Muhammad Qutb: Difference between revisions

'''Muhammad Qutb''', ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ʌ|t|ə|b}}; {{lang-ar|محمد قطب}};&lrm; 1919 – April 4, 2014) was a Muslim author, scholar and teacher who is best known as the younger brother of the [[Egypt|Egyptian]] Muslim thinker [[Sayyid Qutb]]. After his brother was executed by the Egyptian government, Muhammad moved to [[Saudi Arabia]], where he promoted his brother's ideas.<ref name="Kepel, Gilles 2004, p.174-5"/><ref name="Kepel, 2004, 51"/>

Muhammad Qutb was the second oldest of five children born in the Upper Egyptian village of [[Musha, Egypt|Musha]] near [[Asyut]], several years younger than his elder brother, Sayyid. When his father died in 1933, his mother moved with her children to live in [[Helwan]] near [[Cairo]].<ref>Majdub, Muhammad, ''Ulama wa-mufakkirun ariftuhum'' Dar al-Nasr, 1986, p. 292</ref> He was arrested a few days before Sayyid (on July 29, 1965) for his alleged co-leadership along with his brother in a plot<ref>Kepel, Gilles, ''[Muslim] Extremism in Egypt, the Prophet and Pharaoh,'' University of California, 1985, p.39, 32</ref> to kill leading political and cultural figures in Egypt and overthrow the government. His brother died on the gallows in 1966, but Muhammad's life was spared<ref name="Kepel, Gilles 2004, p.174-5">Kepel, Gilles, ''The War for Muslim Minds : Islam and the West'' Belknap Press, 2004, p.174-5</ref> and he, along with other members of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]  took refuge in [[Saudi Arabia]].

Another very popular work, ''Islam: the Misunderstood Religion,'' expands on his brother's ideas, describing the ways in which fundamentalist Islam is superior to the "perverted ... inhuman ... crazy ... savage and backward" [[Western world]].<ref name=GTWIftE>Abou El Fadl, Khaled, ''The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists'', Harper San Francisco, 2005, p.298</ref>  {{#tag:ref|Among other things the book maintains that the teachings of Christian clerics in Europe led to "the torturing of scientists and burning them alive because they [the scientists] said, for instance, that the earth was round";<ref>Qutb, ''Islam,'' 5th ed, p.xiii</ref> that the science of psychology tells us that a beating of "mild severity" of a wife by her husband is "in certain psychological perversions ... the only effective remedy ... to correct" the wife's "conduct";<ref>Qutb, ''Islam,'' 5th ed, p.114</ref>  that "American statistics ... show that 38% of secondary school girls are pregnant";<ref>Qutb, ''Islam,'' 5th ed, p.146</ref> and that prostitution was outlawed in Western countries  because "prostitutes had lost all their usefulness, their place having been taken by the common sybaritic society girls".<ref>Qutb, ''Islam,'' 5th ed, p.51</ref><ref>[http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/muhammad_qutb_islam.html#intro "Muhammad Qutb's Islam : the Misunderstood Religion"] Elmer Swenson, 27 June 2005</ref>|group=Note}}

His teaching has been influential on 20th-century Muslim thought, particularly in Saudi Arabia following his move there in 1972.<ref>https://www.globalmbwatch.com/2014/04/07/obituary-muhammad-qutb-dies-mecca/</ref> In addition to his teaching position at the [[Umm al-Qura University|Umm al-Qura]] University and the [[King Abdulaziz University]] Qutb also held private teaching circles and disseminated his lectures by means of cassettes, printed pamphlets and, from the late 1990s onwards, the internet. This helped to spread his popularity beyond university students. One of Qutb’s most famous students was [[Safar al-Hawali]], whose thesis on [[Murji'ah|murji’ism]] and secularization draws heavily on Qutb’s own teaching on the subject. Qutb also played an important role in the [[Sahwa movement|Sahwa]] movement, the adherents of which often quote his writings.