nasser government, mainstream Muslims took issue with Qutb\u2019s contention that \u201cphysical power\u201d and jihad had to be used to overthrow governments, attack societies, and the \u201cinstitutions and traditions\u201d of the Muslim\u2014but according to Qutb jahili\u2014world. The ulama of Al-Azhar University school took the unusual step following his death of putting Sayyid Qutb on their index of heresy, declaring him a \u201cdeviant\u201d (munharif).
\nReformist Muslims, on the other hand, questioned his understanding of sharia, i.e. that it is not only perfect and complete, but completely accessible to people and thus the solution to any of their problems. Also criticized is his dismissal of not only all non-Muslim culture, but many centuries of Muslim learning, culture and beauty following the first four caliphs as un-Islamic and thus worthless.
\nConservative criticism went further, condemning Qutb\u2019s Islamist\/reformist ideas\u2014such as social justice and redistributive economics, banning of slavery,\u2014as \u201cwestern\u201d and bid\u2018ah or innovative (innovations to Islam being forbidden). They have accused Qutb of amateur scholarship, overuse of ijtihad, innovation in Ijma (which Qutb felt should not be limited to scholars, but should be conducted by all Muslims), declaring unlawful what Allah has made lawful, assorted mistakes in aqeedah (belief) and manhaj (methodology).<\/p>\n
\nAlongside notable Islamists like Maulana Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna, and Ruhollah Khomeini, Qutb is considered one of the most influential Muslim thinkers or activists of the modern era, not only for his ideas but also for what many see as his martyr\u2019s death. According to authors Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, \u201cit was Sayyid Qutb who fused together the core elements of modern Islamism: the Kharijites\u2019 takfir, ibn Taymiyya\u2019s fatwas and policy prescriptions, Rashid Rida\u2019s salafism, Maududi\u2019s concept of the contemporary jahiliyya and Hassan al-Banna\u2019s political activism.\u201d
\nQutb\u2019s written works are still widely available and have been translated into many Western languages. His best known[85] work is Ma\u2019alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones), but the majority of Qutb\u2019s theory can be found in his Qur\u2019anic commentary Fi zilal al-Qur\u2019an (In the Shade of the Quran). This 30-volume work is noteworthy for its innovative method of interpretation, borrowing heavily from the literary analysis of Amin al-Khuli, while retaining some structural features of classical commentaries (for example, the practice of progressing from the first sura to the last).
\nThe influence of his work extends to issues such as Westernization, modernization, and political reform and the theory of inevitable ideological conflict between \u201cIslam and the West\u201d, the notion of a transnational umma, and the comprehensive application of jihad.
\nQutb\u2019s theoretical work on Islamic advocacy, social justice and education, has left a significant mark on the Muslim Brotherhood (at least outside of Egypt).
\nAl-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad.
\nQutb had influence on Islamic insurgent\/terror groups in Egypt and elsewhere. His influence on al-Qaeda was felt through his writing, his followers and especially through his brother, Muhammad Qutb, who moved to Saudi Arabia following his release from prison in Egypt and became a professor of Islamic Studies and edited, published and promoted his brother Sayyid\u2019s work.
\nOne of Muhammad Qutb\u2019s students and later an ardent follower was Ayman Zawahiri, who went on to become a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and later a mentor of Osama bin Laden and a leading member of al-Qaeda. Zawahiri was first introduced to Qutb by his uncle and maternal family patriarch, Mafouz Azzam, who was very close to Qutb throughout his life. Azzam was Qutb\u2019s student, then prot\u00e9g\u00e9, then personal lawyer and executor of his estate\u2014one of the last people to see Qutb before his execution. According to Lawrence Wright, who interviewed Azzam, \u201cyoung Ayman al-Zawahiri heard again and again from his beloved uncle Mahfouz about the purity of Qutb\u2019s character and the torment he had endured in prison.\u201d Zawahiri paid homage to Qutb in his work Knights under the Prophet\u2019s Banner.
\nWorks<\/p>\n
\nMahammat al-Sha\u2019ir fi\u2019l-Hayah wa Shi\u2019r al-Jil al-Hadir (The Task of the Poet in Life and the Poetry of the Contemporary Generation), 1933
\nal-Shati al-Majhul (The Unknown Beach), 1935
\nNaqd Kitab: Mustaqbal al-Thaqafa fi Misr (Critique of a Book by Taha Husain: the Future of Culture in Egypt), 1939
\nAl-Taswir al-Fanni fi\u2019l-Qu\u2019ran (Artistic Imagery in the Qur\u2019an), 1945
\nAl-Atyaf al-Arba\u2019a (The Four Apparitions), 1945
\nTifl min al-Qarya (A Child from the Village), 1946
\nAl-Madina al-Mashura (The Enchanted City), 1946
\nKutub wa Shakhsiyyat (Books and Personalities), 1946
\nAskwak (Thorns), 1947
\nMashahid al-Qiyama fi\u2019l-Qur\u2019an (Aspects of Resurrection in the Qu\u2019ran), 1946
\nAl-Naqd al-Adabi: Usuluhu wa Manahijuhu (Literary Criticism: Its Foundation and Methods\u2019), 1948
\n\u201cThe America I Have Seen,\u201d 1949, reprinted in Kamal Abdel-Malek, ed., 2000, America in an Arab Mirror: Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature: An Anthology, Palgrave. PDF from Portland State University.<\/p>\n
\nAl-Adala al-Ijtima\u2019iyya fi\u2019l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam), 1949
\nMa\u2019rakat al-Islam wa\u2019l-Ra\u2019s Maliyya (The Battle Between Islam and Capitalism), 1951
\nAl-Salam al-\u2018Alami wa\u2019l-Islam (World Peace and Islam), 1951
\nFi Zilal al-Qur\u2019an (In the Shade of the Qur\u2019an), first installment 1954
\nDirasat Islamiyya (Islamic Studies), 1953
\nHadha\u2019l-Din (This Religion is Islam), n.d. (after 1954)
\nAl-Mustaqbal li-hadha\u2019l-Din (The Future of This Religion), n.d. (after 1954)
\nKhasais al-Tasawwur al-Islami wa Muqawamatuhu (The Characteristics and Values of Islamic Conduct), 1960
\nAl-Islam wa Mushkilat al-Hadara (Islam and the Problems of Civilization), n.d. (after 1954)
\nMa\u2019alim fi\u2019l-Tariq (Signposts on the Road, or Milestones), 1964 (Reviewed by Yvonne Ridley)
\nBasic Principles of Islamic Worldview
\nThe Islamic Concept and Its Characteristics
\nIslam and universal peace
\nSee also:
\nFi zilal al-Qur\u2019an
\nTheocracy
\nIslam and antisemitism
\nTaqiuddin al-Nabhani
\nDehellenization<\/p>\n
\nSource: Baseerat Online<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"