Sayyid Qutb

Sayyid Qutb was born in a village in Upper Egypt in 1906. He received a traditional Islamic education as well as a modern one at Dar al-Ulum, a teacher training college in Cairo. He worked as a teacher and a writer for various newspapers and magazines, and published several literary works, including novels and poetry. He was influenced by the reformist ideas of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, and became interested in the social and political role of Islam. He joined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in 1951, after returning from a two-year stay in the United States, where he was disillusioned by the materialism and moral decadence of Western society. He became one of the most prominent ideologues of the Brotherhood, and advocated for a radical Islamic revolution to overthrow the secular regimes in the Muslim world and establish a theocratic state based on the Quran and the Sunnah. He also developed the concept of jahiliyyah, or the state of ignorance and barbarism that he saw prevailing in both the West and the Muslim countries that had deviated from the true Islam. He called for a violent jihad against the jahiliyyah, and inspired many Islamist movements and groups, such as al-Qaeda and ISIL. He was arrested several times by the Egyptian authorities for his involvement in plots against the Nasser regime, and was finally executed in 1966 after a controversial trial. His writings and legacy continue to influence millions of Muslims around the world.