Sayyid Qutb and the founders of Islamism

The short answer. Sayyid Qutb, Hassan al-Banna, Abul A'la Maududi, Ruhollah Khomeini and Yusuf al-Qaradawi built the ideas behind modern Islamism. All five wanted Islamic law to govern the state. They differed on method: al-Banna and Maududi built organisations, Qutb justified fighting, Khomeini seized a state and Qaradawi preached.

Key facts #

• Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928 and was assassinated on 12 February 1949.¹²
• Abul A'la Maududi wrote in 1939 that "Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it."⁵
• Sayyid Qutb was executed by Egypt in 1966, and the 9/11 Commission says that "Bin Ladin also relies heavily on the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb."⁸
• Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989) developed velayat-e faqih, "guardianship of the jurist", which underpins Iran's Islamic republic.¹⁷
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi died on 26 September 2022 aged 96. He chaired the International Union of Muslim Scholars and was a spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood.¹¹
• On 13 January 2026 the United States designated the Egyptian and Jordanian Brotherhood chapters as terrorists (Specially Designated Global Terrorists) and the Lebanese chapter as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.⁴
• Iran's Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba Khamenei Supreme Leader on 8 March 2026, about a week after his father Ali Khamenei was killed.¹⁹

Who are the founders of Islamism? #

No single man founded Islamism. It grew from a few thinkers, each adding a piece. The Islamism guide explains the aim they share.

Hassan al-Banna: who founded the Muslim Brotherhood? #

Who he was. Al-Banna (1906-1949) was an Egyptian teacher who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928.¹² The Brotherhood created a secret apparatus in 1942 that reported directly to the Supreme Guide, and Egypt's prime minister dissolved the association in December 1948.²

What he taught. The Brotherhood's slogan, which grew from his movement, is: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."¹ The scholar Giedre Sabaseviciute reads his writings as aiming at an Islamic state. She reports that he saw only one difference between that order and Western constitutional rule: no multiparty system, because he equated party rivalry with disunity and disbelief.³ A line often quoted as his, "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated", could not be traced to a primary text, so this page does not rely on it.

Who follows him today. The Brotherhood and its offshoots. The US Treasury said the Egyptian and Jordanian branches had coordinated with Hamas, and the State Department said the Lebanese branch had allied with Hezbollah.⁴ On 8 October 2026 the European Parliament voted for a strategy against Brotherhood entryism, covered in the weekly briefing. The full story is in the Muslim Brotherhood guide.

Abul A'la Maududi: who was the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami? #

Who he was. Maududi founded Jamaat-e-Islami in British India in 1941. It became one of the largest Islamist parties in Pakistan and Bangladesh.⁶

What he taught. In a 1939 lecture, Jihad in Islam, he wrote: "Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it." He called for a "universal revolution."⁵ The state he wanted was Islamic, and the revolution was meant to be worldwide.

Who follows him today. Jamaat-e-Islami and its offshoots. In Bangladesh's February 2026 election the Jamaat-led alliance won 77 seats, second to 212 for the BNP-led alliance, in results declared for 297 of 299 contested seats.⁷

Sayyid Qutb: who was he and what is Milestones? #

Who he was. Qutb was an Egyptian writer and Brotherhood member, executed in 1966 on charges of trying to overthrow the government. Sent to study in the United States in the late 1940s, he "returned with an enormous loathing of Western society and history," says the 9/11 Commission.⁸

What he taught. In Milestones (1964) Qutb argued that the whole modern world, including nominally Muslim states, lives in jahiliyyah, the age of ignorance. Islam's position toward these societies "can be described in one sentence: it considers all these societies un-Islamic and illegal."⁹ To change them he called for a vanguard: "It is necessary that there should be a vanguard which sets out with this determination and then keeps walking on the path."⁹ On jihad he wrote: "The Jihad of Islam is to secure complete freedom for every man throughout the world by releasing him from servitude to other human beings so that he may serve his Lord."⁹ The 9/11 Commission summarised three themes: the world is consumed by jahiliyya; it could triumph over Islam; and there is no middle ground between God and Satan.⁸

Who follows him today. Jihadists. The Commission wrote that bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb, and that Abdullah Azzam, who may have inspired bin Laden, was "a disciple of Qutb."⁸ The al-Qaeda guide traces that network. Qutb is also disowned: in 1990s Britain strict Salafis used "Qutbiyyah" as a smear against rivals.¹⁰

Yusuf al-Qaradawi: who was the Brotherhood's preacher? #

Who he was. An Egyptian cleric (1926-2022) based in Qatar, al-Qaradawi hosted the Al Jazeera programme "Shariah and Life", chaired the International Union of Muslim Scholars and was a spiritual leader of the Brotherhood. Egypt sentenced him to death in absentia.¹¹ Britain refused him a visa in February 2008, with the Home Office saying the UK "will not tolerate the presence of those who seek to justify acts of terrorist violence."¹²

What he taught. In 2002 he said Islam "will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice," adding that "the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology."¹³ He supported suicide bombings against Israel and backed the Iraqi insurgency.¹¹ The Jewish Chronicle reported that he had also called the Holocaust "divine punishment".¹⁵ On apostasy, Jonathan A.C. Brown reports that he compared the classical punishment to the penalty for treason (see the debate guide).¹⁴

Who follows him today. The Brotherhood's preachers and institutions. Lorenzo Vidino of the Hudson Institute wrote in 2006 that Qaradawi presided over the European Council for Fatwa and Research, "the real driving force behind it", and that the body was "created and dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood's global network."¹³ He had admirers too: the Muslim Association of Britain called him "a renowned and greatly respected figure worldwide" on the day he died.¹⁵ The Europe page sets his 2002 statement in context.

Ruhollah Khomeini: what is velayat-e faqih? #

Who he was. Khomeini (1902-1989) was an Iranian Shia cleric who led the 1979 revolution and was Iran's ultimate political and religious authority for ten years.¹⁷

What he taught. Velayat-e faqih means "guardianship of the jurist": the religious jurist best qualified should oversee the government. Khomeini developed it in exile in Najaf after 1964.¹⁷ It is law in Iran. Article 5 of the constitution says that during the Occultation of the Hidden Imam "the wilayah and leadership of the Ummah devolve upon the just and pious faqih". Article 4 requires every law to be "based on Islamic criteria", with the jurists of the Guardian Council as judges. The preamble gives the Revolutionary Guards "the ideological mission of jihad in God's way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God's law throughout the world."¹⁸ Britannica adds that Iran tried to export its revolution to neighbouring Muslim states, particularly among Shia populations.¹⁷

Who follows him today. The Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli strike at the start of the war that began on 28 February 2026, and the Assembly of Experts named his son Mojtaba Khamenei on 8 March 2026 (as of October 2026).¹⁹ The Hezbollah and Iran guide covers the armed network.

What cuts the other way #

• Muslims have argued with every one of these men. Al-Qaradawi condemned the 9/11 attacks,¹² and on 5 July 2014 called Islamic State's caliphate "void under Sharia".¹⁶
• Qutb's own text rejects compulsion. In the same passage on jihad he wrote that "no one will be forced to change his beliefs and accept Islam."⁹
• Banna's own account was less absolute than his successors'. Sabaseviciute reads him as holding that Islamic and Western constitutional rule share basic principles, including accountability of rulers and personal freedom. After his death the Brotherhood split, she notes, partly because he left the form of the Islamic state vague.³
• Shia clerics reject Khomeini's doctrine. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf refers instead to velayat-e insan, "guardianship by the people", and rejects clerical guardianship.²⁰
• Islamist rulers killed Muslims too, and so did their enemies. Egypt executed Qutb, and the Egyptian state sentenced Qaradawi to death in absentia.⁸¹¹

Questions people ask #

Who was Sayyid Qutb? #

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian writer and Muslim Brotherhood member who wrote Milestones (1964) and was executed by Egypt in 1966. After studying in the United States in the late 1940s he became a fierce critic of the West. The 9/11 Commission says Osama bin Laden relied heavily on his writings, which is why jihadists still cite him.

What is Milestones by Sayyid Qutb about? #

Milestones argues that the modern world, including nominally Muslim societies, is jahili, ignorant of Allah's rule, and that a committed vanguard must restore divine sovereignty and Sharia. It treats jihad as a way to free people from rule by other humans. It also states that no one will be forced to accept Islam, a line its critics and supporters read differently.

Who founded Islamism? #

No single person. Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, the first mass Islamist organisation. Abul A'la Maududi founded Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and supplied much of the theory of an Islamic state. Sayyid Qutb radicalised the argument, and Ruhollah Khomeini turned it into a state in Iran in 1979.

What is velayat-e faqih? #

Velayat-e faqih, "guardianship of the jurist", is Ruhollah Khomeini's doctrine that a senior Shia jurist should oversee the government. It is written into Iran's constitution, where the Supreme Leader holds ultimate authority. Many Shia clerics reject it, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Iraq, who prefers guardianship by the people.

Who was Yusuf al-Qaradawi? #

Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926-2022) was an Egyptian-born cleric based in Qatar who chaired the International Union of Muslim Scholars and was a spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood. He hosted a popular Al Jazeera show, supported suicide attacks on Israelis and was refused entry to Britain in 2008. He also condemned 9/11 and called Islamic State's caliphate void.

What did Maududi teach? #

Abul A'la Maududi taught that Islam is a complete political system and that Muslims should establish an Islamic state. In his 1939 lecture Jihad in Islam he wrote that Islam wishes to destroy all states opposed to its programme, and he called for a universal revolution. His Jamaat-e-Islami party, founded in 1941, still contests elections in South Asia.

Related guides #

• Salafism and Wahhabism: the puritan current that disowns Qutb, and the jihadist split.
• The Muslim Brotherhood: al-Banna's movement, its goals and where it is banned.
• Hezbollah and Iran's proxies: Khomeini's doctrine in practice.
• The caliphate idea: what Maududi, Qutb and Islamic State each meant by it.
• How radicalisation works: how these ideas reach young people.
• Islamism explained: what an Islamist is and how free societies respond.

Cite as: The Analyst, "Sayyid Qutb, Maududi, al-Banna: founders of Islamism", Fighting Islamists, updated 13 October 2026. https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-ideologues.html

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