The moral...

The moral, doctrinal, and linguistic superiority of the "grand ancestors" or the of the Prophet furnished the sole criterion according to which new ethical and social rules would be judged. Therefore, Islamic theory of life is characterized by simplicity and doctrinal unity. Many came to define religious reform as a triple unification of doctrine, law, and ethics.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna [^42] Al-Banna, who was greatly influenced by Rida, acted as a caliph in exile, as the supreme mujtahid in the community, as a political and spiritual leader and the interpreter par excellence of the rules of the Shari'ah. From its inception, the Ikhwan movement aimed at finding "Islamic solutions" to the problems of education, economic organization, and social justice in society.

It advocated an Islamic nation without separation of religion and state. Next, it proposed an Islamic educational system whose goal was to create the "Muslim individual, the Muslim house, the Muslim nation, and the Muslim government." Third, it created an economic infrastructure based on Islamic principles to solve social injustice.

In the midst of this heritage weighty with consequences, the mission of the Ikhwan was (1) to free the Islamic fatherland from all foreign domination, and (2) to help a free Islamic state arise in the Islamic fatherland.

Al-Banna considered it the duty of each Muslim to help build such a state, "for as long as this state does not emerge, the Muslims in their totality are committing sin." In addition, they should work to reform the education system, wage war against poverty, ignorance, disease, and crime, and create an exemplary society which would deserve to be associated with the Islamic sacred law. In conclusion, the above discussion has raised a number of questions that still await an answer.

📌One way of passing sound judgement on the nature, growth, and current dispensation of Islamic resurgence is to study the theological and cultural underpinning of this phenomenon in addition to its political impact. Notes: [^41]. An extensive analysis of these notions is to be found in: Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi`, "Reflections on the Islamic Renaissance in the Modern Arab World: Some Methodological Questions," Islamic Culture, Vol. LXIII (3), July 1989, pp.

42-59, and his "Secularization, Islam and the Future of the Arab World: A Derivative Discourse," Peuples Mediterraneens, Issue Number 60 (July-September 1992), pp.177741. [^42].

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