"The Brotherhood" … At the Threshold of the Elite of Intellect and Literature

During the early years of the establishment of
the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, Hassan al-Banna, the founder and first general guide
of the group, sought to get top-ranking intellectuals and figures in literature
and preaching to join the Muslim Brotherhood group for many reasons. Such
reasons included his desire to attract fans of writers and poets to the group
as well as his desire that the Muslim Brotherhood appears as a group that
contains all cultures and viewpoints. However, the majority of those who were
flattered by the group’s guide had rejected offers to join the group.
In the beginning of 1946, a public invitation
was made by al-Banna to the Egyptian historian Ahmad Amin al-Tabakh (1886-1956)
to accept the membership of the group. He wrote an article entitled "Open
Letter to Professor Ahmad Amin". In that article, he lauded the writings
of Amin and asked him to join the group; but the latter refused, and criticized
the dissension of the group from the work of preaching and the intrusion into politics.
In his book "Events that Made
History," Mahmoud Abdel Halim (1) recalls the description that el-Banna
gave to the Egyptian poet and writer Mostafa Saadeq al-Rafe'ie (1880-1937), saying, “Al-Banna was saying that he was similar to
"Hassan Ibn Thabit", the Prophet’s poet.” Abdel Halim, the founder of
the group, demanded the leaders of the group to speed up the discovery of
another person and prepare him to succeed al-Rafe'ie.
In the book, when Abdel Halim addressed preaching
in the era of the group’s founder Hassan al-Banna, he said that al-Banna was
putting the literature of al-Rafe'ie in the highest ranks of his
time, and saw him as a pioneer of Islamic literature. He also saw him similar
to Hassan Ibn Thabit, the Prophet Muhammad’s poet. He also knew by heart many
of his poetry and had many of his books. Abdel Halim said that the Guide was
keen on bringing up the successor of al-Rafe'ie because Islamic preaching does
not dispense with the pen that defends it in the world of literature."
Allegations of Abluted Hands
In the book titled "The Inspiration of the
Pen" by the Egyptian writer Mostafa Saadeq al-Rafe'ie, there is a story
called "The Abluted Hands”. The Brotherhood claims that some of the story’s
texts were omitted because of al-Rafe'ie’s amplification of the
role of the group and the praising of it. He narrates that when he was
performing Friday prayers at one of the mosques, a group of young men objected
to the manner of the mosque imam and therefore they took up the floor and
started to speak to the people about Palestine, its situation and what the
Zionist occupation did to it.
Al-Rafe'ie said: "When I performed
the prayer, the people were agitated, as a group of young men started to shout and
stopped him to talk to the people. Then, one of them spoke. He mentioned Palestine
and what happened to it and how the conditions of its people changed, their
jihad and the disorders. Then, he called for help and asked the rich and the
poor to donate and give money for the sake of God, the Almighty. His companions
then held sealed boxes and went around people to collect a few dirhams. In this
case, they were the dirhams for giving up their consciences. When the sheikhs asked
them, “Who are you?” they answered, “We are from the Muslim Brotherhood group.”
In the 1930s, the name of the young man Abdel
Moneim Khallaf, who wrote periodical articles in the weekly magazine Al-Resala
Al-Adabiya (2), emerged. Al-Banna wanted to make this thinker and impact his
thoughts in a way that serves the Muslim Brotherhood, especially that Khallaf
had previously been an imam at the Young Muslims Association (a social
association of an Islamic nature that al-Banna contributed to its establishment
in 1927).
Mahmoud Abdel Halim claims that the crises
experienced by the group disrupted Khallaf’s joining of the group and
benefiting from his thoughts. There is another more genuine story, saying that
Khallaf refused to join the group. By looking into the articles he wrote, it is
clear that he was an open-minded personality and that he called for renewing
the religious discourse and expected Pan-Arabism. He also wrote articles on the
need to eradicate racism and not fight whoever adopts a different ideology or
doctrine --- principles that do not go in tandem with the Muslim Brotherhood
ideology.
Attempts to Attract New Followers
Al-Banaa realized the role of writers and
preachers in attracting young followers. For him, that has ensured the flow of
new supporters to his group. Among these was Ismail Hamdi, the preacher in
Alexandria (north-west of the Nile Delta). He recommended that he be given
attention and presented to the scene as a new face, through which he could be dealing
with young people at mosques.
During one of al-Banna’s trips to Upper Egypt,
he was accompanied by Hamdi and asked him to lead them in the evening prayer.
As a prelude to his appearance, before the prayer, al-Banna whispered to the
young man that the journey was exhausting for him and for his companions. Hamdi
decided to pray using only short surahs (chapters) out of mercy for the tired
sheikh and his guests. However, al-Banna’s opinion was different from the
preacher. He said: "How do you pray using the short chapters?" Hamdi
replied: "You said that you are tired and therefore I wanted to make it
easy for you.” Al-Banna said: "O brother, the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) told
Bilal to start the prayer for our rest and not told him to get us a rest from
it.”
Al-Banna gave space to Hamdi, with all his
means, but the stages of collapse that the group experienced in the 1950s and
1960s prevented his dream from being realized.
(1) Member of the
founding body of the Muslim Brotherhood (1917 - 1999), and the first historian of
the history of the group. He wrote his encyclopedic book: "The Muslim
Brotherhood: Events that Made History."
(2) A cultural magazine headed by the Egyptian
writer Ahmed Hassan al-Zayat (1885-1968) in 1933, where he wrote most articles
on the top figures of Arabic literature at the time, such as: Akkad, Sayed
Qutb, Ahmed Amin, Mohamed Farid Abu Hadid, Ahmed Zaki, Mustafa Abdel Razek,
Mostafa Saadeq al-Rafe'ie, Taha Hussein, Mahmoud Mohammed Shaker and Al-Shabi.