Sayyid Qutb

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Lore & Background

Sayyid Qutb was raised in the Egyptian village of Musha, located in Upper Egypt's Asyut Province. His father was an Upper Egyptian landowner and administrator of the family estate, known for his political activism and holding weekly meetings to discuss political events and Quranic recitation. At a young age, Qutb learned about melodic recitations of the Quran and memorized the whole Quran at 10. As a precocious child, he began collecting books including Sherlock Holmes stories, A Thousand and One Nights, and texts on astrology and magic that he used to help local people with exorcisms (ruqya). In his teens, he was critical of religious institutions and held a special disdain for schools that specialized only in religious studies. He moved to Cairo, where between 1929 and 1933 he received a British-style education before starting his career as a teacher in the Ministry of Public Instruction. He wrote his first article in the literary magazine al-Balagh in 1922, and his first book, Muhimmat al-Sha’ir fi al-Haya wa Shi’r al-Jil al-Hadir (The Mission of the Poet in Life and the Poetry of the Present Generation), in 1932. In 1939, he became a functionary in Egypt's Ministry of Education. From 1948 to 1950, he went to the United States on a scholarship, spending several months at Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colorado. His first major theoretical work, Al-'adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi-l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam), was published in 1949 during his time in the West. Qutb never married, in part because of his religious convictions; he lamented he could not find a woman of sufficient 'moral purity and discretion.'

Reader's Guide

Sayyid Qutb's significance comes from his work on the social and political role of Islam, especially his concepts of Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic Arabia) and his close linking of implementation of sharia (Islamic Law) with Tawhid (Islamic monotheism). His magnum opus, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the Qur'an), is a 30-volume commentary on the Quran. He intensely disapproved of the society and culture of the United States, which he saw as materialistic and obsessed with violence and sexual pleasures. In his 1951 essay 'The America that I Have Seen,' he criticized American materialism, individual freedoms, economic system, 'poor' haircuts, superficial conversations, restrictions on divorce, enthusiasm for sports, lack of artistic feeling, 'animal-like' mixing of genders, and strong support for the new Israeli state. He noted with disapproval the openly displayed sexuality of American women and commented that 'Jazz' music was invented by Negroes to satisfy primitive inclinations. Qutb advocated offensive jihad. Western observers and some Muslims see him as a key originator of Islamist ideology and an inspiration for militant Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda. Strengthened by his status as a martyr, his ideas on Jahiliyya and the linking of sharia with Tawhid have highly influenced contemporary Islamist and Jihadist movements. His supporters are often identified as Qutbists or Qutbi.

Did You Know?

• Qutb memorized the whole Quran by age 10.
• He wrote his first article in the literary magazine al-Balagh in 1922, while still a teenager.
• He helped elevate Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz from obscurity.
• Qutb never married, lamenting he could not find a woman of sufficient 'moral purity and discretion.'
• He was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging in 1966.