This is the third abridged translation of a bio of one of the figures of the modern Islamic movement as told in the book by sh. Abdullah al-Uqail.
They called him “father of the collegians” because he was one of the first group of university students to work with Imam Hasan al-Banna to establish the Muslim Brotherhood on university campuses in Egypt.
Born in 1911, his family was one of knowledge and deen. His father had earned the 3aalamiyya degree from al-Azhar and worked as a lawyer in sharee3a courts. He himself wound up in the Egyptian University (now Cairo University) studying in the Faculty of Humanities graduating with a B.A. in Arabic Language in 1938.
Ustadh Mohamed was introduced to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in 1933 by Sh. Tantawy Johary (an author of a Quranic tafseer in the early part of the 20th century that was distinguished by its consideration of Quranic references to modern scientific knowledge). Ustadh Mohamed and some of his colleagues had approached the sheikh with the idea of forming an Islamic society on campus. He suggested instead that they should join the ikhwan because they understood Islam as a comprehensive whole that encompasses every aspect of life not only worship, and because they focused on a holistic tarbiya (character development/growth) that utilizes practical (not only intellectual) means to facilitate the development and growth of the entire human being. He praised to them the founder of the movement, Imam Hasan al-Banna, who had been nominated by the rector of al-Azhar, Sh. Mustafa al-Maraghi, to be the editor al-Manar magazine after its founding editor, sh. Rashid Rida, had passed away.
Ustadh Mohamed and his colleagues (there was a group of six) accepted sh. Johary’s advice and joined the brotherhood. Mohamed Abdelhamid Ahmed was selected as the naqib (captain/representative) of the students in the movement.
Sh. al-Uqail came to know this brother through his writings in the al-ikhwan al-muslimoon magazine in the late forties. He later met him in Egypt as he had continued his activism with university students sharing his experiences and helping them organize on campuses.
Shortly after graduating he spent some time teaching in Iraq. He was joined there by another member of the MB, Kamal al-Deen Hussein, who was teaching in the Engineering Faculty in Baghdad. The two of them worked to advance the ideas of the Islamic movement in Iraq. Shortly thereafter sh. Muhammad Mahmoud al-Sawwaf, an Iraqi scholar who was studying in al-Azhar and was introduced to the MB there, came back to Iraq. The three of them together established and strengthened the presence of the Islamic movement in Iraq (Sh. al-Sawwaf would later lead ikhwan volunteers from Iraq in Palestine in 1948).
Ustadh Mohamed’s stint in Iraq finished in 1946 and he returned to Egypt and continued where he left off as a writer, teacher, and activist. A year later, Hajj Abdellatif Abu Qoura, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan requested his appointment in Jordan to teach in the Islamic College there. He spent one year in Jordan and returned in 1948 only to face a government crackdown on the Brotherhood and a prime-ministerial edict banning the organization and ordering the arrest of most members. He would later face arrest and torture again in 1954, 1960, and 1965. When he was finally released from prison he settled in Saudi Arabia and worked in various capacities as a teacher and magazine editor finally settling as an instructor in the Da’wa Department in the Faculty of Sharee’a in Umm al-Qura University (the department head at the time was sh. Mohamed al-Ghazzali rahimahullah). He continued in this position until his retirement in 1985 and continued to live in Makka until his death in 1992.
Contributions
Those that knew Ustadh Mohamed attest that to his dying days he was tireless in his work to call people to work in the service of Islam. He focused on students and encouraged them to feel their responsibilities to their deen and to use well the years of keen intellect and physical fitness. He held classes, gave lectures, participated in panel discussions, and wrote. Sh. al-Uqayl describes how he benefited with his colleagues from Ustadh Mohamed’s efforts during his studies in Egypt 1950-54. Ustadh Mohamed’s lectures invariably challenged the dominant anti-religious views that were well-subsidized and systematically propagated in Egypt for the first half of the 20th century.
He is described by Ustadh Mohamed Hamed Abulnasr (the 4th General Guide of the Muslim Brothers) with a fitting epitaph,
“Believers are many. But there are among the belivers ‘men that were truthful to the covenant they made with God; some of them have passed away, others still wait, and they have altered none of their covenant or integrity.’ Among those that were truthful in their covenant my noble brother the pioneering educator Mohamed Abdelhamid Ahmed – he is that in my estimation though I do not presume to inform God of the nobility of His servants. . . (Our brother) was the first to carry the idea of the ikhwan into the Egyptian University . . . He carried his da’wa and sacrificed everything he had in the path of da’wa. . . At a time when ideas opposed to Islam had dominated in our society and received every manner of support, he persevered and struggled and worked tirelessly until he met Allah with his perseverance hoping for God’s pleasure.”
About his own experiences Ustadh Mohamed reminisces that he and his colleagues established the first prayer room on their university campus when they convinced the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (Dr. Mansour Fahmy) to allow them to use a room that used to be storage space for academic dress (caps & gowns). They started to call the adhan, which came as a surprise to a faculty that had a single Egyptian instructor! They would invite students that came to the prayer to listen to the lectures of Imam al-Banna, attracting many of them to the movement of MB.
When Imam al-Banna spoke at a meeting for the student members of the ikhwan in 1937 he said, “. . . I would be remiss as I start this talk if I did not salute with you that blessed moment four years ago when I met with six of your brothers reminding one another of the responsibilities that University students have for Islam . . . By the second year this annual gathering included forty of your brothers. At the end of the third year you numbered 300. We come now to your fourth annual gathering and you increase and not decline, ‘And the pure land: its plants grow out of the earth by the permission of its Lord.’”
For me, the most inspiring testimonial comes from ustadh Ahmed Abu Shady who talks about him in his memoirs. He says:
God so willed that I was close to ustadh Mohamed Abdelhamid Ahmed in the tribulation of 1965 and that I benefited much from his company. I learned more from him through his example and through living with him day to day than I learned from classes and readings. . . He was an endless ocean of knowledge. He spoke to us of the da’wa that he joined as a young man; he spoke of the poetry of Iqbal to whom he was particularly dedicated – he had memorized much of his poetry and when he recited it he would do so in a melodious voice that would inspire in us a response to the poetry similar to his own; and beyond these he would guide us to live the hikam of ibn Ataa. The hikam were like a song from his lips making steadfast the hearts of those that are oppressed whenever the crises gather and darken, and whenever tribulation bares its teeth and despair finds its way to all gathered . . . Of the hikam that he kept reciting to us until we memorized them:
- Let not the delay in the time of the giving, despite your persistence in the asking, a cause for your despair. For Allah guaranteed you the answering of supplication in what He chooses for you not in what you choose for yourself, and in the time that He wills, not in the time that you will . . . for He does with consistency and overwhelming power what He wills.
- If Allah is with you, then just who is against you? And if He is against you then just who is with you?
I am always moved when I learn of the lives of people like this. He worked tirelessly and he could have been famous or a celebrity. He could have become known as an author, as a political figure, as an activist leader, etc. Instead, what God chose for him was that he would be remembered by those that knew him and that his real impact would be in their character and in their lives, and then in the character and lives of everyone that they reached. He did write a few books. But the most influential of his “books” were the students and the brothers that learned from him in his times of ease and in his times of difficulty. May Allah accept him, forgive him, reward him, and keep us on the goodness in his path and his legacy. Ameen.
). Check their blogs out – you will not be disappointed. Asma just started on hadithuna this past February but already has a consistent following maa shaa Allah. Her blog so far is about inspiration in a variety of modes and the comments from everyone enrich the discussion. Asmaa is part of a two member team with another sister who goes by the alias “The Fool”. They are both accomplished writers and have explored a variety of topics from the humorous to the somber and reflective. Noha is an artist in engineer’s clothing like so many members of our community. (this line needs a smiley but I couldn’t decide if it should be a laugh or a frown or a head scratcher!) Her blog is both a photo and “random thoughts blog”. Please check them out in the blogroll.
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