Prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar and thinker Muhammad Qutb breathed his last at Jeddah International Medical Centre in Jeddah on 4 April. He was 95.
Born in the Egyptian village of Musha near Asyut in 1919, Qutb was the second eldest of five children born to his parents. Like his brother Sayyid Qutb, an influential ideologue of Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Qutb was an important scholar and opinion leader.
Despite hardships in his lifetime, he never wavered in where he stood. In an operation in 1966, Qutb was placed under arrest in Egypt after an order was given by then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and he spent years in jail. After his release in 1972, Qutb sought refuge in Saudi Arabia, where he published his brother Sayyid’s books and became a professor of Islamic Studies. An operation initiated against his brother and other leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood was based on the pretext that they had allegedly conspired against and attempted to topple the Nasser government. However, the allegations were unfounded. The Association of Free Officers came to power by toppling Egypt’s King Farouk; they were supported by the Brotherhood.
After dealing with their political rivals, the Free Officers then avoided sharing power with their supporters. In their view, the Brotherhood was a strong movement whose members were able to mobilise the people and revive the idea of struggle against Israel and the colonial powers. If the Muslim Brotherhood became influential within the system, the policies would have to change and the nationalist-socialist Nasser line would not be influential. So, for this reason, members of the Brotherhood were sent to jail and their leaders, including Sayyid Qutb and Abdul Quadir Awdah, were executed.
He wrote extensively to remove the misunderstandings and misapprehensions about Islam, critically analysing the various views, ideologies and isms vis-à-vis Islam.
Qutb was the author of about 45 books, including Islam: The Misunderstood Religion, The Future is for Islam, Ignorance of the Twentieth Century, Studies in Human Psychology, Man between the Material World and Islam, The Concept of Islam and Our Understanding of It, Islam and the Crisis of the Modern World, and The Islamic Resurgence. His two-volume book on the features and differences of the verses revealed in Makkah and Medina is very important. His writings are well-known in the Arab world. He was the winner of King Faisal International Prize in 1988.
In a statement on 5 April, Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Omari expressed his deep sense of sadness on the passing away of Muhammad Qutb, calling it a great loss to the Muslim world. Maulana Omari said Qutb’s works played an important role in providing intellectual guidance for Muslims.