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3. Sayyid Qutb: From the Muslim Brotherhood to Global Influence

A leading intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb saw his influence extend far beyond Egypt’s borders, shaping major currents within radical Islamism. Yet while his name remains closely tied to the Brotherhood, his thought is not unanimously embraced within the movement, which rejects parts of his ideas.

Born in 1906 into a devout family in a village of Upper Egypt, he studied educational sciences, much like Hassan al-Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder. Alongside his career as a teacher and civil servant in the Ministry of Education, Sayyid Qutb gained recognition as a literary figure, moving within Egypt’s intellectual circles, including the celebrated writer Taha Hussein. During this period, he wrote numerous poems, short stories, and essays.

A Return to Faith

Around the age of forty, Sayyid Qutb experienced a spiritual reawakening that would profoundly reshape his worldview. In 1948, he published Social Justice in Islam, an essay in which he sought to show that Islam offers a complete and superior framework for building a fair society, extending well beyond ritual observance. He argued that social justice is intrinsic to Islamic faith and introduced the concept of “hakimiyya”, the exclusive sovereignty of God over all domains, including the political realm. He also criticized both capitalism and Marxism, viewing them as materialistic systems blind to divine transcendence.

Following the publication of his book, he traveled to Europe and the United States to study their educational systems. The experience left a lasting impression on him, both in terms of lifestyle and human relations. There, he witnessed racism and what he perceived as a liberal and individualistic society, encounters that drew him closer to Islam. Qutb came to see the West as mired into moral decay its value system eroded by the primacy of economic interests—an ethos he viewed as antithetical to Islamic principles.

Upon his return, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. “The coup d’état of the Free Officers, supported by the Brotherhood, was what brought the movement closer to Sayyid Qutb,” explains Sarah Ben Néfissa, research director at the Institute of Research for Development at Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1), speaking to This is Beirut.

“He was appointed to head the important Da‘wa section within the organization. In the midst of the crisis that followed the 1948 repression, the Muslim Brotherhood was seeking channels of communication with the Free Officers. Sayyid Qutb was known for his good relations with Nasser’s regime,” she adds.

At the time, the group of Free Officers who overthrew King Farouk in 1952 lacked a genuine popular base and therefore relied heavily on the Brotherhood support. Once in power, however, Nasser moved to sideline them, particularly after the assassination attempt against him in 1954. Sayyid Qutb was arrested that same year and sent to prison.

The rift between Nasser’s regime and the Muslim Brotherhood was inevitable, rooted in both the Brotherhood’s deep societal influence and their sharply contrasting visions: a nationalist, secular, and socialist ideology anchored in the military on one side, and an religious ideology grounded worldview on the other.

“The Muslim Brotherhood believes that there is neither a ‘social question’ nor a ‘political question’ to be resolved, but rather a ‘supreme religious question,’ and resolving it will address all other issues,” Ben Néfissa conlcudes.

Major Works

During his imprisonment, Sayyid Qutb was remarkably prolific. He authored his monumental In the Shade of the Qur’an, a thirty-volume study that offers not a conventional exegesis, but a thematic and spiritual reading of Islam’s holy book. In this work, Qutb sought to reveal the Qur’an’s internal coherence and its direct relevance to contemporary life.

In 1964, he published Milestones (Maʿālim fī al-Ṭarīq)—sometimes rendered as Signposts on the Road—a concise yet potent distillation of his earlier writings. This book marked a clear shift toward a more militant and doctrinal tone, reflecting the deepening radicalization of his thought.

“His long imprisonment and the torture he endured clearly contributed to the radicalization of his thought,” confirms Sarah Ben Néfissa, “but this process had already begun earlier, as reflected in his growing rejection of, and increasingly negative view toward, the West and the United States.”

Qutb’s radicalism soon set him apart from the mainstream the Muslim Brotherhood. Central to his vision was the concept of jahiliyya—the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. He argued that any society, even one nominally Muslim, that does not govern itself according to God’s law (sharia) is living in a state of modern jahiliyya. This diagnosis justified active resistance against regimes he deemed apostate.

The struggle thus became a global jihad encompassing spiritual, intellectual, social, and, when necessary, military dimensions, all aimed at restoring society to its “true values.” 
The Muslim Brotherhood, under the leadership of Hassan al-Hudaybi, who succeeded Hassan al-Banna, opposed several of Sayyid Qutb’s ideas, particularly his assertion that some Muslims could be considered apostates. To affirm this position, Hudaybi wrote Preachers, Not Judges, a book aimed at refuting Qutb’s doctrines. He also rejected the concept of hakimiyya (“divine sovereignty”), arguing that the term does not appear in the Quran. Following this stance, Qutb was no longer formally associated with the Brotherhood, although a faction within the movement broke away and adopted more violent and militant methods.

His book Milestones (Maʿālim fī al-Ṭarīq), published in 1964, met with instant success and went on to inspire numerous movements and thinkers. “Its success lies in his style of expression and writing,” explains Sarah Ben Néfissa. “He systematized the thought of Hassan al-Banna and conveyed it in a language that was at once modern and literary, appealing strongly to young people.”

“Its influence extends well beyond the Sunni–Shia divide. Sayyid Qutb’s writings were even translated into Persian under the direct supervision of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” she adds.

Condemned to death by a military court, Sayyid Qutb was executed by hanging in 1966, his death remembered by many Islamists as that of a martyr for their cause.
Although Sayyid Qutb did not explicitly theorize modern terrorism, he laid the ideological groundwork upon which several jihadist movements — including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — would later build their religious and political legitimacy.

His thought, deeply shaped by years in prison and a profound rejection of the modern world, continues to fuel a complex debate within political Islam over the place of divine sovereignty in the organization of society. Seen by some as a martyr and by others as a dangerous ideologue, Qutb remains one of the most controversial and influential Muslim thinkers of the twentieth century.