The Essence of the Message

Our battlefield today is identity, revolving around characteristics, structure, and the Islamic ethos. According to the Quran, our enemies "will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they can" (Quran 2:217). They don't just strive to blur our Islamic identity and erase Allah's religion, but they aim to institutionalize this process. Their objective is to corrupt the formation of the Muslim individual to an extent where they can never embody Islam. Hence, the crux of our current message is to preserve the Islamic identity and essence of our society. It involves solidifying its aspects and completing its pillars. This core mission demands transforming reality through education, guidance, preaching, and working persistently to continue, deepen, expand, and invigorate the Islamic awakening. We must ensure Islam remains the authentic point of reference for our society, for men and women, individuals, and institutions.

As for the Identity

As for the identity, we have inherited this pure Islam and have been imbued with a strong, lasting ethos that has penetrated our consciences and emotions, adhering to the depths of our ribs and the core of our hearts. Egypt, in its entirety, has merged with Islam—its faith, its language, its civilization—and defended it, protecting its boundaries, repelling the transgressors, and striving for it to the extent that her wealth and the blood of her children could allow.

This Islamic identity doesn't stop at the boundaries of those devout in Islam in the Islamic world, but also includes non-Muslim minorities, who have nationally, civilly, and patriotically merged with the Muslim majority. Thus, if the Islamic identity represents for the Muslim: faith, sharia, values, civilization, nationality, patriotism, culture, history, and heritage, then it represents for its non-Muslim minority citizens: civilization, nationality, patriotism, values, culture, history, and heritage in thought and law, to the same extent that it represents for its Muslim citizens in these aspects equally.

As for the Awakening

As for the awakening, it is that alertness that has made our youth aware of themselves and recognize their path after every non-Islamic assembly has failed. An alertness that caused them to abandon slogans, ideas, and principles that all failed to offer what Islam does. It is that wakefulness that has birthed a flowing, dynamic current whose course and direction is Islam and derives its power from faith. This awakening continues to gain new elements every day from our virtuous Muslim people, because it is an awakening that doesn’t claim the monopoly of Islam for its members without others. If its members preceded their brethren in recognizing their Islamic duty, they moved to fulfill it.

This awakening has expressed itself in a humble current, yet it is more noble than the immovable sun, for it draws its dignity from the almighty and majestic Allah. It’s an awakening that expressed itself in a limited stream, yet it is broader than the borders of all these regions combined because Islam is the religion of all worlds. This awakening has expressed itself in a current devoid of personal interests, free from greed and whims, yet it bestows upon its members sovereignty in this world and Paradise in the Hereafter. This is the awakening, we need to expand it to encompass all people from the commoners to the elite, we need to deepen it to permeate all aspects of life, and we need to activate it to be the driving force for doing good and benefiting people. (As for the foam, it vanishes, [being] cast off; but as for that which benefits the people, it remains on the earth) [Ar Ra’d: 17].

This is an awakening for the sake of Allah, and no human can repel it. (Indeed, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to avert [people] from the way of Allah. So they will spend it; then it will be for them a [source of] regret; then they will be overcome. And those who have disbelieved – unto Hell they will be gathered) [Al-Anfal: 36].

As for the Reference

Every society needs a reference, a reference in the form of governing rules to which it refers to manage its affairs. These reference rules must not conflict with those rules that govern the hearts and feelings within the same society, so as not to cause duplication or duality in the standards upon which all waves of reform break.

The dominant Western reference currently prevailing in the world is materialistic and secular, claiming that any action approved by reason is correct. It interprets the universe, human life, and human society in a materialistic, positivist, and secular manner, and in doing so, it conflicts with what governs our hearts and feelings. Hence, we have the Islamic reference; that reference which determines the decision of an individual, be it a man or a woman, and it governs the choice of groups or institutions when they manage their affairs. It's a real, practical response, not just a theoretical intellectual reference. It regulates decisions and behaviors to please Allah.

We have an Islamic frame of reference that combines (revelation) and its knowledge with (nature) and its sciences, establishing unity in conceptualization and behavior. Therefore, there is no duplicity or duality. It does not conflict with the beliefs of non-Muslim minorities because it is the only one that has accepted pluralism ever since it allowed a Muslim to marry a person of the Book in a single household. Moreover, it does not contradict the legislative requirements of this minority, which is only concerned with the Kingdom of Heaven, thus not contradicting any legislative reference that governs worldly affairs on earth. Finally, it is a path that cannot be avoided by those seeking reform among Muslims, who have so deeply ingrained obedience to the religion into their beings that it has become a part of their nature.

Anyone who sought their reform without the way of religion has sowed a seed that is not suitable for the soil in which he deposited it, so it does not grow, and his effort is wasted and his endeavour fails. 

He is misguided who said: The path to renaissance is one, without multiplicity, that is, we should walk the path of the Europeans and follow their way in civilization, its good and its evil, its sweet and its bitter, what is loved and what is hated, what is praised and what is criticized. We should adopt their approach to governance, walk their path in administration, and follow their path in legislation. 

This statement is sufficient to leave Muslims plundered by the multiplicity of references, conflicting struggles, oscillating choices, and the demolition of religion. It leads to depriving the nation of all opportunities for progress, even to the death and burial of the nation, as it turns away from what gives it life and sustains it. “O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life” [Al Anfal:24].