Sayyid Qutb
...He is known for his talents as being an author, a radical Islamist, and leading intellectual of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during the mid 195O’s.
He is best known for his works on the social and political role of Islamic fundamentalism, his two most famous books are Social Justice in islam and Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones). His extensive Quranic commentary Fi zilal al-Qur'an (In the shades of the Qur'an) has contributed significantly to modern perceptions of Islamic concepts such as jihad, Jahiliyyah, and ummah.
1. Life , public career and his life changing trip to the United states of America
Qutb was raised in the Egyptian village of Musha. His parents were both deeply religious people and well know in the area. Qutb’s evident desire for knowledge was clear from his young age, and by the age of 1O he had already committed the entire text of the Qur'an to memory [1]
In his early 2O’s he moved to Cairo, where he received a Western style education, in addition, he was later admitted to Dar Al-Ulum, a western style university also attended by Hasan Al-banna, an Arab Islamic leader who Qtub would later join in the Muslim Brotherhood.[2]
After his graduation from Dar Al-Ulum in 1933, Qtub began his teaching career and eventually became involved in Egypt’s Ministry of Education.
During his early days, Qutb devoted himself to literature as an author and critic. He also wrote explicit and erotic novels such as Ashwak (Thorns).
From 1948 to 1950, the ministry sent him to the United States on a scholarship to study the American and western educational system, and received a master's degree from the Colorado State College in Education. Qutb's first major theoretical work of religious social criticism, Al-'adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi l’Islam (Social Justice in Islam), was published overseas in 1949, however some sources claim that this...
View Full Essay