Pioneers of Modern Islamic Pietism
The offensive-activist Muslims resident in North America have not developed their missiological orientation in a vacuum. The majority of them adopted an internal-personal methodology traceable to two movements in the Muslim world which, despite the fact that they originated and evolved in different countries, display notable similarities in matters of ideology and praxis. The first of these movements was institutionalized in the organization known as al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (the Muslim Brothers) and was founded by the Egypuan Hasan al-Banna’ (1906-1949). The second movement took form in the Jama’at-i Islami, the brainchild of Abul A’la Mawdudi (1903-1979), who resided during the first half of his life in India and during the second in Pakistan.
Hasan al-Banna’ and the Muslim Brotherhood
Born in 1906, the eldest son of an imam, al-Banna’ was from his earliest days subjected to multiple influences. The encroachment of Western civilization upon his native Egypt, begun by Napoleon and then continued during the reign of Mehmet AH (r. 1805-1849), had produced conflicting ideologies among the scholars and politicians who shaped matters of public policy. The writings of Muhammad ‘Abduh, Rashid Rida, and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani served to increase the terment. The expanding activity of Christian missionaries in the Middle East was an additional factor, one that was particularly influential in the formation of al-Banna’s personal objectives for the organization he was to found.
His education at the University of Cairo gave him the intellectual underpinnings needed to produce a credible movement. much greater importance were the Sufi influences to which he was exposed throughout most of his life. Of particular importance was a Sufi merchant, Muhammad Abu Shousha, whom al-Banna’ befriended while a student. This shaykh related stories of “pious and virtuous Muslims” and so inspired the younger man that together they founded the Hasafi Welfare Society. The objectives of this agency were two:
In the first place it invited the people to build up a high moral character and to prevent from unislamic activities. In the second place it wanted to curb the activities of the Christian missionaries who were actually preaching Christianity in the garb of educationists and social workers.
Al-Banna’s involvement with this Sufi society continued for three years, while he completed his education at a teacher training college. “Moral degradation, anarchy and the western culture had overreached the city of Cairo. Hasan al-Banna’ realized this fact and felt that sermons of the mosque would not suffice to curb the ever-growing evil.”3 He began his movement in a fashion reminiscent of Spener’s collegia pietatis:
He formed an organization of… students … and sent them to the coffee-houses and public-places for the preaching of Islam. They asked the visitors to shun drinking of coffee, story-telling and such other idle activities and invited them to come to the fold of Islam.”
Political, economic, and social institutions were not the locus of his activity.
In a tract entitled “Our Mission” al-Banna’ stated that “we believe that Islam is an all-embracing concept which regulates every aspect of life, adjudicating on every one of its concerns and prescribing for it a solid and rigorous order.”
“Every aspect of life” included society, religion, politics, physical training, economics, education, and culture, the goal being to Islamize each of these and thus to establish an “Islamic Order” (al-nizam al-islami).
The logical order of the Muslim Brotherhood’s four main objectives clearly indicates this reversal in strategy from the traditional jihad:
1. Make every individual a true Muslim.
2. Develop the Muslim family on Islamic lines.
3. Establish a Muslim umma (community).
4. Establish an Islamic state in Egypt.
Al-Banna’ was a master of exhortation and encouragement and in his speeches always identified himself with the common man. The following excerpt is representative:
At that time there will be ready, Oh ye Muslim Brothers, 300 battalions, each one equipped spiritually with faith and belief, intellectually with science and learning, and physically with training and athletics, at that time you can demand of me to plunge with you through the turbulent oceans and to rend the skies with you and to conquer with you every obstinate tyrant. God willing, I will do it.