The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Sayyid Qutb (1906–66)

Sayyid Qutb was one of the most influential Islamists of the 20th century. He was born in 1906 in a village in Asyut Province in Upper Egypt and attended the recently established government school there. In 1921, he went to Cairo to attend secondary school and later enrolled at Dar al-‘Ulum, a teacher training institute, graduating in 1933. He then joined the Ministry of Education, working as a teacher and then as an official until 1952. In 1936, he was transferred from the provinces to Helwan, near Cairo, where he established a home and brought his mother, brother, and two sisters to live with him. He was thus responsible for a family although he never married. His brother, Muhammad Qutb (b. 1912), was to become a well-known Islamist in his own right.

In Cairo, Sayyid Qutb became active on the literary scene and was for some time a disciple of the prominent writer ‘Abbas Mahmud al-‘Aqqad (1889–1964). Between 1924 and 1954, he published about 125 poems and almost 500 articles on literature, social and political issues, and education in various newspapers and literary journals. Among these articles was a series in the 1930s defending ‘Aqqad from his conservative critics and a long article in 1939 critiquing Taha Hussein’s book, The Future of Culture in Egypt, a well-known defense of Westernization. In his critique, he stressed the need to retain and renew Egyptian and Arab culture. During this period, he showed concern for social problems but was not revolutionary or particularly anti-Western.

After the end of World War II, Qutb, like many others, began to write passionately against European and American imperialism and the political corruption and economic inequality that afflicted Egypt. In the late 1940s, he also published a number of books, including a book on literary criticism and an account of his childhood (translated as A Child from the Village). In 1945 and 1948, he published two books dealing with the literary style of the Qur’an but not passing judgment on religious issues.

Through 1947, Qutb’s writings were consistently secular and nationalist with a strong concern for social justice. Religion appears as a necessary and potentially positive force but not as a comprehensive guide for society. This changed abruptly in 1948, when he began to write clearly Islamist articles and also wrote a book, Social Justice in Islam. Little is known of the immediate reasons for this change.

From late 1948 to mid-1950, Qutb was in the United States on a government-sponsored study tour. He was impressed by American technology but horrified by the people’s moral and cultural level.

Returning to Egypt, he began to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood but apparently became a member only in 1953. He wrote for Islamist and secular journals, revised Social Justice, and wrote two other Islamist books. In 1952, he began writing his commentary on the Qur’an, In the Shade of the Qur’an. When he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, he became one of its leading spokespersons and edited its journal for a time. Qutb now expressed his concerns for social justice and independence from imperialism mostly in Islamic terms but was willing to cooperate with secularists for common goals. While he criticized the political leaders, he considered Egyptian society as a whole to be Islamic. He also looked for an “Islamic bloc” of nations that would counterbalance capitalism and communism.

When, in July 1952, the Free Officers under Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–70) took power, both Qutb and the Muslim Brotherhood at first supported them but soon withdrew this support. In October 1954, after an attempt to assassinate Nasser, the Muslim Brotherhood was banned, some of its leaders were executed, and many were imprisoned, including Qutb. He spent almost all of his prison time in the prison hospital because of poor health and was allowed to continue his writing and to have contact with fellow Muslim Brothers in prison.

His Islamism now became much more radical, and it is generally assumed that the harsh treatment that he and others suffered was a major reason for this. He completed In the Shade of the Qur’an in 1959 and then began to rewrite it in a more radical form, completing it through al-Hijr (sura 15) before his death. He also wrote other books during this period, including Islam and the Problems of Civilization (1962) and Characteristics of the Islamic Worldview (1962).

In May 1964, he was released from prison, and in November he published his best-known book, Milestones, which was considered a call for Islamic revolution and was soon banned. A new and more radical edition of Social Justice was also published the same year. He became the guide of a secret group of young Muslim Brothers not only to direct them in a program of intellectual and moral preparation but also to help them procure weapons claimed to be for self-defense. In August 1965, he was arrested and convicted of plotting against the government. The main evidence against him appears to have been Milestones. He was executed on August 29, 1966, thus becoming a martyr in the eyes of many.

Qutb’s later Islamist writings are more radical than his earlier ones in several ways. They are more uncompromisingly theocentric. Only God’s will counts, and only God has sovereignty (ḥākimiyya). Society is either ruled according to God’s shari‘a or it is jāhiliyya, actively opposed to God. There is no middle ground, no room for cooperation with secularists, and no room for compromise on social institutions. They must be based purely on God’s laws and not on human ideas. In fact, Qutb considers all the societies of the time to be jāhiliyya. Islam must therefore be started over again, as it was in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, by small groups that will devote years to absorbing the basic truths of Islam, and then will confront jāhiliyya. Jāhiliyya will almost certainly respond with violence and God will determine the outcome.

Qutb has influenced later generations, both through his example as a martyr and through his writings, which have been widely translated and disseminated.

His later ideas divided the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s, with the majority rejecting them but smaller and more violent offshoots, such as the so-called Takfir wa-l-Hijra, Jihad, and al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya in Egypt continuing his legacy in varying ways. He has influenced al-Qaeda, especially through Ayman al-Zawahiri (b. 1951), its deputy leader. Whether he would have approved of their more violent tactics is hard to say but seems doubtful. Radical groups in other countries have also reflected his influence, and more moderate Muslims also read and appreciate his writings, especially his Qur’an commentary.