When the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by six young men in the home of a young man named Hasan al-Banna (b.1906-d.1949), no one knew that a hundred years later it would be remembered as the most influential Islamic society. At a time when the ummah, which was like a human body, was being torn off one by one and eventually left headless, it managed to preserve the connection of hundreds of thousands of Muslims to Islam by living and perpetuating only the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet.
Hasan al-Banna did not withdraw to the mosque and live a solitary life, nor did he try to gather people for his society by just shouting in the squares. He tried to carry what our prophet and his companions did to the twentieth century. He gave his speech wherever he went without waiting for a podium, a table or an invitation card; he sent soldiers to Palestine when necessary, but he also made it a condition for entering the society to pray five times a day in congregation. He worked for the hereafter as if he were going to die tomorrow, but he worked for this world as if he were never going to die. As a result of this effort and good will, the members of the society were soon praised for being descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
In this story, we will witness how this case that he led would be interpreted by a non-Muslim if it were to happen in practice.
Hafiz Carpenter
In the late 1920s, Monsieur Solinet, of French origin, was working as the chief engineer of the Suez Canal in Egypt. One day, he called a carpenter to his house to repair some equipment and asked him how much he wanted to pay. When the carpenter, nicknamed Hafiz , said, “ 130 cents ,” Monsieur’s face turned red and he blurted out, “ What, you’re a thief! ” In response to this insult, the carpenter remained calm and asked, “ Why ?”
“ Because you are asking for more than it is worth! ” Hafiz said, “ I do not want more. You can ask one of the engineers you preside over. If I want more, I will do the job for free as a penalty, but if it turns out that the fee I ask is reasonable, I will not ask for more than you .” Monsieur Solinet found this idea appealing and immediately called one of the engineers. When he learned that the job was worth 200 kuruş, he turned to Hafiz and said, “ Come on, start doing it .” In response, the carpenter said that he would start the job and rightfully had one condition, “ You insulted me, you must first apologize .”
Monsieur Solinet’s eyes opened, his face turned red as a beet again. How could a noble, high-ranking Frenchman like him apologize to an Egyptian from the rabble? As if it were not enough that he had rejected this condition outright, he increased the level of insult and said that he would never apologize even if he were the king. Hafez, on the other hand, was consistent in the calmness he had maintained from the beginning. ” As if the insult you have given me was not enough, you have also insulted my king in my country. Being a guest in this country would at least require you to observe the etiquette of being a guest. ”
Monsieur growled in the man’s face and started pacing around the garden. “ I didn’t apologize to you, what will you do? ” Hafiz said, “ First I will write to the French Consulate, and then to the Suez Canal Board of Directors. I will also write to the French newspapers and personally tell the board members I see about the incident. If I can’t do anything, I will shout at the top of my lungs in the street, the avenue, and the marketplace and return your insult to you. I will not back down from this without getting my rights in some way .”
The man who listened to what was said with great attention scratched his head, held his chin, and decided that this man, who was adding to his astonishment one by one, was not a carpenter but a militant. “ But I am the chief engineer of the Suez Canal!”
“ The Suez Canal is in my country, not yours. It will continue to be in my country after you.” Monsieur gave up now and extended his hand, saying, “ Okay, I apologize to you .” Accepting this apology, the carpenter immediately got to work. When Solinet wanted to give him an extra 20 cents as an apology, he refused and only took the first fee he had asked for. Monsieur was now going to make a confession after this last behavior. “ I wonder why all Arab craftsmen are not like you. I guess you are from the family of Muhammad .” What was the wisdom behind a Frenchman assuming that an ordinary carpenter was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)?
Establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood Society
The hero of this story, the carpenter Hafiz , knocked on Hasan al-Banna’s door one night a while ago. He had four other brothers with him. They had come to be the companions of a man of cause whom they had listened to in coffeehouses and conferences in various places, who was perhaps younger than them but who was sleeplessly wandering about with the troubles of the ummah.
One night in 1928, these enthusiastic young people gathered at Hasan’s house and expressed their wishes as follows:
We have listened to you, we have confirmed you, but we do not know which path to work on for the good of Islam and Muslims. Neither the Arabs nor the Muslims have any value in this country. Their dignity has been destroyed. We have nothing but the blood of dignity and honor flowing through our veins, a few pennies for the maintenance of our children, and our faithful soul. We cannot run for the cause like you, but we want you to take on our responsibility and make us run for the necessary work in order to be free from responsibility in the sight of Allah. We believe that those who set out only for the sake of Allah, to die on that path, can achieve victory, even if their numbers are small.
Hasan al-Banna, who was deeply affected by these sincere words, accepted to undertake their responsibility and said, “ Effort is from us, help is from Allah . ” That night, one of the largest and most effective Islamic societies of the last centuries, the Muslim Brotherhood, was founded. The first program of the society included reading the Quran with tajweed, memorizing the surahs, studying tafsir and hadith, strengthening the creed, knowing Islamic etiquette, becoming familiar with the lives of the Prophet (pbuh) and the old scholars, and receiving training in da’wah and conferences.
Symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood Society
When the first sprouts of this society began to show themselves in social life, it became clear that they were on the right track. The fact that the first members sold the goods they had a hard time selling at a fraction of their value so that people could easily buy them, that they protected the honor and trust of their employers like their own eyes and never betrayed them, and that carpenters like Hafiz were both honest and never bowed down to anyone, made us think that this society was of the blood of the Prophet Muhammad.
Society had become so corrupt and greedy for material things that it was believed that those who did what was necessary were descended from the prophets. Here, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna, saw the solution to social and moral problems: The real issue is that this sincerity, which has penetrated into the souls of its members, should also affect people and spread like a wave throughout society. When people embody this in their consciousness, individual, social and universal problems will be solved.” Benna’s message that night actually included the following words of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh):
If a person does not want for his Muslim brother what he wants for himself, he is not a perfect believer. [1]
In the early years of the twentieth century, in that dark time when the Islamic world was bleeding from all sides, when secularization had penetrated to the bones; when Muslims were ashamed of their own selves, could not share their religion anywhere, and were afraid of everything but Allah; Hasan al-Banna and five sincere believers with him drew the vivid portrait of this hadith. They made Islam livable in the midst of those who said Islam could no longer be lived. They did what great armies, tanks, and rifles could not do with just a few minutes of honesty and fearlessness, and they did it and became members of the family of the Prophet Muhammad.
But they believed that every Muslim was from the family of the Prophet Muhammad, but many Muslims had established relations with colonialists and suffered a decline in morality and social life. In other words, the only thing that needed to be done was to remind all Muslims who they belonged to and who they had established a bond of brotherhood with.