Wikipedia's first sentence called it “highly influential commentary on islam's holy book”. Today it says “highly influential commentary of the qur'an”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Commentary on the Quran”. It now reads “Quranic commentary by Sayyid Qutb”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
' In the Shade of the Qur'an' is a highly influential commentary on Islam's holy book, rated by many muslims as a legitimate tafsir , by the Egyptian Islamic philosopher and leader, Sayyid Qutb .1 The work extends to 30 volumes.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16844243.
The opening as it stood in 2010 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
In the Shade of the Qur'an or Fi Zilal al-Qur'an ( , fī ẓilāl al-qur'ān ) is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an , written during 1951-1965 by Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood .Most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surahs ) were written (or re-written) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954.The book outlines Qutb's vision of an Islamic state and society.It is considered by some to be a comprehensive and far-reaching tafsir (commentary) that takes a clear and lucid interpretation of the Qur'an .However, it has also been criticized by some modernists and traditional Ulema alike, as an extended personal opinion or essay rather than a well-evidenced textual commentary, and for not adhering to the traditional structure for a tafsir.It has much influence throughout the Islamic world , especially amongst the ordinary lay practitioners of Islam in the Arab world .The work extends to 30 volumes and has been translated into several languages, including English , French , German , Urdu , Turkish , Indonesian , Persian and Bengali .The full set of volumes covers the entire Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 363079903.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
In the Shade of the Qur'an or Fi Zilal al-Qur'an ( , fī ẓilāl al-qur'ān ) is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an , written during 1951-1965 by Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood . Most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surahs ) were written (or re-written) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. The book outlines Qutb's vision of an Islamic state and society. It is considered by some to be a comprehensive and far-reaching commentary that takes a clear and lucid interpretation of the Qur'an . It has much influence throughout the Islamic world , especially amongst the ordinary lay practitioners of Islam in the Arab world . The work extends to 30 volumes and has been translated into several languages, including English , French , German , Urdu , Turkish , Indonesian , Persian , Malayalam and Bengali . The full set of volumes covers the entire Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 644360172.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Commentary on the Quran Fi Zilal al-Qur'an ( ) is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an , written during 1951-1965 by the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood .He wrote (or re-wrote) most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surahs ) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954.The book outlines Qutb's vision of a Muslim state and society. It is considered by some to be a comprehensive and far-reaching commentary that takes a clear and lucid interpretation of the Qur'an . It has much influence throughout the Muslim world , especially amongst the ordinary lay practitioners of Islam in the Arab world . The work extends to 30 volumes that correspond to the 30 juz' parts of the Qur'an. It has been translated into several languages, including English , French , German , Urdu , Turkish , Indonesian , Persian , Malayalam and Bengali . The full set of volumes covers the entire Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 951190886.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Quranic commentary by Sayyid Qutb Fi Zilal al-Qur'an ( ) is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an , written during 1951-1965 by the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood . He wrote (or re-wrote) most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surahs ) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. The book outlines Qutb's vision of a Muslim state and society. It has had much influence throughout the Muslim world , especially amongst the ordinary lay practitioners of Islam in the Arab world . The work extends to 30 volumes that correspond to the 30 juz' parts of the Qur'an. It has been translated into several languages, including English , French , German , Urdu , Turkish , Indonesian , Persian , Malayalam and Bengali . The full set of volumes covers the entire Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1146673581.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Quranic commentary by Sayyid Qutb Fi Zilal al-Qur'an ( Arabic : في ظِلالِ القرآن , romanized : Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʾān , lit. ' In the Shade of the Qur'an ' ) is a highly influential commentary of the Qur'an , written during 1951-1965 by the Egyptian revolutionary Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood . He wrote (or re-wrote) most of the original 30 volumes (114 Surahs ) while in prison following an attempted assassination of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954. The book outlines Qutb's vision of a Muslim state and society. The work extends to 30 volumes that correspond to the 30 juz' parts of the Qur'an. It has been translated into several languages, including English , French , German , Urdu , Turkish , Indonesian , Persian , Malayalam and Bengali . The full set of volumes covers the entire Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296357639. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “highly influential commentary on islam's holy book”. Today it says “highly influential commentary of the qur'an”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Commentary on the Quran”. It now reads “Quranic commentary by Sayyid Qutb”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
highly influential commentary on islam's holy book
Now
highly influential commentary of the qur'an
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
