Mustafa al-Siba'i ( ar, مُصطَفى السِّبَاعِي, Muṣṭafā as-Sibāʿī) was a Syrian politician and activist. He was dean of the Faculty of Islamic Jurisprudence and the School of Law at the

University of Damascus The University of Damascus ( ar, جَامِعَةُ دِمَشْقَ, ''Jāmi‘atu Dimashq'') is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus and has campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 through ...

. From 1945 to 1961 he was the leader of the

Muslim Brotherhood in Syria The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria ( ar, الإخوان المسلمون في سوريا, translit=al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn fī Sūrīya) is a Syrian branch of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organization. Its objective is the transformation ...

, the Syrian branch of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

Life

Mustafa al-Siba'i studied Islamic theology at

al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. While in Egypt he went to lectures by

Hassan al-Banna Sheikh Hassan Ahmed Abdel Rahman Muhammed al-Banna ( ar, حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن محمد البنا; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna ( ar, حسن البنا), was an Egyptian schoolteacher and imam, b ...

, founder of the Egyptian Brotherhood, and joined the Brotherhood in 1930. Returning to Syria, Siba'i taught at Damascus University, and in 1940 was made Dean of the Faculty of Theology. In 1941 he established Shabab Mohammad (Mohammad Youth), a religious paramilitary group based on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Shabab Mohammad allied itself with the National Bloc in resisting the French mandate. In 1946, al-Siba'i founded a Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, leading it through several parliamentary campaigns. After the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

was formed in 1958, Gamal Nasser outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested hundreds of members. Joining the underground, Siba'i supported the 1961 coup ending the UAR. However, the

Ba'ath Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation a ...

government which came to power in 1963 again outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, and banned many of Siba'i's works. al-Siba'i's ''The Socialism of Islam'' (1959) argued that

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

was compatible with

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

. It was reprinted in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and endorsed by several members of the Egyptian government, though al-Siba'i complained at the use of his book to justify Nasserism.

Sickness and death

al-Siba'i suffered from

Hemiparesis Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body (''wikt:hemi-#Prefix, hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused ...

for 8 years before death on 3 October 1964.

Works

* ''Al-Din wa al-Dawla fi al-Islam'' (Religion and State in Islam), 1954 * ''Ishtirakiyyat al-Islam'' (The Socialism of Islam), 1960. * ''Hakaza Alamatni al-Hayat'' (This is how life taught me), 1972. * ''Some glittering aspects of the Islamic civilization'', 1983. Translated by Sharif Ahmad Khan. * ''The life of Prophet Muhammad: highlights and lessons'', 2004. Translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab.

References

{{Authority control 1915 births 1964 deaths Syrian activists Syrian Salafis Syrian politicians Damascus University faculty Al-Azhar University alumni Muslim Brotherhood of Syria politicians People from Homs Muslim socialists Syrian anti-communists