The Second Generation of the Manār Legacy: Ḥasan al-Bannā and Muḥammad Asad
I. Ḥasan al-Bannā (1324 – 1368 AH / 1906 – 1949 CE)
The Social Reformer and Founder of al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn
Early Life and Background
Ḥasan Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bannā [حسن أحمد عبد الرحمن البنا] was born in 1906 CE / 1324 AH in Maḥmūdiyyah, a small town in Egypt’s Beheira Governorate.^1
His father, Shaykh Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bannā al-Sāʿātī, was a watchmaker (sāʿātī ساعتي) and respected ḥadīth scholar who edited the classic Musnad Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.^2
From him, young Ḥasan inherited both craftsmanship and scholarship — the precision of the artisan and the devotion of the student.
By his teens, he memorized the Qurʾān, studied ḥadīth and Arabic, and was active in moral reform societies that taught civic discipline and daʿwah (دعوة).^3
Education and Early Influences
Al-Bannā studied at Dār al-ʿUlūm in Cairo, where he encountered the reformist writings of Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Rashīd Riḍā through al-Manār magazine.
Riḍā’s vision of an Islam harmonizing faith and social progress profoundly shaped him.
He once wrote:
“I am a student of al-Manār before I am the founder of a movement.”^4
Founding of al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn
In 1928 CE, while working as a schoolteacher in Ismāʿīliyyah, he founded al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn (الإخوان المسلمون) — The Muslim Brotherhood — with six workers and craftsmen as his first disciples.^5
Its aim:
“To build the Muslim individual, the Muslim family, and the Muslim society, until the Qurʾān governs life.”
The movement’s principles echoed Riḍā’s Manār ideal: combining education, activism, and spirituality (tarbiyah – تربية).
Within twenty years, it had spread across Egypt and beyond, with schools, charities, and youth brigades promoting moral reform and anti-colonial consciousness.
Intellectual Vision
Al-Bannā saw Islam as a comprehensive system (niẓām shāmil – نظام شامل):
religion, state, science, and civilization united under divine guidance.
He rejected both Western secularism and rigid traditionalism, insisting that revelation must guide modern life through ijtihād grounded in the Qurʾān and Sunnah.
He taught that:
“Islam is creed and worship, homeland and citizenship, religion and state, spirit and body, Qurʾān and sword.”^6
His thought sought to translate the ideals of ʿAbduh and Riḍā into organized social action.
Martyrdom and Legacy
After years of political conflict with Egypt’s monarchy and British authorities, al-Bannā was assassinated in Cairo, 1949 CE, at age 43.^7
He left behind not an institution of power but a network of moral reform, whose influence reached the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Modern movements of education and daʿwah — from community schools to welfare charities — still trace their lineage to his model of combining knowledge, organization, and faith in action.
II. Muḥammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) (1318 – 1412 AH / 1900 – 1992 CE)
The Western Convert, Qurʾānic Thinker, and Global Voice of Islamic Modernity
Early Life and Conversion
Muḥammad Asad, born Leopold Weiss in Lemberg (Lviv), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1900 CE, came from a family of Jewish scholars and rabbis.^8
After studying philosophy and art in Vienna, he worked as a journalist for Frankfurter Zeitung.
A 1922 journey to the Middle East changed his life.
He wrote:
“I came to the desert as a skeptic; I left it as a believer.”^9
Captivated by the faith, simplicity, and unity of Muslim life, he converted to Islam in 1926 CE, adopting the name Muḥammad Asad (محمد أسد) — “the Lion of Islam.”
Intellectual Formation
Settling first in Arabia, Asad befriended ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd and witnessed the early unification of Saudi Arabia.
He later moved to India, where he became a close associate of Muḥammad Iqbal (محمد إقبال), poet-philosopher of the Indian Muslim revival.^10
Through Iqbal, he absorbed the same reformist current that traced back to ʿAbduh and Riḍā — uniting revelation, reason, and social renewal.
He described Islam as “a living idea, not a memory.”
Major Works
| Work | Arabic / English Title | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Road to Mecca | الطريق إلى مكة | Autobiography | A spiritual journey from skepticism to Islam; one of the 20th century’s classic conversion narratives.^11 |
| Islam at the Crossroads | الإسلام على مفترق الطرق | Civilization & reform | A call to Muslim intellectual independence from Western imitation; written 1934.^12 |
| The Message of the Qurʾān | رسالة القرآن | Qurʾānic translation & commentary | His magnum opus — modern English rendering with rational-spiritual commentary rooted in classical tafsīr.^13 |
| Principles of State and Government in Islam | أسس الدولة والحكم في الإسلام | Political thought | Defines Islamic governance as moral responsibility, not theocracy; echoes Riḍā’s al-Khilāfah. |
Philosophy and Approach
Asad’s thought was a dialogue between Islam and modernity.
He argued that the Qurʾān demands both intellect and surrender, and that true Islamic civilization rests on ethical universality, not cultural isolation.
“The Qurʾān does not ask us to abandon reason, but to cleanse it of arrogance.”^14
He saw Islam as the universal bridge between revelation and rational humanism, reviving the spirit of the early reformers in a Western idiom.
Later Life and Legacy
After serving in Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry and helping draft its early constitution, Asad retired to Morocco and later Spain, dedicating his final decades to completing The Message of the Qurʾān.
He died in 1992 CE in Granada, symbolically resting in the soil of lost al-Andalus — a life that had come full circle from Europe to Islam.
His writings became foundational for English-speaking Muslim intellectuals, bridging classical scholarship with modern consciousness.
III. Shared Legacy: From Cairo to the World
| Thinker | Focus | Inheritance from the Manār School | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ḥasan al-Bannā | Social & institutional reform | Applied ʿAbduh’s and Riḍā’s ideals through organized daʿwah and community ethics. | Founded the largest modern Islamic social movement. |
| Muḥammad Asad | Intellectual & linguistic reform | Extended their rationalism into the Western discourse, translating Qurʾān and faith into global language. | Opened Islamic modernity to Western audiences. |
Both men revived the spirit of ijtihād — one through action, the other through ideas — continuing the centuries-long lineage from Ibn Ḥajar to al-Zabīdī, ʿAbduh, and Riḍā.
Conclusion
From al-Bannā’s community activism to Asad’s philosophical reflection, the 20th century saw Islam reawakened as a living moral civilization.
Their different worlds — Cairo’s alleys and Europe’s salons — were united by a single conviction:
That Islam, rightly understood, is both faith and freedom; heritage and horizon.
References (for footnote conversion)
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Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “al-Bannā.”
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Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London: OUP, 1969), 3–5.
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Charles Wendell, The Evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood (Cairo: AUC Press, 1978), 18.
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Ḥasan al-Bannā, Majmūʿ al-Rasāʾil, letter 1.
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Ibid., 5–8.
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Ibid., 14.
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Mitchell, Society of the Muslim Brothers, 272.
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Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Asad, Muḥammad.”
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Muḥammad Asad, The Road to Mecca (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954), 41.
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Ibid., 85; also Iqbal’s letters in Shams al-ʿUlamāʾ Correspondence, vol. 2.
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Asad, The Road to Mecca, Preface.
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Asad, Islam at the Crossroads (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1982), 2.
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Asad, The Message of the Qurʾān (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1980), Introduction.
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Ibid., xvii.
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