إنما قسوة التاريخ وظلم الشاعر والناقد والمفكر هو رده إلى مرحلة واحدة بعد 1954 ونسيان ربع قرن من الإبداع الشعري والنقدي والفكري ورده إلى كتاب واحد "معالم على الطريق" الذي هو حرقة سجين مظلوم ومعذب بريء. وقد نسيت جماعته أيضاً المراحل الثلاث الأولى، ولم تتذكر إلا المرحلة الرابعة، بإستثناء المخلصين له الذين تعلموا على يديه، وعرفوه مفكراً وثائراً ووطنياً بإسم الإسلام واليوم يرد - مركز الناقد الثقافي - الإعتبار لـ"سيد "قطب" شاعراً عسى أن يُرد إليه نفس الإعتبار ناقداً ثم مفكراً ثم سياسياً وتنتهي أسطورة "معالم على الطريق"؛ فنفسية السجين إستثناء في حياة الشاعر الرومانسي، والناقد الأدبي، والمفكر الحر. د حسن حنفي
Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (Arabic: سيد قطب) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
As the author of 24 published books, with around 30 unpublished for different reasons (mainly destruction by the state), and at least 581 articles, including novels, literary arts critique and works on education, Qutb is best known in the Muslim world for his work on what he believed to be the social and political role of Islam, particularly in his books Social Justice and Ma'alim fi al-Tariq (Milestones). His magnum opus, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the Qur'an), is a 30-volume commentary on the Quran. Even though most of his observations and criticism were leveled at the Muslim world, Qutb also intensely disapproved of the society and culture of the United States, which he saw as materialistic, and obsessed with violence and sexual pleasures. He advocated violent, offensive jihad.
During most of his life, Qutb's inner circle mainly consisted of influential politicians, intellectuals, poets and literary figures, both of his age and of the preceding generation. By the mid-1940s, many of his writings were included in the curricula of schools, colleges and universities. In 1966, he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging.
Qutb has been described by followers as a great thinker and martyr for Islam, while many Western observers (and some Muslims) see him as a key originator of Islamist ideology, and an inspiration for violent Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda. Qutb is widely regarded as one of the most leading Islamist ideologues of the twentieth century. Strengthened by his status as a martyr, Qutb's ideas on Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic Arabia) and his close linking of implementation of sharia (Islamic Law) with Tawhid (Islamic monotheism) has highly influenced contemporary Islamist and Jihadist movements. Today, his supporters are identified by their opponents as "Qutbists" or "Qutbi".