A Journey in Islamic Thought: The Life of Fathi Osman

A Journey in Islamic Thought: The Life of Fathi Osman

Ghada Osman

Language: English

Pages: 288

ISBN: 1848857470

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


From pre-revolutionary Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood, and from imprisonment to exile, this is the life of Fathi Osman: a leading Egyptian-born thinker at the forefront of modern Islamic reformism for nearly four decades. Joining the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man, Fathi Osman rose through the ranks of the organization thanks to his own considerable oratory skills and his relationship with leading Brotherhood figures, Sayyid Qutb and Hasan al-Hudaybi. But as he began to recognize the covert violent aspects of the Brotherhood, he increasingly distanced himself and voiced his opposition. He was, due to his association with the Muslim Brothers, imprisoned a number of times before he eventually left Egypt in self-imposed exile. Using interviews, family documents, and archival materials to chronicle Fathi Osman’s ideological development from spokesperson for the prototypical Islamist movement to formulator of a radical Islamic reformist ideology, Ghada Osman sheds light on the lure and inner workings of a major Islamist movement and the role of Islamic reform in the global arena. In the process, she has produced a dispassionate and thoroughly researched biography of a major figure of the twentieth-century Arab and Muslim intellectual world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

large rectangular living-room area surrounded by several smaller rooms. The living-room area served as a lecture hall and prayer hall, and the smaller rooms functioned as offices. Fathi’s first glance around the room did not reveal anything enticing. There were about 30 people in the Centre that day, all aged between 35 and 50. Most of them were civil servants, mainly clerks at banks and in government offices. It was rare in the small towns at the time for the Brothers to attract members who were

disclaimer, ‘I’m a boring old man. Why don’t you interview soand-so?’ naming a person with whom he had shared an early history of membership in the Society of Muslim Brothers. But I insisted on interviewing him and, as my interviews became increasingly structured now that I was able to focus exclusively on them, he began to open up more xv 00 Journey in Islamic Thought i-xviii 22/7/11 13:11 Page xvi A JOURNEY IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT and more. In time, he came to provide me with detailed

family and a new community. Fathi now would go to Aswan over the weekend to pray the Friday prayer and to visit the Brothers there. Still reeling from the dissolution of the Society, al-Banna’s assassination and the recent jailings, the Brothers sought solace in each other’s company. The edict dissolving the Society had specifically declared any gathering of five Brothers illegal, and so three or four neighbours or colleagues would meet to furtively discuss affairs. Would the Society ever be

of his armed visitors. The plan had backfired. The situation had gained popularity for al-Hudaybi, who appeared as the victim of an unruly and violent throng. The Society’s General Secretary, Abd 123 01 Journey in Islamic Thought 001-282 22/7/11 14:47 Page 124 A JOURNEY IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT al-Hakim ‘Abdin, fearing the negative attention that this visit would cause the organization, urged Nasser to keep it quiet. As a result, subsequent newspaper reports simply declared that the General

upcoming show at Minya’s Palace Theatre, Muhammad bought a couple for himself and his son. The theatre also doubled as a cinema and when films were shown Muhammad would reserve a set of box seats for his entire family. Two of the first films that the young Fathi watched were the popular musicals by the prolific composer and national sensation Muhammad Abd al-Wahab: the 1933 The White Rose (al-Warda al-Bayda), and the 1935 Tears of Love (Dumu‘ al-Hubb). A few years later, the family was introduced

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