The Modern Heirs of the Manār Legacy: Sayyid Quṭb, ʿAlī Sharīʿatī, and Tariq Ramadan

I. Sayyid Quṭb (1324 – 1386 AH / 1906 – 1966 CE)

The Ideologue of Moral Revolution and Qurʾānic Consciousness

Early Life and Background

Sayyid Quṭb Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn al-Shādhilī [سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين الشاذلي] was born in 1906 CE in Musha, a rural village in Asyūṭ, Upper Egypt.^1
Educated first in Dār al-ʿUlūm, he began as a literary critic and poet, publishing essays in Egypt’s modernist journals.

In his youth, he admired Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Rashīd Riḍā, whose rational reformism shaped his early writing.
But after studying in the United States (1948–1950), Quṭb returned disillusioned with Western materialism — convinced that Islam must be reborn as a complete moral civilization (ḥaḍārah akhlāqiyyah – حضارة أخلاقية).^2

Intellectual Transformation and Imprisonment

Joining al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn in 1953, Quṭb quickly became its chief ideologue.
He was imprisoned under President Nasser in 1954, where he spent a decade writing his Qurʾānic magnum opus, Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʾān (في ظلال القرآن) — In the Shade of the Qurʾān.^3

Executed in 1966 CE, he became a martyr-figure of conviction and reform.

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʾān	في ظلال القرآن	Qurʾānic commentary	30-volume moral-thematic tafsīr emphasizing Islam as a dynamic worldview of justice and tawḥīd.^4
Maʿālim fī al-Ṭarīq	معالم في الطريق	Manifesto of reform	Calls for spiritual vanguard (ṭalīʿah روحانية) to re-Islamize society.
al-ʿAdālah al-Ijtimāʿiyyah fī al-Islām	العدالة الاجتماعية في الإسلام	Social justice in Islam	Argues that Qurʾānic ethics ensure equality, freedom, and welfare.

Philosophy and Impact

Quṭb viewed Islam as a total system of moral order, where sovereignty belongs only to God (ḥākimiyyah – حاكمية الله).^5
He described the modern world as living in Jāhiliyyah (ignorance) — not pre-Islamic barbarism, but any era where divine justice is eclipsed by human ego.

“Islam is not a heritage to be preserved, but a movement to be lived.”

His ideas, though controversial, revived ethical consciousness as the foundation of political reform.
He extended the Manār legacy from intellectual reform to moral-existential revolution.

II. ʿAlī Sharīʿatī (1933 – 1977 CE)

The Sociologist of Faith and Voice of Revolutionary Spirituality

Early Life and Background

Born in Mazīnān, Khorāsān (إيران) in 1933 CE, ʿAlī Sharīʿatī Mazīnānī [علي شريعتي مزيناني] was the son of the reformist scholar Muḥammad Taqī Sharīʿatī, founder of the Ḥusayniyyah-yi Irshād movement in Mashhad.^6

Educated in sociology at the Sorbonne (Paris), he absorbed Western critical theory yet remained anchored in Islamic ethics.
He envisioned a synthesis between ʿAbduh’s rationalism and Quṭb’s moral activism.

Major Themes and Works

Work	Persian / Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Insān wa Islām	الإنسان والإسلام	Anthropology & ethics	Humanity as moral agent of divine trust (amānah).
Shahādat	الشهادة	Theology of martyrdom	Interprets martyrdom as selfless struggle for justice.
Al-ʿAlawiyyah wa al-Radd ʿalā al-Uthmāniyyah	العلوية والرد على العثمانية	Historical analysis	Re-reads early Islamic history as class struggle between justice and privilege.
Man and Society in Islam	الإنسان والمجتمع في الإسلام	Sociology of faith	Argues that Islam unites spirituality and social change.

Philosophy and Influence

Sharīʿatī re-imagined Islam as a theology of liberation — faith as movement, not ritual.
He revived the Qurʾānic ideal of the Mustadʿafīn (المستضعفين) — the oppressed — as the engine of history.

“Every generation must relive Karbala until truth defeats tyranny.”^7

Though his works inspired the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he rejected clerical rule; his vision was of an educated community of conscience rooted in justice.

III. Tariq Ramadan (1962 – present)

The Scholar of Ethics and Muslim Presence in the West

Background and Lineage

Tariq Ramadan [طارق رمضان] — born in Geneva, Switzerland (1962 CE) — is the grandson of Ḥasan al-Bannā and thus a direct heir to the Manār–Ikhwān intellectual chain.^8

Educated in philosophy at the University of Geneva and later al-Azhar, he merged Western critical philosophy with traditional uṣūl al-fiqh.
He became the leading voice of European Islam, advocating ethical citizenship and contextual ijtihād.

Major Works

Work	Arabic / English Title	Subject	Notes
To Be a European Muslim	أن تكون مسلمًا أوروبيًا	Identity & ethics	Explores coexistence between faith and modern citizenship.
Western Muslims and the Future of Islam	المسلمون الغربيون ومستقبل الإسلام	Sociology of diaspora	Proposes dynamic fiqh for minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyāt).
Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation	الإصلاح الجذري والأخلاق الإسلامية	Reform methodology	Integrates textual fidelity and modern scientific rationality for ethical ijtihād.

Philosophy

Ramadan’s project continues ʿAbduh’s and Riḍā’s quest to reconcile faith with modernity — but on global terrain.
He distinguishes between immutable principles (thawābit – ثوابت) and contextual applications (mutaghayyirāt – متغيرات), calling for a “radical reform” of Muslim ethics.

“We do not need a new Islam — we need to rediscover its universal heart in our time.”^9

His work bridges Western humanism and Qurʾānic ethics, continuing the centuries-long conversation between Cairo and Geneva.

IV. Continuity and Transformation

Scholar	Era	Inherited Legacy	Primary Contribution
Sayyid Quṭb	Mid-20th century	ʿAbduh–Riḍā → al-Bannā	Ethical and Qurʾānic activism; moral revolution as justice.
ʿAlī Sharīʿatī	Late-20th century	Cross-influence of Riḍā and Quṭb	Philosophical and sociological liberation theology.
Tariq Ramadan	21st century	al-Bannā’s descendant; ʿAbduh’s rationalism reborn	Global Islamic ethics and contextual ijtihād for modern societies.

Together they transform the Manār lineage from Egyptian reform to a planetary conversation on faith and modern conscience.

Conclusion

Across a century and a half, the intellectual chain that began with Ibn Ḥajar’s textual precision and al-Suyūṭī’s synthesis evolved through ʿAbduh’s reason, Riḍā’s activism, and al-Bannā’s organization, until it found expression in Quṭb’s moral clarion, Sharīʿatī’s philosophy of justice, and Ramadan’s ethics of coexistence.

Each served a different era, yet all echoed a single Qurʾānic principle:

“Indeed, God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (Q 13:11)

References (for footnote conversion)

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Quṭb, Sayyid.”
John Calvert, Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism (Oxford: OUP, 2010), 34–36.
Sayyid Quṭb, Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʾān (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq, 1967), vol. 1, Preface.
Ibid.
Quṭb, Maʿālim fī al-Ṭarīq, Introduction.
Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent (New York: NYU Press, 1993), 145.
Sharīʿatī, Shahādat (Tehran: Ḥusayniyyah Irshād Press, 1970), 24.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed., s.v. “Ramadan, Tariq.”
Tariq Ramadan, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation (Oxford: OUP, 2009), Preface.