Hasan
al-Banna was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood or Society of the
Muslim Brothers, the largest and most influential Sunni revivalist
organization in the 20th century. Created in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim
Brotherhood became the first mass-based, overtly political movement to
oppose the ascendancy of secular and Western ideas in the Middle East.
The brotherhood saw in these ideas the root of the decay of Islamic
societies in the modern world, and advocated a return to Islam as a
solution to the ills that had befallen Muslim societies. Al-Banna's
leadership was critical to the spectacular growth of the brotherhood
during the 1930s and 1940s. By the early 1950s, branches had been
established in Syria, Sudan, and Jordan. Soon, the movement's
influence would be felt in places as far away as the Gulf and non-Arab
countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Driving
this expansion was the appeal of the organizational model embodied in
the original, Egypt-based section of the brotherhood, and the success
of al-Banna's writings. Translated into several languages, these
writings have shaped two generations of Sunni religious activists
across the Islamic world.
Like
many of the Islamic leaders who followed in his footsteps, Al-Banna
enjoyed the benefits of a modern education, but had been raised in a
traditional Islamic environment. He was born in 1906 in Mahmudiyya, a
small town in the Nile Delta. His father, a watch repairman who also
served as prayer leader and Qur'anic teacher in the local mosque, had
been educated at Al-Azhar. Author of a few works on Islamic
jurisprudence, he instilled strong religious values into Al-Banna.
Even as a primary school student, Al-Banna joined several religious
societies dedicated to the promotion of Islamic standards of moral
behavior. It was also at that young age that he became a member of the
Hasafiyya Brothers' Sufi order. His early participation in dhikr
circles and avid reading of Sufi literature help explain why he always
saw the moral reform of the individual as a precondition to the
Islamization of society.
In
1923, at the age of 16, Al-Banna moved to Cairo to enter the famous
Dar al-'Ulum college. The four years that Al-Banna spent in Cairo
exposed him to the political ferment of the Egyptian capital in the
early 1920s, and enhanced his awareness of the extent to which secular
and Western ways had penetrated the very fabric of society. It was
then that Al-Banna became particularly preoccupied with what he saw as
the young generation's drift away from Islam. He believed that the
battle for the hearts and minds of the youth would prove critical to
the survival of a religion besieged by a Western onslaught. While
studying in Cairo, he immersed himself in the writings of the founders
of Islamic reformism (the Salafiyya movement), including the Egyptian
Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905), under whom his father had studied while
at Al-Azhar. But it was 'Abduh's disciple, the Syrian Rashid Rida
(1865-1935), who most influenced Al-Banna. Al-Banna was a dedicated
reader of Al-Manar, the magazine that Rida published in Cairo from
1898 until his death in 1935. He shared Rida's central concern with
the decline of Islamic civilization relative to the West. He too
believed that this trend could be reversed only by returning to an
unadulterated form of Islam, free from all the accretions that had
diluted the strength of its original message. Like Rida at the end of
his life — but unlike 'Abduh and other Islamic modernists — Al-Banna
felt that the main danger to Islam's survival in the modern age
stemmed less from the conservatism of Al-Azhar and the ulama (which he
nevertheless criticized) than from the ascendancy of Western secular
ideas.
Al-Banna
urged the rejection of all Western notions, emphasizing instead the
need to return to the foundations and original purity of Islam.
Indeed, through the organizational skills he would soon demonstrate,
Al-Banna did more than any other thinker during that time to
contribute to the eclipse of Islamic reformism and modernism by
Islamic fundamentalism. Upon graduating from Dar al-'Ulum in 1927, at
the age of 21, Al-Banna was appointed as a teacher of Arabic in a
primary school in Isma'iliyya. At the time, Isma'iliyya served as the
capital of the British-occupied Canal Zone and hosted the headquarters
of the Suez Canal Company (SCC). British military camps and the homes
of the SCC's foreign employees were as much a part of this rapidly
expanding new town as the wretched conditions in which the majority of
the SCC's Egyptian workers lived. Al-Banna's first assignment thus
heightened his resentment of what he saw as Egypt's military
occupation, economic exploitation, cultural domination, and loss of
dignity. It strengthened his determination to rid Egypt of British
and, more generally, Western influences.
From
the moment he arrived in Isma'iliyya, Al-Banna involved himself
actively in the life of the community. He made an effort to become
acquainted with the town's notables while reaching out to the broadest
possible public. He conducted night classes for his students' parents
and led informal discussions in the mosque, coffeehouses, clubs, and
private homes. His basic message was that Egypt had lost its soul; it
had become politically subservient and economically dependent because
it had strayed from the path that had been laid down by God. The only
remedy to the decadence of state and society was to reassert Islamic
values and ways of life.
It
was to spread this message that Al-Banna launched the Society of the
Muslim Brothers in March 1928. At first, the society was only one of
the numerous small Islamic associations that existed at the time.
Similar to those that Al-Banna himself had joined since he was 12,
these associations aimed to promote personal piety and engaged in
charitable activities. By the late 1930s, it had established branches
in every Egyptian province. A decade later, it had 500,000 active
members and as many sympathizers in Egypt alone, while its appeal was
now felt in several other countries as well. The society's growth was
particularly pronounced after Al-Banna relocated its headquarters to
Cairo in 1932. The single most important factor that made this
dramatic expansion possible was the organizational and ideological
leadership provided by Al-Banna.
He
endeavored to bring about the changes he hoped for through
institution-building, relentless activism at the grassroots level, and
a reliance on mass communication. He proceeded to build a complex mass
movement that featured sophisticated governance structures; sections
in charge of furthering the society's values among peasants, workers,
and professionals; units entrusted with key functions, including
propagation of the message, liaison with the Islamic world, and press
and translation; and specialized committees for finances and legal
affairs.
In
anchoring this organization into Egyptian society, Al-Banna skillfully
relied on pre-existing social networks, in particular those built
around mosques, Islamic welfare associations, and neighborhood groups.
This weaving of traditional ties into a distinctively modern structure
was at the root of his success. Directly attached to the brotherhood,
and feeding its expansion, were numerous businesses, clinics, and
schools. In addition, members were affiliated to the movement through
a series of cells, revealingly called usar (families). The material,
social and psychological support thus provided were instrumental to
the movement's ability to generate enormous loyalty among its members
and to attract new recruits. The services and organizational structure
around which the society was built were intended to enable individuals
to reintegrate into a distinctly Islamic setting, shaped by the
society's own principles.
Rooted in Islam, Al-Banna's message tackled issues including
colonialism, public health, educational policy, natural resources
management, Marxism, social inequalities, Arab nationalism, the
weakness of the Islamic world on the international scene, and the
growing conflict in Palestine. By emphasizing concerns that appealed
to a variety of constituencies, Al-Banna was able to recruit from
among a cross-section of Egyptian society — though modern-educated
civil servants, office employees, and professionals remained dominant
among the organization's activists and decision makers.
As
the society expanded during the 1930s, it quickly changed from a
movement for spiritual and moral reform into an organization directly
active on the Egyptian political scene. Concurrent with that
transformation, radical tendencies asserted themselves within the
organization. A "secret apparatus" (al-jihaz al-sirri) was formed that
engineered a series of assassinations of enemies of the brotherhood.
Between 1948 and 1949, shortly after the society sent volunteers to
fight in the war in Palestine, the conflict between the monarchy and
the society reached its climax. Concerned with the increasing
assertiveness and popularity of the brotherhood, as well as with
rumors that it was plotting a coup, Prime Minister Nuqrashi Pasha
disbanded it in December 1948. The organization's assets were
impounded and scores of its members sent to jail. Less than three
weeks later, the prime minister was assassinated by a member of the
brotherhood. This in turn prompted the murder of Al-Banna, presumably
by a government agent, in February 1949, when Al-Banna was still only
43 and at the height of his career.
Though the society never fully recovered from the loss of its
charismatic founder, it survived. Since then, the brotherhood has
remained a significant force in the politics of several Arab
countries, either directly or through the movements it inspired. It
appeals most to cultural conservatives who want their government and
society to reflect and defend certain basic Islamic values and
principles, and who favor a pragmatic and incremental approach to
achieve these goals. The legacy of Al-Banna is thus still present, and
will continue to shape the destiny of Arab societies in the new
millennium.
