Sayyid Qutb on the Qur’an’s Artistic and Activist Dimensions

Abstract

Sayyid Qutb’s reputation as one of the finest Muslim writers of all time isbased on the quality of his writings in terms of their eloquence and ideas. Forexample, his F¥ ~ilOEl al-Qur’OEn is one of the best, captivating, and most widelyread Qur’anic commentaries in the Middle East. But in the West his reputationas a writer has been effectively eclipsed mainly because of political considerations.Here, he is generally portrayed as the leading ideologue for the MuslimBrotherhood or al-Qaeda. Rather than perpetuate this negative impression,this editorial seeks to highlight the literary and artistic dimensions of his ~ilOEl.