Hassan al Banna (1906-1949)

Presented byAmanina Kamarudin

Siti Hajar IbrahimFatin Hanani Mat Radzi

Edited byDr. Md. Mahmudul Hasan

International Islamic University Malaysia2011

• He was born in Mahmudiyya (north west of Cairo), Egypt on 14 October 1906.

• His father, Shaykh Ahmad al Banna was a respected local imam and Islamic scholar and was educated at Al-Azhar University. His father also had a shop where he repaired watches and sold gramophones.

• Hassan al-Banna is known to have made a great impact on modern Islamic thought. He re-introduces Islam as an all-inclusive system of life, providing a practical example through his society and writings. He endeavors to bring about the changes he hoped for through institution-building, relentless activism at the grassroots level, and a reliance on mass communication.

• Hassan al Banna is best known as the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan Muslimin) which is the largest and most influential Islamic organization in the 20th century.

• His greatest achievement was perhaps his ability to create a sophisticated, organisational structure aiming to translate his vision into real life. However, what distinguishes the Ikhwan from other groups established around its time is its holistic approach. The Ikhwan was not merely a social, political or religious association or group but it addressed many other avenues of work.

Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Banna

Hasan Al Banna (14th Oct 1906)

Abdurrahman (28th Sept 1908)

Fathimah (3rd Feb 1911)

Muhammad (10th Feb 1913)

Abdul Bashith (16th Aug 1915)

Hajjah Ummu Sa’d

Zainab (16th Feb 1919)

Jamal al Banna (15th Dec 1920)

Fauziyah (10th Mac 1923)

Education• Hassan al Banna’s father taught him Qur’an and

several Islamic books many of which he memorized. He also memorized many many hadiths and thousand lines of poetry. Hassan al Banna also arranged a syllabus to be studied by himself and other siblings.

• By the age of thirteen, al Banna was already involved in politics, and participated in demonstrations during the revolution of 1919 against British rule.

• Hassan al Banna joined the Hasafiya Sufi order when he was 15.

• He entered the State Teacher's Training Center and graduated first in his class in 1923 at the age of 16.

• Al Banna moved to Cairo to enter the Dar al Ulum college in 1923.

• Because of his father's connections in the religious community, he met prominent Islamic scholars and benefitted from them.

Love in the House of Hassan al Banna

• Hassan al Banna was very tender and kind to women. His had high regard for Muslim women and acknowledged their importance in Ikhwanul Muslimin. He recognized the capability of women to spread da’wah as effectively as men can do. His just treatment of women prompts many writers to write about his family and how he successfully brought up his children to become duwwat (callers to Islam).

• Hassan al Banna gained enormous support from everyone of his family members no matter how hard the situation was. When he furthered his study at Cairo, he was actively participated in religious movements. The situation was quite heavy when there were hostile elements against them. His mother was very anxious and persuaded his father to move to town.

• His children claim that he never raised his voice when talking to his wife. He had a wonderful relationship with his wife and children.

• Lathifah (wife) asserts: “The family of Hasan al Banna is the most wonderful gift in my life.” Lathifah contributed a lot in terms of raising the children when Hassan al Banna remained busy with da’wah.

Towards the End of His Life and the Assassination

• On 14 Oct 1941, Hassan al Banna gave a speech criticizing Britain’s political system and WWII.

• He criticized the peace treaty conducted between Egypt’s government and US. He believed that the freedom of media, constitution, parliament and rulings would fall in the hand of America.

• At that time, Egypt became liberal and modern. Conventional banks practiced Riba and bribery. Egypt’s wealth was in the control of America and many Muslims died due to starvation.

• As-Syawisy Abdul Hamid disclosed the plot of killing him.(Salim Pasha Zaki paid several armies to assassinate Hassan al Banna. Each army received 200 Egypt pounds and golden watches by Raja Farouk. Initially, As- Syawisy Abdul Hamid was not aware that he was recruited for the special plot of killing the founder of Ikhwanul Muslimin. Hassan al Banna and his brother-in-law were framed when they went to Jamiyyah al Syubban to negotiate with Zaki Ali Basya (government representative) who did not turn up. People were not allowed to pass by the street and the electricity was cut down. Hassan al Banna was shot 6 times. With blood all over him, he went inside the building to call for ambulance. However, the ambulance arrived 30 minutes late and the doctors were not allowed to treat him.)

• Hassan al Banna was martyred on 12 Feb 1949 (14 Rabiul Awal 1368H) when he was only 43 years old and at the height of his career.

• 10 years after his death, his father (Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Banna) died. Sheikh Ahmad was buried next to him. His daughter said that the dead body of Hasan al Banna was not ruined at all. His face looked like he was sleeping with a smile.

Ikhwan al-Muslimin

• Hassan founded Ikhwan al Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood).

• Ikhwan has set a very successful example of Islamic training and education.

Its aim

• Training the modern Muslims who may understand Islam with all their senses, keep faith in it with whole-hearted inclination and try to mould their own and their families’ lives according to the tenets of Islam, and start a crusade to raise the Word of God to enforce His law and to knit His followers in the string of unity.

Islamic Training / Education

The correct and fixed method of training, whose signs are clear, origin evident, surrounding and environment bright, connected with methods of policy and wisdom whose philosophy is profited by and taken from Islam and Islam only.

• Al Banna established a united and organised society whose evident quality was that, with assistance and unity, it could help each Muslim to spend his life according to Islam, and be of mutual support to his spiritual and practical powers.

• Assemblage is a force which helps every individual to embrace virtue and submission and provides safety from vice and sin.

• ‘Islamizing’ of Egypt as the means of redemption from the ‘slow annihilation and profound and complete corruption’ occasioned by the British colonial presence.

• Ikhwan distinguished between ‘external imperialism’ and ‘domestic imperialism’.

• Egyptians were warned against this ‘cultural imperialism’ which entered the minds of the people with its teachings and thoughts and which tried to dominate the social situation in the country.

Writing

An essay entitledOur Message

Vindication

• The Muslim Brotherhood has transcended the limits of mere personal ambition: held material gain in contempt, abandoned all selfish impulses and goals, and gone forward on the path laid down by al Haqq (God).

• “Say you (Muhammad): This is my way: I invite to God with sure knowledge, I and whosoever follows me (must also invite others to God), glorified and exalted be God, I am not of the polytheists.” (Qur’an, 12: 108)

Love and Care• “We wish our people to know that we love

them more than we love ourselves, we love to sacrifice, and to fulfill their greatness.”

• “My friends, rest assured we are for you and no one else, we shall never be against you at any time.”

Two FaithsThe People

• Anaesthetized faith, lying dormant within their souls, one to which they do not wish to submit and act accordingly.

Muslim Brotherhood

• A burning, blazing, intense faith fully awakened in the souls of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Our Islam• The mission of the Muslim Brotherhood is the

preaching of a principle.

• “Our mission is one described most comprehensively by the term ’Islamic’.”

• Islam is an all embracing concept regulating every aspect of life, prescribing for every one it concerns a solid and rigorous order.

• It does not stand helpless before life’s problems, nor the steps that must be taken to reform mankind.

• “Our mission is ‘Islamic’ in every sense of the word, so understand by it what you will, but remember your understanding is confined to the Book of God, the Sunnah of his Apostle, and the lives of the pious predecessors.”

ATTITUDE TOWARD THE VARIOUS IDEOLOGIES

• Whatever is in accord with it is welcomed; but whatever clashes with it, they reject it.

• The mission is universal and all encompassing, but that does not mean that it turns its back on the beneficial aspects of any other mission, without familiarizing and consulting itself with regard to them.

• Three basic principles about which the ideology of the Brotherhood revolves :

i. The proper program of action: The Brotherhood have found it in God’s Book, the Sunnah of His Apostle, and the precepts of Islam.

ii. Believing workers: The Brotherhood have taken it upon themselves to apply what they have understood of Allah’s religion without indulgence or slackness.

iii. A determined, trustworthy leadership: The Muslim Brotherhood have found their leadership to be of this character, and so they are obedient to it and work under its banner.

References

• Muhammad Lili Nur Aulia (2010). Persembahan Cinta Isteri Hasan al Banna. Kuala Lumpur: Alam Maya Enterprise.

• Yusuf Al Qardawi (1984). Islamic Education and Hassan al Banna. Lebanon: The Holy Quran Publishing House.

• Muhammad Kamil Ab. Majid (1990). Tokoh-tokoh Pemikir Islam. Selangor: Budaya Ilmu sdn. Bhd.