Return of the Pharaoh - Zainab Al-Ghazali

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I am sick, and my movements limited because of a serious injury to my leg. If you please you are welcome in the Muslim Ladies Headquarters.’

      ‘Come to see us on your way home, are you not a member of the Socialist Union?’

      ‘I am a member of the Muslim Ladies Group, assalamu alaiki, my daughter, wa rahmatu Allah!’

      I ended the call, and did not go to see her.

      A week later our group secretary showed me a recorded letter dated 15th September 1964, containing Ministerial Decree No. 32 dated 6th September 1964, which informed us once again of the Government’s decision to ban the Muslim Ladies Group.

      The Muslim Ladies Group’s administrative committee held an urgent meeting that same day. The committee rejected both the dissolution decree and the hand over of its property and belongings to another group whose members, although part of our group, had been separated from us at the instigations of the Secret Services before Nasir’s coup. After the coup this group had become Nasir’s tool. Our administrative committee had also decided to call our general council to an urgent meeting, within the next 24 hours. Here, too, the general committee rejected the dissolution of our Group and agreed to refer the case to the courts.

      We recruited a lawyer, Dr. Abdullah Rashwan, to defend our case. Meanwhile, we sent recorded letters and messages to the Presidency, the Home Office, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Attorney General, along with duplicate copies to the press, informing all these parties that the Muslim Ladies Group was established in 1936 for the promotion of Islamic da’wah and the return of Muslims to their Lord’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Hence, neither the Home Office nor the Ministry of Social Affairs had any bond of allegiance from our group. For allegiance is, after all, due only to Allah and to those who establish His religion and laws. Our letter read:

      The Muslim Ladies Group was established in 1936 to spread the message of Allah and to strive for the making of a Muslim Ummah which will bring back to Islam its glory and own state. Our group works for the sake of Allah, and no secular government has the right of sovereignty over Muslims.

      The Muslim Ladies Group’s message is a call to Islam. It recruits men, women, the young and the old, in order that they believe in Allah’s message and establish a state that takes what He revealed as its law.

      We, the Muslim Ladies, reject the ban decree on our Group, for the President, who is openly calling for the secularization of the state, has no right of allegiance from us. Neither has the Ministry of Social Affairs any right of allegiance from us; Da’wah represents neither money nor belongings which can be confiscated by a secular state whose members are fighting Allah, His Messenger and the Muslim Ummah.

      Let the state confiscate our money and belongings, but it cannot confiscate our faith. Our message is one of da’wah and of people who perform this da’wah. We stand underneath the umbrella of ‘there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger’. Belief in this formula compels us to strive continuously for the establishment of an Islamic state by a community that is conscientious of its religion, is governed by Allah’s law, and is always striving in His cause.

      Firm in his resolve to eliminate our Group, Nasir issued a military decree preventing publication of our magazine for an unlimited period. The despot’s agents even invaded our Headquarters and removed all the contents. As a result, they displaced 120 orphans whose needs, in terms of shelter and education, from nursery to university level, had been taken care of by the Group.

      It is only right that I should proudly record here, that the despot’s agents did not find a single lady, from amongst either the general council or administrative committee or the preachers’ board, waiting to hand them the keys of our Headquarters. Nasir’s agents had asked me to hand over the keys to them personally but I refused as did all our other members. Finally the keys were secured from the administrative secretary, but then, as an employee, that person had no choice.

      Before long, members of the Muslim Ladies Group began flocking to my house asking me what we should do.

      Dear reader! The stance which the Muslim Ladies took, it should be recalled, was in 1964, when Nasir’s rule was at its zenith. At a time when many people preferred to conceal what they really thought. Such people used to endorse the despot’s actions, and even worse some issued Fatwas in support of Nasir’s deeds. They would ascribe to Nasir things which made a demigod of him. Believing something and displaying exactly the opposite (taqiyyah),5 while discrediting those who refuse to do the same, is not something Islam ascribes to. A true Muslim does not waste his or her own faith nor is the mocking of Muslim brothers and sisters permitted. Yet many supposed Islamic magazines competed to please the despot. Even al-Azhar magazine, which was once dear to our hearts, opened its pages to hypocritical writers who competed to please falsehood and its folk. Fatwas which defamed the Mujahids who opted for ‘azimah and shunned the error they called rukhsah,6 began pouring from some government-employed scholars. They hurled abuse at those Mujahids who called people to practise Islam and not merely belong to it by name; for Islam is practise, not lip service.

      The Muslim Ladies Group neither refused to follow what some people called rukhsah, nor did it stop short of belonging to Islam. Instead, the Muslim Ladies raised the banner of truth and pronounced the word of truthfulness, at a time when a great many people denounced them for fear of losing their jobs, their careers and their homes. The Muslim Ladies did not stand by as spectators, but spoke frankly about the events which were going on, seeking Allah’s pleasure, even if in the process it upset many people. The members of our Group continued to meet and as for myself I had dedicated my whole life to the Muslim Ladies; it was my raison d’etre. For I had pledged to Allah on the day I established the Group that I would never submit my life to anybody beside Him. The huge number of Muslim ladies who poured into my house renewed their pledge to dedicate their lives to following Allah’s way and to calling people to it. They agreed with me to hold meetings in their homes whereby our preachers would teach the ladies the principles of Islam. But sadly our opportunities were few for the despot’s state machine was watching anyone who called to Allah in these kind of meetings. One by one the ladies who held these meetings were contacted by Nasir’s agents and threatened. In this way the state obtained an undertaking, from all the ladies involved, that they would not hold such meetings again. Thereafter our activities were confined to those of a personal nature.

      Nasir’s security and police agents renewed their contacts with me. They wanted to meet in order to present their offers to me; the implication being that I should buy this world for the Next. For instance, they suggested the re-publication of the Muslim Ladies’ magazine, with me as its Editor-in-Chief with a salary of E£300 per month; in return I was to have nothing to do with what was to be written in the magazine. Naturally, I refused. It would have been unthinkable for the Muslim Ladies’ magazine to be issued from the Security Forces’ Headquarters let alone assist in the spread of secularization. They also offered to cancel the ban decree on our Group and to give us back our Headquarters with an annual support fund totalling E£20,000; in return we had to form one of the Socialist Union institutions. Again I refused, advising the despot’s agents that our activities will, insha’ Allah, be only for the sake of Allah. The Muslim Ladies Group was not ready to deceive or mis-represent anything. For those who gain their earnings under the pretext of working for Islam cannot really serve it.

      My rebuttals obviously angered them but still they persisted in their ridiculous temptations. Before long the truth behind their sinister offers would become apparent.

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