The Prophetic migration... honored by Islam, defiled by Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood has hitherto been falsely citing and deducing events and information regarding the holy Prophetic Hejira (Migration) throughout the different speeches of their leaders.

By doing this, the brotherhood seeks to sanctify fugitives; by portraying their escape as a “migration” and excommunicating those who disagree with them.

Migration means escaping to Istanbul

The brotherhood claims that all the torture and harassment that Prophet Mohamed and his followers were subjected to before the Hejira are similar to the status of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that fleeing to Turkey, Qatar or the United Kingdom is another kind of Hejira.

Muslim Brotherhood member and Salafi preacher Wagdy Ghoneim made up a reference for the Rabaa sign, which is identical to one common gesture for the number four, from the Quran as he cited Surah Ali 'Imran [3:195]: “Those who emigrated and were driven out from their homesteads and were persecuted in My cause, and who fought and were slain.”

The Rabaa sign is a hand gesture and a sign that first appeared in late August 2013, and is thought to be originated from Turkey. The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in Egypt used it in the wake of the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flashed the Rabaa sign during a rally of his Justice and Development (AK) Party in 2013 in the northwestern province of Bursa.

This year, the Muslim Brotherhood bemoaned that “Islam returned to being strange, as it started,” and the reason behind that is because the brotherhood became vulnerable, while trying to point at similarities between the Prophetic migration and the escape of Muslim Brotherhood members who left their homes to save themselves.

Incomplete Islam

Saleh Al 'Ashmawy, a 1940s Muslim Brotherhood leader, prefaced an article that he wrote on the occasion of the Hijri year 1363 with, “I will speak of another Hejira (Meaning the Muslim Brotherhood) than the PropheticHejira, and how similar and related the two migrations are.”

“Less than fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet migrated from Mecca, which was a place of polytheism, idolatry, vice, injustice and booze, to Medina to struggle for the sake of Allah and spread the doctrine of monotheism, only to make people happy with the most just legislation.”

“Humanity is degrading once more, and here we are, living among idolaters who worshipped idols, and nowadays, people worship money, desires, positions and power, creating more gods than the Jahiliyyah (Age of Ignorance, the period of time and state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam).”

Jahiliyyah of the Society

In 1944, Ashmawy described how Egyptian women dressed then with “Tabarruj (Display of a woman’s beauty) of the first Jahiliyyah”; he said the society became similar to pre-Islamic societies and that God sends people who would “renew” these affairs, referring to Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the brotherhood.

By comparing Banna to the Prophet, Ashmawy made it look like if Islam was incomplete and Banna came to fill the gap; in 1928, Ashmawy said Banna appeared to call for the “right belief”, so the brotherhood followed and believed in him.

In his article, Ashmawy called for “another migration” from the society that he described as “defiled and full of corruption” to a purer and clearer atmosphere. “So we left our families and friends, and we began talking to them about Islam, Jihad and martyring, however, they looked at us as if we were talking with a foreign tongue that they do not understand.”

He also confessed that during migration, brotherhood members tend to fuel their call and doctrine and strengthen their bonds, while preparing their lines.

Migration and ‘Mastership of World'

Hassan al-Hudaybi, the second general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed that the brotherhood’s call is the “absolute religion”. In one of the articles he wrote on the occasion of a new Hijri year, Hudaybi claimed that the brotherhood is calling for the “true religion” that includes no philosophy or books to read day and night, “a religion that only calls for praying, paying alms, and admitting that Allah is the only god and that Muhammad is his prophet.”

Hudaybi also claimed that the brotherhood’s call came to change beliefs, like how Islam changed the belief of worshiping idols and fire. Moreover, he described migration as a “reformist” movement in the history of Islam and a necessary step to achieve higher goals, referring to the brotherhood’s ultimate goal, which is to achieve“Mastership of World”.

Migration to destroy Islam

Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa said extremist groups take advantage of some concepts to trick young people and use them to destroy countries and defame Islam. He also pointed out that the kind of migration that such groups call for to establish the “Islamic State” is not considered an Islamic migration, as on the contrary, people should quit laziness, unemployment and taking advantage of religion, and start working and producing so that the nation could rise.

Gomaa added, during a ceremony on the occasion of the new Hijri year on Monday, that extremist groups misused religion, affirming that no one dares to outbid the Islam of a country that has more than 140 thousand mosques.

An anti-religious approach

According to Abdel Maksoud Basha, professor of history and civilization at Al-Azhar University, this confusion and misuse to a significant religious event such as the Prophetic migration by the Muslim Brotherhood is considered a clear anti-religious approach.

“They are only thinking of attacking and overthrowing the state, while utilizing all of their resources to fund media platforms that broadcast from Turkey and Qatar to transfer their terrorist ideologies to young people,” Basha said in an interview.

He also affirmed that they echo the ideas and thoughts of their guides without observing or thinking into them, like the books of leading brotherhood member Sayyid Qutb that are full of hatred and erroneous mistakes about the concepts of migration and the Islamic caliphate, pointing out that these concepts must be fixed and put in their right contexts.