Mustafa al-Siba'i () 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. From 1945 to 1961 he was the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, the Syrian branch of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

Life

Mustafa al-Siba'i studied

Islamic theology Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding creed. The main schools of Islamic theology include the extant Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools; the extinct ones ...

al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. While in Egypt he went to lectures by

Hassan al-Banna Hassan Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Muhammed al-Banna (; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna (), was an Egyptian schoolteacher and Imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential g ...

, founder of the Egyptian Brotherhood, and joined the Brotherhood in 1930. Returning to Syria, Siba'i taught at

Damascus University Damascus University () is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus, with campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 as the Syrian University () through the merger of the Faculty of Medicine of Dama ...

, 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; ) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Republic of Egypt (1953–1958), Egypt (including Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Ara ...

was formed in 1958,

Gamal Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

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 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 is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

was compatible with

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. It was reprinted in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

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

Nasserism Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalism, Arab nationalist and Arab socialism, Arab socialist List of political ideologies, political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution ...

Sickness and death

Al-Siba'i suffered from

Hemiparesis Hemiparesis, also called unilateral paresis, is the weakness of one entire side of the body (''wikt:hemi-#Prefix, hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia, in its most severe form, is the complete paralysis of one entire side of the body. Either hemipar ...

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sibai, Mustafa 1915 births 1964 deaths Syrian activists Syrian Salafis Syrian politicians Academic staff of Damascus University Al-Azhar University alumni Muslim Brotherhood of Syria politicians People from Homs Syrian anti-communists