1. Understanding World Religions
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sayyid Qutb and the Rebirth of Islam
© 2011 Irving Hexham

2. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Sayyid Qutib ( ) is one of the most influential Muslim intellectuals of the 20th Century. Yet he is little known outside of the Muslim community.
Unfortunately, no photographs of him are available in the public domain for use in power point slides. Nevertheless, some can be found on the Internet using a google image search.
© 2011 Irving Hexham

3. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Qutb’s greatest work is his multi-volume commentary on the Quran, entitled In the Shade of the Qur’an. English translations can be obtained from various Islamic bookstores such as the one run by the Islamic Foundation in Leicestershire, England:
The Islamic Foundation MCC, Ratby Lane, Markfield Leicestershire, LE67 9SY, UK
The foundation is found on the web at:
The book is advertised online at:
Photo of Irving Hexham’s copy of this book. © 2011 Irving Hexham

4. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Qutb’s most famous book is his Milestones which inspired and continues to inspire generations of young Muslims to reclaim what they believe is the lost heritage of Islam. At the same time the book encourages them to reject the decadence of Western culture. An online version is available at:
Photo of book cover in Calgary University Library. © 2011 Irving Hexham

5. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Photo of street scene in Cairo from Wiki Commons. In the public domain. © 2011 Irving Hexham
Qutb grew up in Egypt at a time when it was effectively ruled by the British. As a young man he longed to see the rebirth of Egyptian and later Islamic culture and grew to regard the West as a decedent civilization in terminal decline.

6. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
After becoming a teacher Qutb won a scholarship to the United States of America. Most of his time in America was spent at Colorado State College in Greeley. The society around him, America in the 1950’s shocked his sensibilities because of what he saw as its open sexuality.
Downtown Greeley, Colorado. Photo by David Shankbone released for use on Wiki Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution: © 2011 Irving Hexham

7. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Source: Wiki Commons – released into the public domain by the copyright holder:
© 2011 Irving Hexham
Scenes like the one above, of young women in the 1940’s shocked Qutb. Worse still he reports witnessing a man and woman kissing at a church dance. Such behaviour led him to recognize a fundamental difference between Western and Islamic culture and reject the West.

8. Sayyid Qutib and Islam
Photo of painting by Nasrin Elmi used by permission of the artist.
© 2011 Irving Hexham
Despite the popularity of Qutb’s puritanical views among many contemporary Muslims, it is important to recognize that there is another side to Islamic culture. The above painting by the Iranian artist Nasrin Elmi depicts a very different type of Muslim society that thrived in medieval Iran.