'When the Khilafah was brought down'...

'When the Khilafah was brought down', Mustafa Mashhoor, deputy leader of the Brotherhood explained: 'Imam Hasan Al-Banna rose up and proclaimed the restoration of the Khilafah to be a religious duty incumbent upon every single Muslim man and woman.'[^32] In a message sent to the heads of Muslim states in June 1947, Hasan Al-Banna demanded that they shoulder their responsibilities and undertake the task of serving the ummah.

The task, he explained, consisted of two parts: the first, to rid the ummah of its political shackles so as to achieve its freedom and restore its lost independence and sovereignty; and the second to rebuild the ummah anew in order to pursue its path among nations and compete with others for the attainment of social perfection.[^33] Hence, Hasan Al-Banna's main concern was to mobilize the public against colonialism and its adverse effects on society.

He called for the re- establishment of Islamic governance on three foundations: the ruler's accountability to Allah and to the public, the unity of the ummah within a framework of brotherhood, and respect for the will of the ummah and its right to check its rulers who are obliged to respect its will and opinions.[^34] In his analysis of the causes of European progress, he prognosticated the eventual collapse of Western civilization due to immorality, usury and political divisions.

In his message Bayn al-Ams wa'l-Yawm (Between Yesterday and Today), he cites (political) parties as one of the factors that would lead to European decline.[^35] Although he stood for parliamentary elections twice, and while stressing that the parliamentary and constitutional system is in essence compatible with the Islamic system of government, he was adamant in his opposition to political parties.

He regarded them as a potential threat to Islamic unity, which he deemed was essential for the re-establishment of the Khilafah. 'They (political parties) are this homeland's greatest misdeed, the root of social corruption whose fire is scalding us. They are not genuine parties in the sense by which parties in any other country of the world are known. They are no more than a series of dissension caused by personal disagreements among a number of the children of this ummah.

Whose circumstances necessitated one day that they should speak in its name and demand its national rights . There is no more room for half solutions and there is no escape from the inevitability of the dissolution of all these parties.