Sayyid Qutb

Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

As the author of 24 published books, with around 30 unpublished for different reasons (mainly due to destruction by the state), and at least 581 articles, including novels, literary arts critique and works on education, Qutb 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. 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, which he saw as materialistic, and obsessed with violence and sexual pleasures. He advocated offensive jihad.

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. In 1966, he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging.

Qutb has been described by followers as a great thinker and martyr for Islam, while 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, Qutb's ideas on Jahiliyya (Age of Ignorance) and his close linking of implementation of sharia (Islamic Law) with Tawhid (Islamic monotheism) has highly influenced contemporary Islamist and Jihadist movements. His supporters are often identified as Qutbists or Qutbi.