This is last article of the series "Frescoes" I hope you enjoyed it. (thanks André)
Yehia Mike Sharobim 

The author of this series "Egyptian Frescoes" André Dirlik was born in Egypt and spent the first twenty years of his life in Cairo, then moved to Beirut where he studied at the American University. He later completed his studies at Mc Gill University, in Montreal. 

André's long career as professor exclusively at the "Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean" was only interrupted when that institution closed it's doors in 1995. 

Egyptian Frescoes part (19 of 19) issued with the permission of the author. 

Egyptian Frescoe (19): al-Islam huwa al-Hall – sequence two.

‘Ali was a seasoned politician, one who had a realistic vision of what his country ought to become in this 21^st century. Egypt enjoyed a tradition of learning. Its position, at the crossroads of continents, had it called upon to play certain roles in International Politics. Egypt was also recovering from the throes of Colonialism and slowly but surely was coming of age. What this meant was that it was redefining itself in the light of the Waning of the West. ‘’The saga of my country, since Muhammad ‘Ali Basha chose to open it up to Europe, suggests that the story of change from our Medieval past to our near future, is still unfolding, said ‘Ali. When Bonaparte landed in Egypt, he brought us into European geo-politics. Muhammad ‘Ali indicated that we could fare on our own but then, the digging of a canal, at Suez, made us the prey of the British. We survived their military occupation for many decades. Finally, we reached our independence, nominally at least. In the meantime, new social forces were emerging along the Nile Valley which resulted from wars with Israel and oil money. The latest episode in this saga is our participation in an Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged successful from this revolt against military rule. The Ikhwan will form a government and rewrite the constitution. The Islamic character of the future state indicates that Egypt, not unlike Russia, China, India, Latin America and the rest of the non-Western world, is opting for its own particularities and peculiarities in the Community of Nations’’.

 ‘’Do you see this development as being a step in the direction of the inevitable, I asked? I am not a determinist although  I am fascinated by Marxist analysis. I would like to remind all of us that the days of Dar ul-Islam and Dar ul- Harb, where Muslims and non-Muslims lived separate from each other is over. Muslims are part and parcel of the international community. They participate in the activities of the United Nations and will bend certain rule but never reject all the rules’’. Upon which Erdogan remarked: ‘’I understand what you are saying. We still crave, in Turkey, to join the EEC yet, internally, we acknowledge that our people aspire to be Muslim as well as European. We know we can achieve modernity without, for that matter, forsaking our cultural identity and our beliefs. In fact, we are taking our queue from America and the Europeans who have not abandoned their nationalities. I told the Ihvan leadership so, when I met with them here, in Cairo. And, our commitment to secularism remains the surest guarantee to preserve our Turkishness and our Muslimness. At the same time, our internationalism  guarantees our individual freedoms and rights as we partake fully in the human odyssey’’.

Jamal ed-Din had turned toward EWS who sat next to him: ‘’Ustadh, I have enjoyed your Orientalism very much. I wish you had written it while ‘Abduh and I were in Paris. You know we met with Ernest Renan and Gabriel Hannotaux and had heated exchanges with both, as you tell us you have experienced recently with Mister Samu’il. The two Frenchmen were using Islam to prove that Religion stands in the way of Science. We argued back that, in fact, if there was a religion that encouraged Science it was Islam, a logical religion, unlike Christianity. But let me return to Orientalism. I had not seen the link between Literature and Colonialism before I read you. You, Mister Samu’il, should read this book. I recommend it. You may then understand the Muslims and, more important, understand yourselves’’. Edward felt he had to explain how he had developed his interest for Orientalism, having previously spent his academic concerns in Comparative Literature. ‘’I was born in Palestine an American citizen. I went to study in the US and soon discovered that my deeper identity brought me close to the Arabs. When I read French and British authors of the 19^th century, I was startled by the manner in which words and images about the Orient opened the way to the colonization of the East. Knowledge helps us dominate the one we have come to know. And, in order to dominate, we have to justify it to ourselves. Take, for instance, Islamic Studies in the West today: scholars in this field love Islam but not Muslims. They use their knowledge of Islam to weaken Muslims. Would you say this is a fair observation, Sam’’? Huntington was busy gulping his food and did not respond.

Edward Said

Hassan had turned to ‘Abduh and asked: ‘’Shaykh ‘Abduh, your contribution towards making the European Sciences palatable to Muslims has been a historical one and thanks to you did my father acquiesce to my studies in electronics both in Warsaw and Toulouse. The Sciences which we borrowed from the Europeans and now the Americans are bound to change our societies as they have theirs. Islam, as a result, will have to evolve as has Christianity. Don’t you agree? Well, quite and not quite. In fact, Islam is, like the Sciences, a rational religion replied the ‘Alim. That is in theory, Shaykh Muhammad, retorted ibn Rushd who, in his excitement, dropped his stuffed pigeon off the table.  ‘’Ma tshilsh hamm ya ‘Allama’’, said Mokhtar as he ordered that the necessary be taken care of by the Sufragi. ‘’Allah ye khalliq, mumbled ibn Rushd to Mokhtar: ‘’So your wife is Japanese? Yes, from a traditional and yet modern family as only the Japanese can be both at the same time. The Japanese embarked upon their reforms shortly after our Muhammad ‘Ali Basha began his own and look how far they have travelled since. We must learn from them. We can be Muslim and Modern. In fact, my father was such an individual and he set himself as an example to his three children. Our immediate neighbour in Ma’adi and a friend of the family was, I remember, Shaykh Hasanayn Makhluf, the Mufti of Egypt and a successor to Shaykh ‘Abduh. He was neat and elegant in his century old Azhari attire. He walked daily to the train station and back and smiled at people on the street who smiled back. He was often seen and heard laughing. He was curious of the way of the Ingiliz and asked many questions about them. He was a wise man as well as a pleasant one. When I trained in the Soviet Union with the Navy, I discovered that their Communist Party members would not smile. In America where I now live, their Salafis who live in the Bible Belt don’t smile either. And, on the TV screen, I don’t see Salafi Jews, living in their illegal settlements, smiling in Israel. Nor do Egypt’s Salafis today smile either. Explain this to me... Ibn Rushd nodded as if he had understood.

Shaykh ‘abd al-Raziq wanted to underline the good nature of Egyptians when he reminisced loudly: ‘’When I was a Talib at al-Azhar, I often met with friends at Abu-l-Futuh’s, close to al-Husayn, facing al-Ghuriyyah. We drank mint tea or Libdon tea from China or gahwah from Maqha, in Yaman and we smoked the Shisha. We could play backgammon or dama, read al-Ahram and talk about our courses and our teachers. Shaykh ‘Abduh and Sayyid Jamal ed-Din were amongst those I admired very much.

During Ramadan, in the evenings we mingled with student from al-Ibrahimiyyah and were entertained by competitions of Afiyah, the jousting of words that rimed. It is at al-Fishawi that I was exposed to the city’s exceptional humour. This was the time I was thinking of writing al-Islam wa Usul al-Hukm. You will remember that the book was badly received by King Fu’ad who aspired then to became Caliph of the Muslims and saw to it that my fellow Azharis turn against me. I had learnt at al-Fishawi to laugh it off and so retained my sanity and my good humour’’. ibn Rushd nodded: he too had experienced rejection. He remarked, however, to himself how much this had embittered him.

The presence of the Cordovan in our midst had intimidated a few, elated others and exasperated those who felt that his rigorous rationalism was a threat to Islam. The Mufti was back charging: ‘’You have argued, remarked ‘Abduh, that logic and religion have the same goals, the quest for the truth. Do you mean that they are interchangeable? Yes, they are because Allah is Logic. And, religion should consequently and necessarily be logical. But this is Kufr whispered ‘Abduh: you sound like the Sufis who give priority to Haqigah over Shari’a. I could not agree more, Kardasim, my brothers, interjected Yünüs’’. The General, feeling that the Ikhwan had been let off the hook and that war was brewing between Theologian, Philosopher and Mystic, interrupted what appeared to be a most explosive debate: ‘’We are going to serve watermelon which we will accompany with our Egyptian cheese, Gibna Baramil. Also, from my farm, I have sent for fresh cream and honey which should go well with the Fitir Mishaltit which Umm ‘Uways is presently baking’’.  Every one burst out laughing at the General’s diplomatic skills. God forbid the next President be another military man. But Adham had raised his baritone voice: ‘’we are just pausing. This discussion must resume as soon as possible. Don’t you realize that Khawaga Huntington is taking notes? And you Dr. Jamali, don’t forget what you intended to say’’.

The watermelon was oozing with sweetness and the harshness of the goat cheese made one’s palate remind of the meals that expected us in Heaven, Islam’s’ heaven that is as neither Edward nor I wished to go to that of the Christians’. Although we had never recited the Shahada, many of us Christians from the Middle East were culturally Muslims. This, neither the Americans, the Israelis or many Muslims understood.

Our Sufragi was taking orders for white coffee or coffee with much, little or no sugar. When asked by Hasan how he took his coffee, Erdogan answered: ‘’Sadat, like your past President, and he grinned’’. Shishas, water pipes that hubble and bubble, were also available and even Professor Huntington ordered one. Shaykh ‘abd il-Raziq said in Arabic: ‘’do you think he will turn green in the face like the flag of King Fu’ad while he smokes our Mu’assil tobacco’’?

Adham had received a very fine Arabic and Islamic education. He spoke impeccable English and his French was above average. He learnt Italian when he studied opera with the reputed Ettore Cordone at the Conservatoire in Cairo. Adham had been living in Hawaii for decades. When members of the Islamic Centre of Honolulu asked our Mufti/Kahuna where the Qibla, the direction of Mecca, was he replied: ‘’you can pray in any direction you wish’’. What he did not tell was that Honolulu and Makkah were on the same Great Circle. This was not unlike when Rusen preached that the Inuits would never convert to Islam unless and until ignorant ‘Ulama’ understood that these good People of the North could not fast Ramadan, their days being six months long in the summer. Unlike Averroes’ final conclusion that he could not prove through logic that God did or did not exist and that the Cordovan had finally reverted to Faith to settle the question... ‘’am I quoting you right? Yes, retorted ibn Rushd. I chose, continued Adham, to spend my life in the Seven Seas diving for the truth. I found beautiful fishes and corals instead. I used to dance with the sharks instead of the angels. Had I not now been afflicted by this disease which Khawaga Parkinson plagued me with, I would have translated into Arabic for you, gentlemen in robes, Rudolf Carnap’s work in which he formulates the details of logical syntax in philosophical and theological analysis. You see, I have no use for ibn ‘Arabi and al-Farabi, Mawlana Yünüs. al-Zamakhshiri, al-Ghazzali and al-Qurtubi leave me cold, Shaykh ‘Abduh. Pray, tell me, ya Shaykhna, and you, Mahmud, how one can cleanse the mind of our Nation from the nonsense that has lingered in their heads since Pharaoh’s times’’. Mahmud was an educator like Hasan al-Banna. He believed Egyptians would soon be drawn out of their ignorance. But Egypt and Islam had suffered from the colonial experience and the Ikhwan now intended to complete the process of decolonisation of the Egyptian mind. Egypt was part and parcel of the new world. It could best participate once its fundamental values were rehabilitated. And, creating a modern, twenty first century, Islamic society was, according to him, the soundest avenue open to Egyptians. Shaykh ‘Abduh then recited: ‘’Qalat al-A’rabu Amanna Qull lahum la Taqulu Amanna bal Qulu Aslamna wa lamm yadkhulu al-Imanu fi Qulubikum wa in Tuti’u Allah wa al-Rasul fa lan Yaltikum ‘alyakum Shay’an: submitting to the laws of God counts more than believing in Him.

I have devoted my latest readings, continued Adham, to Edward Gibbon’s The Decline of the Roman Empire and to the Scientific American Magazine instead of attempting to understand the purpose of God. But you can dive and be a Mu’min, a Believer, my son, said ibn Khaldun. Look at how man copes through faith with his reality? ibn Battuta, my contemporary, left us what you call ya Andareh a frescoe of Islam around the world we then knew in our 15^th century. Had he been your contemporary, he would have visited Europe, Canada, America and Australia and spoken about Muslims there. It will startle you to learn that, in the Greater Atlas Mountains, the Imazig who are Muslims eat wild boar, wild pig that is, and justify it on the basis of the verse Wa Hulla ‘alaykum Sayda al-Barri wa-l Bahri. Even under water, ya ibni ya Adham, you will find verses of the Qur’an addressing you’’.

But Hassan had other concerns over the Coranic text. ‘’While the Qur’an remained sacred and was revealed by Allah to his Prophet verbally, it is in its written form that we heed its meaning. Hassan quoted: Huwa l-ladhi Anzala ‘alayka al-Kitaba... He it is who Revealed the Book to thee; some of its verses are decisive – they are the basis of the Book – and others are allegorical. Then those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part of it which is allegorical, seeking to mislead, and seeking to give it their own interpretation. And the verse continues: and none knows its interpretation safe Allah, and those firmly rooted in Knowledge... Hassan paused and stared at the present ‘Ulama’: ‘’knowledge of Arabic, of Hebrew, of Aramean and Nabatean, if we claim to understand every word the Qur’an utilises, and knowledge of the Sciences of course? How many in the Madrasahs have acquired such knowledge and how can any ‘Alim, let alone simple minded Salafi, claim to know which Path was devised by the Creator for us to follow’’?

The supporting staff had been clearing the grounds of water pipes and empty coffee cups and I could notice them discreetly gulp the left-over of alcohol from glasses and bottles. I knew General Hasan hated the English but favoured British military decorum. Already the Sofragiyyah were bringing clean glasses, bottles of Coca Cola, Scotch Whiskey and ice cubes. I could not drink any longer. The Churchill brand of cigarettes, the best, was being circulated as well, and I, like everyone else, helped myself to one from the tin box where a Bulldog was drawn on its cover. Yünüs went Aman, Aman, after the first puffs. Rusen bent forward: ‘’Hoca, this is the best of Hashish. It comes from Lubnan’’. General Hasan had, also, invited the Mazziket Hasaballah Ensemble from the neighbourhood of al-Sayyida Zaynab where Mahmud once dwelt and they were instructed to play and sing Egyptian folk tunes and songs but not too loudly. The guests had been moving around and exchanging seats. The Mameluk had his arm around Recep Bey’s shoulder and they both laughed about matters that pertained to the Military. Jamal ed-Din lectured Huntington on the Indian Mutiny of 1857 against the British but the American had fallen asleep on his table napkin and failed to jot down in his notebook that there were as many Islams and interpretations of the Shari’a as there were Muslims.  Edward and May were building barricades in Palestine. And Raja and Hassan were passionately venting their frustration against Hijab and Niqab, the sole emblems, seemingly, of the Islamic State. ‘Ali, meanwhile, had been surrounded by more than a few who laughed while he entertained them with the funny side of Egyptian politics. ‘Ali turned to Mahmud who was helping Adham around and said finally: ‘’Mahmud Bey, in your Ikhwan Constitution, I urge you to indicate that whoever loses his sense of humour will be stripped of his citizenship’’. Everyone laughed heartily while Radwan al-Manfaluti, the one they called il-Mu’allim, sang ‘’Ibki ‘ala illi rah, illi rah wa ma biyet’awwadshi’’ while the Nayy, the Zummara and the Ribabah wept in unison.

Yünüs and ‘abd al-Raziq had withdrawn to the emptied side of the round table and were quietly reciting and chanting their favourite Meccan Surahs from the Coran away from laughter and discussion. First came Surat al-Tin, The Fig: ’’The Fig and the Olive and Mount Sinai and this city made secure. Certainly We created man in the best make, then We render him the lowest except those who believe and do good...’’, to be followed by Surat al-Layl, then Surat al-Inshirah, then Surat al-‘Alaq, and, of course, Surat al-Qadr, the Night: ‘’The night of majesty is better than a thousand months... Laylat ul-Qadar Khayrun min alfi Shahr’’. Suddenly Yünüs hummed on an ancient Anatolian melody ‘’Yünüs ‘Dürür Benim Adim, Bana Seri Gerek Seri, You Are the One I, Yünüs, Crave For’’. He was referring to his creator, of course, in the tradition of the Dervishes of his Halveti Tekke in Konya. Shaykh ‘Ali had not understood yet he recollected the times he accompanied his father, in his village, to the Zawiyyah of the Tariqah Shadhiliyyah to attend their Dhikr. He addressed the Turkish Mystic: ‘’I have always been attracted by this face of Muhammad, our Prophet who brought us Haqiqah. Muhammad the Statesman concerns me less, so I leave Him to Jurists and to Historians’’.

I had looked around. Eighteen pairs of eyes were shining and as many pairs of lips were smiling. I suddenly felt pain on my bottom. Hours seated on an uncomfortable chair? Or, was I being transported into the past and was it that the wooden saddle on my mule caused this inconvenience? I touched my head and my waist to check if I had been wearing the compulsory Qalanswah and Zunnar which the People of the Book were required to wear in medieval times, in Dar ul-Islam. As a Dhimmi, had I paid my Jiziyah poll tax, I wondered? My Canadian passport was in my pocket and I felt more comforted. I continued to draw quietly on my cigarette but my heart was filled with sadness. The River would have drowned in its murky waters both the Moon and Venus by now yet we could not tell as we sat on the West bank of the Nile. The Qadi from Tunis drew me from my state of reverie. ‘’I share your sorrow about the plagues which still haunt Muslims till this day. Such is our fate with the A’rab, the uncouth coarse nomads, or the ignorant masses in our midst. I commiserate over the manner in which Islam and the Shari’a are utilized to keep the people in a state of ignorance. And yet, I have found much change in the city I came to and died in centuries ago. You read my Prolegomena? The Muqaddima argues how change between the barbarian and civilization occurs with the former becoming integrated into the latter barely four generations later. So what if the Muslims miss on your century? They have eternity ahead of them. And, while they take little steps forward, others who are ahead will decline, as mentioned Doktor ‘Ali. I asked: are you telling me, Honourable Qadi, that there is hope for a Reformation in Islam? Of course there is but not everywhere at the same time. It may start amongst your Muslims in Amrika. Just recall what was discussed tonight by both the men and the women around the table. There are as many Islams and as many Shari’as as was demonstrated to us during diner. New interpretations of the Holy Qur’an are constantly in the making. If we bothered to study the manner in which Muslims in the past dealt with their faith in accord with their ancient customs and their immediate needs, then we would understand that Religion has influenced us and we it’’.

‘’But, tell me, ibn Khadun pursued, what did Hassan, the Syrian, mean by Modern Muslims as opposed to Moderate Muslims? Modernity, I replied, came to us from Europe after your time. Modernity stems from Change and Modernists welcome change. The society we live in, in the West, de-sacralised at the same time all matters religious and reduced Faith to part of our daily concerns. Modern Man considers all revealed books as normal books, to be studied as one would any other book. The West has made great strides in the sciences as a result of this mental frame of mind. To modernists in the West, there are no miracles but simple phenomena whose laws are to be discovered by the Scientist. Modernity has also replaced Religion by Humanism. The Human, irrespective of religion, race and gender, became our yardstick. And, as a result, equality between Men and Women, respect for one’s freedoms, and the search for social and political institutions which guarantee these fundamental values have led, in barely four centuries, to our forms of government. Not all is well in the Modern World and we still grope to achieve higher ideals. In the Muslim World today, Recep Erdogan’s country, Turkey is the closest to the modern ideal. His is a Secular State where Religion has no place in Politics and where an elected parliament comprised of lay elected individuals legislates. As for the place of religion, in the West, it fulfills a certain role: its gives peoples solace, contributes to their culture and presents its own definition of morality. Egypt and your country, Tunisia, are the closest to Turkey when it comes to move ahead towards Modernity yet they still fall far behind. These processes both these countries have embarked upon are, I believe, meanwhile irreversible. What I mean is that, take for instance your History of the Berbers. In this previous work you showed how the structures of bedouin society, its cravings and its needs made it react to the societies in the cities. Karl Marx could not have said it better. After all, you are the founder of our science of social history. And, when one today considers the Ikhwan, as we have this evening, we should understand them in their social setting, one that is bound to change and, by the same token, change them. Allahu A’lam, noted ibn Khaldun and, suddenly: but listen, listen...’’

Unexpectedly, out of the nocturnal stillness of the City of a Thousand Minarets, the Adhan, the Call to Prayer, announced the approach of Dawn. Our elderly guests were startled. ‘’The same invitation to prayer comes from many opposing points of the city at the same instant’’. Yes, said Hassan, this is thanks to electronics. Our guests did not understand but, Ma’lish, they had enjoyed that one night of leave from their eternal bliss and, now, they would report back to where they had come from, they as well as Mahmud and Rusen who were to accompany them. They vanished instantly into the direction of the rising sun, behind the Citadel where, we are told, lies another garden, the Garden of Firdaws. Edward did not accompany them as he was to head on his own to his Purgatory in the West. And Huntington took the tortuous trail to Hell. As for us, the living, we were left with the arduous task of climbing down from the high mountain to the Valley of the Shadows. 

AD

End of Egyptian Frescoes (1 to 19) presented in numerical reverse order.

A new weekly series about Egypt (Saturdays)

The author of this series "Egyptian Frescoes" André Dirlik was born in Egypt and spent the first twenty years of his life in Cairo, then moved to Beirut where he studied at the American University. He later completed his studies at Mc Gill University, in Montreal. 

André's long career as professor exclusively at the "Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean" was only interrupted when that institution closed it's doors in 1995. 

Egyptian Frescoes part (18 of 19) issued with the permission of the author. 

Egyptian Frescoe (18): al-Islam huwa al-Hall – sequence one.

I had directed Edward Said and an American acquaintance of his to the Andalus Gardens, across Kasr el-Nil bridge, on al-Guezira. We were to meet with friends in this most idyllic site, along the Nile, where a childhood pal, Hasan al-‘Igayzi, retired general and once commander of al-Sa’iqah Brigade, was to entertain us for diner.

Andalos Garden in Cairo

Hassan Jamali, who had visited his parents in Homs and was transiting through Cairo, would also be there. So was Mukhtar Nur ed-Din and a friend of his from Spain. Hasan also invited Adham Safwat and Mahmud Fathi, old timers of ours. Mahmud, an Ikhwan who had escaped to Saudi Arabia when Nasser first cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood, was back in Egypt and had been to Tahrir Square to attend a rally organized by his party. There would also be my class mates from university years in Montreal, ‘Ali ed-Din Hilal and Rusen Sezer. Rusen had brought along two Turks. One, I recognized immediately: Recep Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey. The other, I had often heard of: Yünüs Emre, the poet and Sufi from Konya whom Rusen publicized in his thesis. ‘’Buyrümüz, welcome’’, I said, awkwardly. Raja had worn a Yasmak and a Shalvar and I introduced her. ‘’Masallah, hanum’’, they bowed and uttered. We presented the Turks to May, the daughter of Hidayat Naguib, a school mate, and a grand niece of Gen. Muhammad Naguib. She lives in Calgary. Someone from al-Azhar was in conversation with ‘abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri, the eminent jurist and proved to be none other than Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh. How nice of Hasan to have gathered such an eminent crowd, and in al-Andalus Gardens of all places, with a view on the river, its alleys bordered with Palms Royal, its famous maze which, as children, we called the House of Goha and a collection of flowers which originated from Kitchener’s Island, in Aswan, and were in bloom and displayed their scents to the cross winds. 

Everyone had noticed a round dining table that would accommodate nineteen under the canopy. On the lawns, two men grilled meat on a fire while a peasant lady clad in black sat in front of her earthen oven and baked Baladi bran bread. We had arrived a bit late, Raja and I, because of the heavy traffic caused by the gatherings in Tahrir Square. May had spent the entire day arguing back and forth, she told us, at the Square. When I rushed to greet Edward, he introduced me to Samuel Huntington, the author of The Clash of Civilization. Barely eight years after Sam gave his still controversial lecture, Edward hit back in his own Clash of Ignorance, in 2001. Huntington was arguing that the age of ideology had ended: the world was reverting to what he saw as the normal state of affairs which is characterised by cultural conflicts that, in the future, will be drawn along religious lines. Islam was singled out. Edward’s polemical reply pointed out that Huntington’s thesis was simplistic and arbitrary. The clash of civilization idea illustrated, according to Said, the purest invidious racism against Muslims as it presented them as a monolithic entity. Edward wanted to have the American scholar meet as many Egyptian Muslims as possible to prove his point and I spoke to Hasan about it and he immediately obliged.

Kichener's Island in Aswan

I approached Mokhtar. I had not seen him in years although we often speak on Skype. I asked him to introduce me to his elderly friend from Spain. I thought he was referring to the destroyer S/S ibn Rush of which he was First Mate when I butted into their conversation. ‘’No ya Andareh, this is Shaykh Abu al-Walid ibn Rushd of Qartaba. What a great pleasure, ya Ustadh I replied. Mokhtar also pointed to two other elderly ‘Ulama’. ‘’Come, let us join Shaykh Jamal ed-Din from Afghanistan and Shaykh ‘abd al-Raziq whom you surely never met but heard of’’. But Shaykh ‘Ali had drifted towards Yünüs. What an evening was ours going to be? The moon was full. Yünus drew our attention to the Fountain of Twelve Lions that had been murmuring the Ninety Nine Attributes of Allah. We were ushered around the dining table to partake our meal. Yünüs sat next to Shaykh ‘Ali and to Mahmud.

Liwa Hasan was still standing and welcomed the two ladies, our eminent and learned visitors from bygone days and all of us others. He offered his guests a choice of beverages, tea, Cacola and mashrub which Premier Erdogan kindly had brought along, and he lifted a bottle of Sari Zeybec Raqi. ‘We have plenty of all and there is iced bottled water, of course; we can, also, order Sugar Cane juice from outside’’. Each placed his or her order from the two Sofragiyyah assigned to serve us. ‘’Yalla, ‘Amm Muhammadayn, he addressed the Nubian cook, serve the lentil soup. Then: I am a military man, he said while he stared at Mahmud. I tasted war in Yaman and at the Mitla Pass, in Sinai. In order to organize this memorable evening, I worked the telephone and used my contacts. Also, during the past three days, I was in Fayyum shooting ducks which ‘Amm Muhamaddayn has prepared for us tonight. Tell me, Mahmud Bey, what do your people mean when they say al-Islam huwa al-Hall? I never was taught much about Islam when I was young unlike Andariyya, here, whose Religion was drilled in him since he went to school. And look what happened: the only Kafir in our midst’’. In unison, Rusen, Adham and Hassan wished to also be included as Kuffar. Hasan pursued, still staring at Mahmud. ‘’My father taught me to pray and we fasted Ramadan. I can recite al-Fatiha and Ayat ul-Kursi. There is no clergy in our religion and each tailors his faith as he pleases. Is that not so? I know enough about Qada’, free will, and Qadar, predestination, to ask you what is it that the Ikhwan want to achieve except take power and revenge for what Nasir, Sadat and Mubarak did to you?’’ Mahmud calmly replied: ‘’we want to apply the Shari’a and establish an Islamic State. Thus would we guarantee against the excesses committed by previous regimes’’.

Raja & Andre 

Duck, stuffed pigeon and grilled meats were served along with salads and pickles as soon as the soup dishes were cleared. Raja interrupted: ‘’André and I will have ‘Araq, with your permission. You see, the Qur’an states clearlythat the use of alcoholic beverages is strictly forbidden then, in the same breadth, that one should not approach one’s prayers in a state of drunkenness. I have chosen to abide by the latter verses. I also find that a drink helps me better digest my food and I was comforted by a Hadith attributed to the most famous of our Caliphs, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, that quotes him as having said: We used to eat Camel meat and only wine would help us digest it. André’s favourite teacher at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Niyazi Berkes, had once told me that one of the four founders of Islamic Jurisprudence, Malik ibn Anas, argued in favour of the use of alcohol for Muslims. I am satisfied with such learned opinions on the subject. I have tailored my faith to satisfy my needs. I refuse to have anyone tell me how to run my spiritual life’’. And she set to serve a drink for Erdogan, Rusen and ourselves. ‘’I have prepared it the Lebanese way, with ‘Araq, water and ice in this order, not like in Turkey, Recep Bey. I hope you will like it’’.. He lifted his glass and toasted her: ‘’Serefinize’’ . Then he added. ‘’We have made the difference between an Islamic State and a State for Muslims in Turkey. Our state is built on its Muslim Ottoman past and on the Kemalist Revolution which saved the Turkish people from humiliation from the West after 1918. Turkey’s democracy recognizes that the majority of our people have the right to practice Islam. We are slowly changing the laws that forbade them to worship freely under Atatürk. Our party considers itself Muslim Democrat, as in Europe, Mrs Merkel’s is Christian Democrat. At the same time, as I argued with your Ihvan leaders here in Cairo, Haci Mehmut, we believe in secularism which protects the freedom of our citizens, even Atheists like André’’. And myself, added Rusen emphatically who insisted on telling how we had met in the early sixties: ‘’André and I were in the Registrar’s Office of McGill University. We had refused to state our religion on the forms handed to us and did not accept to be considered Agnostic as they wanted us to. We finally agreed to be listed as Fire Worshipers. That year, in the university statistics, there were two Zoroastrians on campus. That was before the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and the establishment of the Secular State. Never in Turkey since Atatürk could anyone force you to state you religion. EWS butted in: Over both you convictions, Rusen and André, I remember I was at André and Raja’s Civil Marriage as best man in Arlington, VA. I am an Agnostic and was married in Church to please my parents. I met you, Rusen, many years later, at the Dirliks, during a visit to Montreal, and we talked about religion. I remarked then that André was a hyphenated Atheist, a Catholic-Atheist and Rusen a Mevlevi-Atheist. We invariably become atheists to our own religious tradition, is that not so, André?’’ If you are speaking of values, I will admit that my social values derive from the altruistic message of many Christians starting with one Saint Martin who shared his overcoat with a fellowman whom he found freezing to death. Rusen had gone further: ‘’Gods are created by Men and this subject is related to the way they talk, the words they use, ya Akhi’’. Edward went on: ‘’When I think of how much Kierkegaard and Marx influenced you, ya Rusen, I am amazed at the extent to which Islamic Mysticism has broadened the intellectual vistas of Muslims.

 I don’t think Christian, or Jewish Mysticism for that matter share this vision that Man is part of a Universe in which Gods and revelations may or may not have any place’’.

Samuel was half amused and half perplexed. ‘’Allow me to raise the question of the Shari’a which I see as aiming to revert Islam back to the time of the Salaf. I would like to have your feel on this point Mister Mufti, he added addressing himself to ‘Abduh’’.

‘’You know, Mister Samu’il, replied the Shaykh, I was Mufti of Egypt for many years. Shari’a has always remained alive even when they closed the Doors of Ijtihad, so to speak, in the 14^th century, as you are taught by your Orientalists. Take, for instance, doctor Andariyyah’s grandfather, Elias Bey al-Lubnani. He came to Egypt during Cromer’s administration to sell Life Insurance. He visited me at my home requesting a Fatwa to the effect that insurance was not Riba, interest on money, and I gave it to him. But then, when he wished to sell me a policy, I refused because I believed that, after my death, Allah would provide for my family. So, how can you, Mister, use the word revert? Even the great ibn Taymiyya al-Hanbali was not reverting to the time of the Salaf when he paid with his life in order to implement Siyasa Shar’iyyah. The danger for Muslims in his time came from the Mongol invasions. The Mongols had become superficially Islamized yet they imposed the Yasa, their Customary Law, instead of the Shari’a. His attempt became, therefore, to incorporate the Yasa, Siyasa, into the Shari’a and the generations that followed fared well as Muslims to the extent that little do people know that Siyasa was alien to us. And, the same is true in this day and age’’. Mahmud felt relief come to him. For an instant, he thought the Mamluk, his host, Adham, his companion of many years, and his only Khawaga friend from before the Revolution would gang with the General who had been targeting him.

Qubtan Mokhtar remarked: ‘’most of us here have been living outside Egypt. My daughter Mariam is half Japanese and was born in the United States. You, Mahmud, also lived abroad. The difference is that we are in the West, you were in the Hejaz. We have partaken in the twentieth century and now prepare to share in the 21^st in a global world while you still debate questions which ought to be left to rest. Raja added: there were many things I objected to concerning the situation of women in our Lebanese Sunni society. I chose the easy, some would say the cowardly way out and settled in Montreal to seek my rights which women in North America secured for us after their long struggle. We women, in the West, are protected by secular laws. I deplore, meanwhile, that my sisters in the Muslim World are finding it so hard to reach the same goals’’. Recep Bey interjected: ‘’You and André could have moved to Turkey and still can today...’’ And, ibn Rushd added ‘’this is a fair statement, Senora Raja’: when, in Qartaba, I expressed that women were the equal of men to the point that they could join in waging war if they so wished, I was mocked. After my demise and that of my students, Muslim Spain sunk into darkness. It is the duty of women to claim their rights in all matters that count for them. Reason demands it and reason demands that men assist them in reaching these rights’’.

The subject of women made everyone turn to May, the modern young woman in our midst. She was beaming from under her Hijab, obviously in agreement with all that had been said and added: ‘’I was born in Senegal in an expatriate community, she explained, and have lived all my life abroad. I am married to a Canadian and have studied Islamics. I am a believer. The subject of Mysticism, Islamic revival, the Revolution of the Young in Egypt take all my energies and occupy my mind. I, meanwhile, seek the knowledge I do not possess. When it comes to questions of meaning, ethics, purpose, education and death, Akhirah, second hand information will not do for me. I cannot survive on a second hand faith in a second hand God. There is to be for me a personal, unique confrontation with reality if I am to come alive’’. Everyone had listened intently and silently and was reflecting on what May’s charged words meant for each of us. Only the Hoca from Konya felt he had fully understood her. Mahmud looked at her sternly as if he were to scold her: ‘’Ghayr mu’ahhala. Not qualified to be a Muslima, he mumbled’’. She added: ‘’ I guess I represent, amongst you all, the future of Muslims who live abroad yet are eager to share with the East the wonders of the West’’.

The subject of the Shari’a was one that al-Sanhuri held close to his heart. He immediately told us of the 1.149 articles in the 1949 Civil Code he had submitted to the Egyptian Judiciary. ‘’I translated Code Napoléon into Arabic, you may remember. While I worked on the Civil Code, my readings of Montesquieu’s Ésprit des Lois was constantly in my thoughts. My code was a mixture of native codes and foreign codes that were drafted by me with the Shari’a in mind’’. al-Sanhuri was heir to the Spirit of the Ottoman Tanzimat which, starting in 1839 and lasting till 1856, with the aim of modernizing the Ottoman Empire. It reached Egypt through Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha and his dynasty. al-Sanhuri belonged, along with Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh, his elder, and Shaykh ‘abd al-Raziq, to the Liberal tradition of Egyptian Nationalism. He had no qualms with borrowing from others if they had something better to offer. ‘’You know, my dear friends, Egypt and Turkey are far more advanced than other Muslim countries because we do not feel threatened in our cultural identity, he concluded, and I dare anyone to say we are not a Muslim nation’’. al-Sanhuri had resented the heavy handedness of Revolutionary Egypt and now he feared for the future of his country under an Ikhwan government. For the sake of harmony around the table he rather saw fit that others carry this conversation which might prove explosive. He stared at Doktor ‘Ali as if to say why don’t you help me out. After all, ‘Ali Basha had held a portfolio in Mubarak’s government and in the country’s politics, had taken a doctorate in Canada and taught at University both in Montreal and in Cairo... al-Sanhuri turned to May: ‘’Allah yi Khalliki, pass me the stuffed pigeon. My wife, Allah Yirhamha, served it for lunch each week after Friday prayer. And Shaykh ‘abd al-Raziq added:

Stuffed Pigeons

I have not had stuffed pigeon since her death. After Friday prayers at al-Azhar, I would walk in the direction of al-Khiyamiyyah and step into Hag Muhsin, the Hati’s shoppe, for at least two pigeons. And, tonight I helped myself to three whole ones. Bil Hana’ wa-l Shifa’’ said the Liwa who had overheard it all.

A new weekly series about Egypt (Saturdays)

The author of this series "Egyptian Frescoes" André Dirlik was born in Egypt and spent the first twenty years of his life in Cairo, then moved to Beirut where he studied at the American University. He later completed his studies at Mc Gill University, in Montreal. 

André's long career as professor exclusively at the "Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean" was only interrupted when that institution closed it's doors in 1995. 

Egyptian Frescoes part (17 of 19) issued with the permission of the author. 

Egyptian Frescoes (17): al-Islam huwa al-Hall.

Sixteen frescoes ago, a question had been raised during our visit in Cairo last November, as to what chances of electoral success the Muslim Brotherhood could have during the elections that would be held after President Mubarak was toppled by Egypt’s Arab Spring. It was then estimated the Ikhwan would reap 20% of the ballots. The Brotherhood campaigned under a slogan that it had been using since the end of Nasserism, in 1970. It proclaimed that only Islam could solve all of the country’s ills. Whenever they were asked what, for instance, they would do with population explosion, the problems of transportation, the rise in the cost of living, or the salinity of the soil in the Nile Delta, to mention but a few of the country’s ailments, they answered with confidence: al-Islam huwa al-Hall. Seventeen frescoes later, we know that the Ikhwan, in Egypt, along with a more radical brand of Islamists, the Salafis, today hold the majority of seats in the newly elected parliament. Their next objective is to wrest the presidency from traditional parties. Then, they promise, will they give the country and its people their true Islamic direction.

Westerners and Westernized Muslim Arabs have been distraught by the recentmost democratic elections which brought about Islamists to power, startin

Hassan El-Banna

g with Hamas, in Gaza, Palestine. Western powers who recently advocated the end of authoritarian regimes, which they supported for decades, have been caught totally unprepared with such results at the polls. The actual successes of the Islamists in freely held elections represents the beginning of a trend that shall follow the course of social and intellectual changes which never stopped since Islam was born in Arabia in the seventh century. That is bluntly to state that, although the term Salaf is often utilized today to mean a return to the time of the Prophet, in fact, throughout Islamic History, the Salafis appeared in times of crisis in Muslim societies in order to correct what they saw as deviations and departures from what ought to be and ought to remain. As we write today, the Muslim World is in serious jeopardy. In the case of Egypt, dislocations in social mores and relations had become unbearable at the eve of the Second World War as a result of economic development, British imperialism and the World War of 1914-1918. One Hasan al-Banna founded, in 1928, a Muslim Brotherhood to bring his compatriots back to the path of the Salaf. The Egyptian Ikhwan embarked in social work to alleviate the suffering of a proletariat which the money economy in Modern Egypt had brought about. British occupation and the presence of a foreign element, the Khawagat, warranted that the citizenry be reminded of its true identity and its creed. The Second World War and the creation of the State of Israel had, furthermore, made the Brotherhood expand its influence. Its leadership became convinced, at some point, that power should be usurped by force. al-Banna was assassinated as a result and the membership of the Ikhwan interned in detention camps in the oasis of the Western Desert. It must be noted that, during the earliest internments, facilities lacked to accommodate all the challengers of the Regime. Communists, Liberalists and Muslim Brothers were put together and much intellectual ferment resulted from this coexistence of opposing points of view. The Ikhwan came out of their incarcerations much more seasoned, ideologically, and their resolve was strengthened.

Egypt, I wish to emphasize, is comparable to no other Muslim country. When it opened its gates to Islam, early in 641 AD, the imposing capital which the Fatimids built, in 969 AD, the Victorious, al-Qahira, grew to become the heart of Islam. The city was erected along the trade routes between East and West. 

Al-Azhar

Al-Azhar Mosque and its Madrasah became important centres of Islamic learning. Unlike Baghdad and Damascus, al-Qahira was spared from destruction during the Mongol invasions around the 1300’s. The city emerged, along with the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, as a clearing house for ideas and news which transiting pilgrims, on their way to the Hajj, carried to and fro at the speed of caravans. At the Battle of Marj Dabiq, in 1516, when the rising Ottomans Turks defeated the Mameluks of Egypt and incorporated al-Qahira into their Empire, al-Azhar’s ‘Ulama’ competed in science, knowledge, culture and influence with those of Istambul, Makkah and the great centres of trade and learning in Syria, Mesopotamia, the Indian Sub-Continent and Central Asia. And, when one attempts to ponder over the role of Change in Islamic History, once again, Egyptian Islam rose to the call. It shall be interesting to consider what will be meant by al-Islam huwa al-Hall for the Egyptians and for the Muslims at large in the first half of the twenty first century. One just has to remember the impact which Shaykh Muhammad ‘Abduh, an Egyptian, had on the reconciliation of Islam and Western Sciences in the nineteenth century. The same exercise had occurred during ‘Abbasi times, in Baghdad and Umawi times, in Spain, earlier in Medieval times. ‘Abduh’s teachings and writings reached the madrasahs of al-Zaytuna, in Tunis, of al-Qayrawan, in Morocco, of Timbuctu, in Mali, and of Deoband, in Northern India. He influenced Shaykh Musa Jarullah in Kazakstan. And, in Egypt itself, his impact on the thoughts of Shaykh Rashid Rida, his disciple and the editor of the widely circulated al-Manar periodical, reached in time Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Ikhwan, himself.

Al-Ikhwan

At the eve of the Second World War, the Ikhwan were waging their fight against the presence of foreigners in their country. They also were alerted to the extent to which Egyptian Muslims were adopting Western ways and drifting away from their religious practices. One should simply be reminded of a quote attributed to Khedive Isma’il (1830-1895), the grandson of Muhammad ‘Ali Basha, that best illustrates such fears. The Khedive proclaimed, clear and loud, at the opening of the Suez Canal: ‘’My country is no longer in Africa. We are now part of Europe’’.

Or else, the Ikhwan fought Sufi rituals which they considered a departure from Pristine Islam. Theirs was a battle on two fronts, the external one and the internal. al-Banna founded a brotherhood that would spread his message. The membership was drawn from educated and semi-educated individuals, professionals and artisans, all the products of the Modern sector of Egyptian society. As the years passed during which the Ikhwan were jailed for what appeared as their subversive activities, both under the Monarchy and the Military Regime that ensued, the replacement of the old guard was coming about with men and women, doctors, lawyers, journalists, engineers, university professors and entrepreneurs, all graduates of secular universities, many of them well traveled, an array of the Egyptian middle class, all more sophisticated that their elders: none are graduates from al-Azhar and none are ‘Ulama’ although they know their religion well. Their piety has been coupled with their knowledge in matters pertaining to matters of faith and to the fate of the Muslim Nation. These new elites are the product of their times. They today question, as no others have before, the West’s definition of Egypt’s modernity ever since Muhammad ‘Ali Basha opted for a transformation of his realm in accordance with the definition given by Westerners.

Cairo

Westerners do not seem to have, so far, gauged the extent to which, amongst Arabs and Muslims, a feeling of anger runs in their minds as they watch, day after day, their lands, their rights, their dignity being trampled by non-Muslims from the United States and Europe. Already after 1830, merchants and pilgrims, travellers from North Africa, told of stories of French brutal occupation in Algeria. Such news continued to reach Egypt from the entire North and West African continent, the Sudan, the Caucasus and Crimea, from India and Central Asia and beyond, from all the confines of Dar ul-Islam, the Muslim realm. In 1917, Cairenes were made aware of the Sykes-Picot Agreement which would divide the Near East between the British and the French in spite of commitments to the contrary and, that same year, of a Balfour Declaration which eventually created a Jewish State in Palestine. And, in this day and age, the so-called War on Terrorism justifies Western aggression against Muslims. Modernists and secularists, in the East, are mentally a party to Western values yet, emotionally, they feel that the Other, who ceaselessly baffles them by his insensitivity, his immorality and his double standards, well deserves that political Islam rise to oppose Western unchecked appetites.

Dialecticians, amongst historians, invariably try to seek and understand the thesis which caused an antithesis to emerge. The reverse process is far from easy to achieve as each thesis was once its own antithesis. The question becomes, therefore, how far in the process does one have to revert to in order to understand the animosities between East and West, between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. One could start with the rise of the Arab religion within the contexts of an essentially Byzantine Christian and a Sassanian Zoroastrian world in the eighth century. The Arabs from Madinah sent raiders west, as far as Spain, in 711, until they were stopped at Poitiers, in 732, when they crossed the Pyrenees. In the east, they reached the Indus River, in 674. The Ottoman Muslims, also, occupied the Balkans and knocked at the doors of Vienna twice, in 1529 and in 1683. Then the tide was reverted and has been so ever since. Some scholars suggest that the raids of Muslims against neighbours were responses to the threat to Arabia by the dominant religions of the times. Be that as it may, our frescoes, seventeen of them, so far, have attempted to trace the manner in which responsible Egyptians, reacting to centuries of decadence and obscurantism, envisaged their future, from the time of Muhammad ‘Ali Basha, in the early nineteenth century, when a choice was consciously made to borrow heavily from the West, till today when, as a result of elections which brought to parliament Islamic Parties, the solutions to Egypt’s problems are being sought in Islam, no longer in the West. Ever since colonized peoples embarked upon the arduous task of ridding themselves of the shackles of European and, later, American imperialisms, one witnesses efforts to revert to one’s original identity while retaining the benefits of science and technology which the West continues to nurture. Muslims are no different than others in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The slogan al-Islam huwa al-Hall must be perceived in this perspective. Remains for the critical mind to figure out how this shall be translated.

Sayed Qotb

Meet Sayyid Qutb. He was born in Upper Egypt in 1906. He was a man of varied interests and many achievements. In the forties, his written works became part of the curriculum in schools and universities. He was the author of a commentary on the Qur’an in 30 volumes. His two most read books were Ma’alim fil Tarikh, Milestones, which dealt with the bounds of Islamic history, and al-‘Adalah al-Ijtima’iyah fil Islam, Social Justice in Islam. Qutb had joined the Ikhwan upon his return from the United States, in 1950. He rapidly became the principal ideologue of the movement and edited its weekly review, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin. Qutb had hoped to play an important role in shaping the 1952 Revolution when Nasir visited him in his home, soon after the Coup in search of advice as to which direction his movement ought to take. Qutb believed for a long while that the Free Officers would install an Islamic State in Egypt. Little did he understand that the loyalty of the military was to itself, never to civilian powers. In fact, when the Ikhwan gave up on Nasir and engineered an assassination attempt on his life, Qutb was arrested, jailed, tortured along with all prominent members of the Brotherhood. And, on August 26, 1966, he was hanged for treason. Charges against Qutb were simply borrowed from Ma’alim al-Tarikh, his own Milestones.

Sayyid Qutb’s ideas had been maturing ever since his youth in his native Asiyut where he learnt to distrust the Madrasah trained teachers of Islam. When he moved to Cairo to become a teacher, he was disturbed by the degree of Westernization his fellow Muslims had fallen into. He had heard of Hasan al-Banna and admired him greatly. He disliked the British and the Khawagat and was committed to the struggle alongside the Palestinian people. He never grew, however, to be an Arab Nationalist; he was a Muslim first and foremost, not unlike Rashid Rida, early in his century, and Jamal ed-Din al-Afghani, the companion of Muhammad ‘Abduh, during the century before. And yet when, in 1949, he won a scholarship to study Education Administration in Colorado, he did not imitate al-Banna who had refused to further his studies in France: Qutb travelled to the United States. Qutb never married; he was a shy man. In America, he clung to his religion and identity and, the ideas he formed for himself about the West in general, were most unfavourable of it. He thought American materialism had corrupted the Americans whom he found kind but superficial, generous but pretentious and condescending. His readings on Marxism, also, indicated to him that Soviet materialism was as corrupt as Capitalism had been. Only in Islam could he find solace for the present and the future of mankind.

Qutb had been a witness to the brutality of military rule in Egypt. Before that, under the Monarchy, he also stared corruption and exploitation in the face. He had joined the Ikhwan because he felt Egyptians were confronted with moral decay. Only faith, Iman, could pull his compatriots from the abyss. Also, solely would the Law of God uplift and save the Community of Believers. Social justice, for instance, would not result from either Arab Socialism, as the Military rulers promised, or from Fabian Socialism and Social Darwinism, as the disciples of Salama Musa (1887-1958), the prominent British-trained university professor, preached. Believers became fair towards their fellow men because of their beliefs. The application of the Shari’a and the institution of the Islamic State would assist them in this endeavour. Qutb’s notion of justice was new amongst Muslims and al-‘Adalah al Ijtima’iyyah fil Islam was circulated widely throughout the Muslim World. It placed the onus on the person, a radical departure from the conventional wisdom which resulted from Medieval times in which the Caliph symbolized the entire politico-religious system and regulated the lives of men and women in the smallest details. Qutb was challenging the revered al-Mawardi (972-1058) and his Ordinances of Government, al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah.

After Sayyid Qutb’s execution, his brother Muhammad fled to Saudi Arabia. He was invited at King ‘Abd ul-‘Aziz University to teach his brother’s ideas.

Ayman El-Zawahri

Was it that the Su’udi Monarchy was sending a message to its own Wahhabi ‘Ulama’? Meanwhile, the fact that two prominent al-Qa’ida leaders, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the Yamani Anwar al-Awlaki, were disciples of Qutb causes one to miss on the course which Islam and Muslims have been following in the past fifteen centuries. With a sense of perspective, the rise to prominence of Qutb and the political coming of age of the Ikhwan in Egypt, Tunisia and, eventually, elsewhere in the Muslims World, one could suggest that the Non-Western World is ripe for experimenting with systems of values and models of government which are other than those that were imposed by Europe and that are presently upheld by the United States. At the same time, the Ikhwan in the limelight are bound to confront the rich and vast compendium of trends in Islamic Thought, now that they have been taken seriously. The next frescoe will deal precisely with that new reality.

A new weekly series about Egypt (Saturdays)

The author of this series "Egyptian Frescoes" André Dirlik was born in Egypt and spent the first twenty years of his life in Cairo, then moved to Beirut where he studied at the American University. He later completed his studies at Mc Gill University, in Montreal. 

André's long career as professor exclusively at the "Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean" was only interrupted when that institution closed it's doors in 1995. 

Egyptian Frescoes part (16 of 19) issued with the permission of the author. 

Egyptian Frescoes (16): 1973.

After the sudden death of Gamal ‘abd al-Nasir, in 1970, Anwar as-Sadat (1918-1981) succeeded him at the Presidency of Egypt. Sadat was being faced with a bankrupt and defeated State. His meeting, in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with King Faisal (1903-1975) ushered a new relationship in the Arab World in which the Desert Kingdom, the rising power in the Middle East, would replace Egypt in influence and leadership. This happened in 1973 when Sadat and Faisal stunned the World, the former by crossing the Suez Canal and conquering the Bar Lev Line, and the latter by imposing an oil embargo on the West that continued to support Israel during the conflict.

Egyptian army after crossing the Bar Lev line

It will be recalled that the effect of surprise of both the war and the embargo was a total one, on the military and economic planes. Sadat proved to be a master of deception and Faisal’s inscrutable face did not betray what was to be. As important, both men had grown to trust one another especially after years of animosity between Nasir’s Egypt and Faisal’s Arabia.  Both men were motivated by the common aim of erasing the shame of 1967. Both men, pious men at that, had committed themselves to pray one day soon at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Both men would, eventually, die at the hand of assassins for dreams Arabs were taught never to dream. And yet, the so-called Yom Kippur War modified the military balance between Egypt and Israel. 

Anwar El-Sadat

Egypt had finally ceased to do the Soviets’ bidding in the Middle East and it brought in the United States to mediate between itself and Israel. This eventually led to a Peace Treaty between Cairo and Tel Aviv. A new reality had just been minted in the area.

In terms of Oil, the embargo caused an oil price shock: the cost of the barrel rose 70% during the war. Stock markets, in the West crashed. Currencies fluctuated erratically. International trade was disrupted. And, Oil Importing Countries incurred huge deficits in their balance of payments while Oil Exporting Countries found themselves in a glut of money. This is when it became imperative for the economies of the United States, Western Europe and Japan, the major importers of oil, to recycle what came to be known as Petrodollars. Oil Exporting Countries were induced to invest in their own infra-structures. This resulted in wealth being accumulated by the most enterprising while employment rose for the most adventurous. More important, it led to social mobility in both Arab and Third World countries as had never been encountered before. Oil rich countries were also encouraged to buy weapons, the most adequate commodity to insure a rapid correction in balance of payment discrepancy. And, in the case of Saudi Arabia, the thin line between Petrodollars and Wahhabi dollars became blurred. Let us delve into the not too distant past of the heart of Arabia and be reminded of what Wahhabism was all about.

Ebn Hanbal

Muhammad ‘abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), the founder of the religious movement within Sunni Islam which borrowed his name, taught that the faith had been polluted by the Ottomans and should be purified. He called for a return to Pristine Islam and for the rejection of all innovations and forms of idolatry. He well belonged to a purist tradition that went back to the rise of Islam: had the Prophet himself not marched from his residence in the City, al-Madinah, once named Yathrib, onto Makkah, Umm al-Qura, in 630, to smash its idols and rehabilitate the one god, Allah? In his example, throughout Islamic History, religious movements whose aim it became to restore purity to the faith rose from the desert, the Almoravide Berbers in 1062, in Marakesh, and the Almohades, in the Atlas Mountains, in 1120, before the Wahhabis, and the Sanusis in Cyrenaica in 1837 and Muhammad Ahmad, the Mahdi, in Kordofan in 1870.

In 1740, in the heart of Arabia, ibn ‘abd al-Wahhab, a cleric whose sources of inspiration had been the fundamentalists Imam ibn Hanbal and ibn Taymiyya, forged an alliance with Muhammad ibn Su’ud, the tribal chief of Najd.

The Bedouin Warrior and the Charismatic Preacher would share the same vision of Holy War against the Infidels of the Arabian Peninsula. ibn ‘abd al-Wahhab had organized a group of zealots, fighters for the faith, the Ikhwan. These Ikhwan fought alongside ibn Su’ud’s tribesmen with the objective of uniting all of Arabia under the true faith. The conquest of Arabia by Al Su’ud would finally be achieved, many decades later, in 1924, when the young ‘abd al-‘Aziz ibn Su’ud finally occupied Makkah and Madinah, the two most important centers of Islamic teaching. Ibn Su’ud also ordered the burial place of the Prophet to be erased as it had become a place of idolatry. With the expulsion from Hijaz of the ruling Hashemite family of Sharif Husayn, the new kingdom was renamed Su’udi Arabia after Al Su’ud.

Wahhabism remained a nuisance to the Caliphs and Monarchs of Islam ever since its inception, until, in 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC), was formed. This was a time for a Sellers’ Market of oil. Shaykh Zaki al-Yamani, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum and a Harvard graduate, rose to the top of the organization and dollars from sales have kept growing till this day. At the same time, Prince Faisal, brother of the King and minister of External Affairs applied the economic principle of the Cartel to Middle Eastern Politics. His son, Su’ud al-Faisal, the present Minster of External Affairs in the Desert Kingdom, pursued this policy. All this had coincided with the Cold War which was bitterly waged between the Soviet Union and the United States. Saudi money and ideology could be utilized, it now was believed, against Atheism and Materialism in the Muslim World and against Muslim Communists in the so-called Muslim Republics of the U.S.S.R. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, in 1979, America and Saudi Arabia stood side by side while their proxies waged war on the Soviets. They succeeded to come out victorious. Wahhabism could now spread, unchecked, to Kazakstan and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaidjan, the Caucuses and even the Balkans. In 1977, while Raja and I were in Kota Kinabalu, in North Borneo, we visited an exquisite mosque that Saudi Arabia had offered the city, part of the recycling of Wahhabi dollars. Along with the buildings came the Wahhabi ideology.

Meanwhile, as early as 1954 in Egypt, when the Muslim Brothers attempted to assassinate Nasir, the party was already being accused of collusion with Saudi Arabia. The MB was banned for the first time since the Coup d’État of 1952. The Ikhwan were interned in desert camps yet many of them, including my friend, Mahmud Fathi, and others escaped to Saudi Arabia. After the trial and execution of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the most prominent ideologue of the Ikhwan after Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Brotherhood, more Ikhwan crossed the Red Sea and sought refuge in the Arabian Kingdom. Radio Makkah, later, relayed that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt had sentenced Nasir to death for the crime he just committed against Qutb. Nasir died before such a sentence could be carried out.

Sayed Qotb

When President Sadat was assassinated, in 1981, were the Ikhwan savouring their revenge against Nasir and against the one who had betrayed the Palestinian cause? They were arrested over and over again and, each time many took refuge across the waters east of the Valley. Other Egyptians were also boarding ships or planes to Djeddah, this time to find employment in a land that was now booming with construction. During the visit my wife and I made to that port city, in 1978, and to Makkah and Madinah, on my first sabbatical year which took us through Asia, we came across many Egyptians in the Peninsula. They ran the post office, staffed schools and universities, were employed in offices and on construction sites. All newly built mosques also, starting with al-Haram al-Sharif itself, in Makkah, were erected in the Egyptian style by Egyptian artisans. There are still thousands of professionals, artisans and labourers in Arabia till this day who originated along the banks of the Nile. Whenever they visit their families in Egypt, one invariably notices how much permeated they have become by Wahhabism, in their physical attire, their manner of speech, their piety and their ideology. At the same time, Saudi treasury supports both the Ikhwan and the Salafis in Egypt. More on that in the next frescoe.

Egypt signed a Peace Treaty with Israel on March 29^th, 1979. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to its owners. On the other hand, a lid was put onto the size of the Egyptian Armed Forces. Israel and the U.S. also saw to it that Egypt not grow to the point of ever becoming a menace to its neighbours. No such lid has, on the other hand, been put on Saudi Arabia which compensates its limited population with high financial resources. Now that Ikhwan and Salafis control Egypt’s parliament, the question becomes what the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia will develop into? Wahhabi dollars have religious, ideological and political objectives. Riyadh appears to have fared well as a result of Egypt’s Arab Spring and the elections which just ensued. What if Wahhabi dollars were affected by instability within the Desert Kingdom, one in which forces from the educated classes rebelled against the Wahhabism of the State? It will be remembered that, at the Battle of Sabila, in 1930, ‘abd al-‘Aziz ibn Su’ud destroyed his own Ikhwan under the command of Shaykh al-‘Utaybi, his lieutenant, with the assistance of his tribesmen: he felt then that he was becoming hostage to al-‘Utaybi’s rigid creed and practice.

Tensions between Creed and State are a constant in history.

Juhayman Sayf

On November 29^th, 1979, the grandson of al-‘Utaybi, Juhayman Sayf, engineered the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Makkah until the King’s modern forces, equipped and trained by the United States, stormed the sacred grounds and crushed these descendants of the original Ikhwan from Najd. A younger King from the House of Su’ud may well wish to move further away from Wahhabism or reform it as was historically the case with the Almohades and Almoravids of Morocco, the Sanusis in Lybia, and Mahdism in the Sudan. In the final analysis, purists always lose at the end because they have to deal with human nature, the least of all species to want to remain pure. Add to this that, although Wahhabism enjoys access to wealth, it is having to cope with the Age of Globalization. Officers from the King’s military and the new elites from once autonomous regions of Arabia may well, one day, usurp power or separate from the Central Government in Riyadh and, thus, curtail the role of the Wahhabi clerics further. And, in Egypt itself, the future of an Islamist Parliament will invariably be in jeopardy as opposing factions struggle to draft a constitution then interpret it. And, if al-Islam huwa al-Hall, the solution to Egypt’s problems must rest on Religion, then what may it mean to the many Egyptians whose vision of the future does not concord with that of Theocracy. More on present day Egypt in the next frescoe.