Sayyid Qutb

Born in 1906 and executed by the regime of Gamal Abd al-Nasser in 1966, Sayyid Qutb remains one of the most influential articulators of both revolutionary Islamist political doctrine and the modern Salafi Reformist theology that underpins it. His work represents some of the most elaborate and sophisticated expressions of core Salafist Reformist themes. These include Islamic renewal and authenticity, the purification from religion of various accretions (extreme Sufism, excessive legal formalism, cultural practices), a direct encounter with the texts of the revelatory period, the rationalization of Islamic legal and political thought for application in the modern context, and the relevance of Islam for action and material life. His articulation of modern Islamist political doctrine has been profoundly influential across the entire spectrum of Islamic revivalist thought among both pragmatists and revolutionaries alike.