Speech in the Al Isra’ wal Mi’raj Asy Syarif Cel­e­bra­tions 1433H /​2012: Per­spec­tive of Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah on Social Reform

Intro­duc­tion

Under the con­di­tions that have stormed this coun­try, it is nec­es­sary for us to say the words of Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah, “This is the assem­bly that intends to reform human­ity, and what this coun­try needs dur­ing these dif­fi­cult times is peo­ple with safe Tak­win Muhammadi.”

Since more than 150 years ago, most local com­mu­nity lead­ers in Egypt have under­stood that the national sit­u­a­tion can­not stand on an indi­vid­ual person’s ref­or­ma­tion regard­less the extent of his abil­ity and capa­bil­ity. Being open to the Arab Spring at that time, it resulted in many of these lead­ers grow­ing their ideas to move the reform prac­tices from indi­vid­ual works to col­lec­tive works. Since that moment, Egypt has wit­nessed the estab­lish­ments of new local assem­blies such as wel­fare bod­ies and national orga­ni­za­tions. They emerged along the assem­blies that had been estab­lished over the cen­turies in the regions of Egypt; the Fiqh or Salafi assem­blies as well as the Sufi assemblies.

Every­one was active with gen­eral refor­ma­tions. Every indi­vid­ual from these assem­blies sys­tem­ized his ideas based on a spe­cial­ized field of work. Indeed, every Egypt­ian man was fed with love for improve­ment and ref­or­ma­tion, and learnt to sac­ri­fice and give.

Main Con­tent

Voices rose from the national orga­ni­za­tions, call­ing out to peo­ple that it was nec­es­sary for them to start polit­i­cal ref­or­ma­tion works. This stream of peo­ple who called for polit­i­cal ref­or­ma­tion was divided into two factions:

The first fac­tion saw the need to inte­grate pol­i­tics with reli­gion in order to expand pol­i­tics based on the firm­ness of Islam in estab­lish­ing states and their con­sti­tu­tions, where the Sul­tanate in Islam is the tool to ful­fill divine jus­tice and spread peace through­out mankind.

The sec­ond fac­tion extended a wing for the estab­lish­ment of Islam. Thus they uti­lized the estab­lish­ment of Islam for polit­i­cal pur­poses, and deployed sol­diers to wars for the sake of the Sul­tanate. They made strict and harsh speeches, issu­ing fear­ful threats to youths in sus­pi­cious groups and to youths who doubt the pos­si­bil­ity of feel­ing safety, peace, jus­tice and sat­is­fac­tion in the Islamic community.

Although Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah is an assem­bly that does not prac­tice pol­i­tics and has no ambi­tion to prac­tice a spe­cial­ized polit­i­cal ref­or­ma­tion, we are con­vinced and we believe that Islam is shaped with ref­er­ence of a com­plete human ref­or­ma­tion. As the Amir for the Tribes and Fam­i­lies of Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah, I see that it is nec­es­sary for me to explain a por­tion of our Dan­darawi Vision about this con­text of change in Egypt. It is a vision deeply based on the tol­er­ance of Islam. At the same time, it is also based on its inter­ac­tions with the con­tem­po­rary sit­u­a­tion that includes its demands and changes, but with­out com­pro­mis­ing the firm­ness of Islam.

The Dan­darawi Vision urges the need to change by look­ing at the sit­u­a­tions of sat­is­fac­tion, peace and sus­tain­abil­ity. Thus social change becomes sus­tain­able if it begins with an indi­vid­ual human, if it is based on knowl­edge and under­stand­ing, and if it stands on the will for free­dom that dri­ves its stages in peace. This sus­tain­able social change focuses on two prac­tices per­formed by indi­vid­u­als in the frame­work of a sin­gle assembly.

The first prac­tice: Under­stand­ing the fun­da­men­tals of Al Irt­ibat with the per­son of Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam in every move­ment to unify and unite every­one who needs human consensus.

The sec­ond prac­tice: Under­stand­ing the need to replace the human Tak­win [Self-​formation] of a Mus­lim with Tak­win Muhammadi.

We shall elab­o­rate on these two practices.

Indeed, our vision focuses around mak­ing peo­ple under­stand the oblig­a­tion to Irt­ibat Iman and Intima’ with the self of Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam, and begin with the will to Irt­ibat Iman and Intima’ that changes the human Tak­win.
Many peo­ple accept that this Irt­ibat Iman and Intima’ changes the human Tak­win, but they assume that this change has no effect on the community’s sys­tems, and that it does not extend or con­tribute to any phys­i­cal progress. Thus the ques­tion is whether illit­er­acy, poverty, hunger and con­flicts can be solved by prac­tic­ing Irt­ibat Iman and Intima’ with Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Solawat­ul­lahi ‘Alaih. Here, we say, “Indeed Al Irt­ibat with the self of Al Musthafa Al Mujtaba Solawat­ul­lahi ‘Alaih changes the human, then it is the human who changes his sur­round­ings and cre­ates his moment of civilization.”

Sim­i­larly, many peo­ple are con­vinced on the need for this Irt­ibat with the self of Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam. How­ever, he requests for orig­i­nal sources of Aqi­dah for this Irt­ibat. We remind them of what has been men­tioned in detail in our Wat­siqah Baidha’:

That “since the begin­ning when the Last Mes­sen­ger ‘Alai­his Solatu Was­salam was sent, every­one who embraced Islam as the reli­gion of his faith knew that Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Rasu­l­ul­lah ‘Alaihi Solawat­ul­lah has two roles in the lives of every indi­vid­ual from his Ummah; the role as the Final Rasul whom through him Allah Jalla ‘Ulah estab­lishes Islam, and the role as the Uni­fy­ing Za’im whom through him Allah Jalla ‘Ulah unites Muslimin.”

And that “Allah the All-​Majestic and the All-​Honourable Sub­hanah has made the sec­ond role which is Al Irt­ibat with the per­son of Az Za’im Al Jami’ Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Was­sal­lam, to be equal in the Aqi­dah to the first role which is sub­mis­sion to his Risalah.” Thus who­ever wants evi­dences and proofs, he should refer and return to our Wat­siqah Baidha’.

Our Fikr Dan­darawi has explained that Sayyidul Basyar Muham­mad Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam is the one who unites the Mus­lim Ummah, places its social foun­da­tions, moulds the prac­tices for the ele­ments of a Muslim’s self-​formation and fab­ri­cates the inter­ac­tions for the visual pro­jec­tions of his per­son­al­ity, until he ful­fills the one­ness of his self and reaches to his per­fec­tions within the frame­work of a sin­gle assem­bly.
Fikr Dan­darawi explains to us about four uni­fi­ca­tions that a Mus­lim achieves if he Irt­ibat with the self of Az Za’im Al Jami’ lil Mus­limin Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam. Firstly, it is the uni­fi­ca­tion of the four ele­ments; body, soul, desire and mind. Sec­ondly, it is the uni­fi­ca­tion of the mother, father and chil­dren within one fam­ily. Thirdly, it is the uni­fi­ca­tion of social sta­tuses to build a cohe­sive com­mu­nity. Fourthly, it is the uni­fi­ca­tion of racial eth­nic­i­ties, fam­i­lies and tribes to estab­lish an inte­grated Ummah.

We then move on to the sec­ond prac­tice that dri­ves towards social change which is under­stand­ing the need to replace our human Tak­win with Tak­win Muhammadi.

Some peo­ple are mixed up between lov­ing deeply and prac­tic­ing Al Irt­ibat. They assume that with love alone, he is able to walk on the path of Al Ma’iyyah Al Muham­madiyah Al Mani’ah [The Muham­madi Togeth­er­ness which Refrains from any bad actions and say­ings], under the shel­ter of the ban­ner of Az Za’amah Al Muham­madiyah Al Jami’ah [The Uni­fy­ing Muham­madi Guar­an­tee]. Here, we do not deny the effec­tive­ness of lov­ing Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam deeply, but love has a hid­den rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It may be present at one time, and may be miss­ing another time. Pos­si­bly, it may be present dur­ing ses­sions of Zikr or dur­ing our con­fer­ences. Oth­er­wise, it may be miss­ing in the mar­kets, inter­ac­tions or disputes.

Due to that, the reli­able love is the one in which Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam is the most beloved to a Mus­lim, sur­pass­ing the love he has for him­self. This is the sta­tus in Islam that soars above Irt­ibat Al Iman and Al Intima’.
Indeed, the human Tak­win that we are born with and that grows with time is in fact a Tak­win mixed with both genetic inher­i­tance and nur­tur­ing influ­ences such as fam­ily, school, closed ones, com­pan­ions and influ­ences from infor­ma­tional medi­ums, inter­net web­sites and social media. This ran­dom Tak­win does not unify fam­i­lies and tribes, build com­mu­ni­ties, pro­tect states or inte­grate racial bonds.
There­fore, chang­ing our Tak­win with Tak­win Muham­madi that Az Za’im Al Awhad [The Unique Za’im] Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam who unites the Mus­lim Ummah has moulded and fab­ri­cated after the Hijrah to Al Mad­i­nah Al Munawwarah is indeed an Islamic oblig­a­tion based on the con­text of Aqi­dah as well as the con­text of human society.

Con­clu­sion

We lastly say: A Mus­lim with Tak­win Muham­madi is indeed an assur­ance for his com­mu­nity because after every prayer and at the begin­ning and end­ing of every ses­sion, he pledges to Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam and presents to him his oath that he will not cause any sep­a­ra­tion, seg­re­ga­tion, divi­sion or dis­per­sion to the assem­bly of his Ummah. He pledges to Rasu­l­ul­lah Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam and presents to him his oath that any dif­fer­ence in opin­ion, way of think­ing, style of work, social sta­tus or racial eth­nic­ity will not result in sep­a­ra­tion, con­flict, boast­ing or dis­tanc­ing. Rather, every­one is his brother, com­pan­ion, sib­ling and friend.

Indeed, a Mus­lim who has Tak­win Muham­madi says in his pledge and oath, “As a pledge and an oath to walk on the path of Al Ma’iyyah Al Muham­madiyah Al Mani’ah, under the shel­ter of the ban­ner of Az Za’amah Al Muham­madiyah Al Jami’ah.”

With this pledge and oath, a Mus­lim lives safely and becomes the source of safety and secu­rity for his com­mu­nity and his coun­try, bear­ing the torch of sus­tain­able human ref­or­ma­tion to unite fam­i­lies, tribes, social sta­tuses and coun­tries in the arena of mod­ern events.

I can only raise my hands, sup­pli­cat­ing to Allah Sub­hanahu wa Ta’ala and His beloved Al Musthafa Sol­lal­lahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam, to lift this adver­sity from this coun­try, to gather us and pro­tect us with the Barakah [bless­ing] and Nazrah [view] of His Beloved Al Musthafa Sol­lalahu ‘Alaihi Wasal­lam, and not to exclude us from the shel­ter of his noble Ni’al.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ. وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

This speech was addressed by Al-​Amir Hashem ibn Al-​Fadl ibn Al-​Abbas El Dan­darawy, An Naib Al Am for Sumuwwul Amir of the Tribes and Familes of Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah in 2012 and Head of the Inter­na­tional Dan­dara Cul­tural Cen­tres. Now, he is the cur­rent Sumuwwul Amir of this assem­bly. To under­stand more about the two roles of Rasu­l­ul­lah ‘alaihi Solawat­ul­lah, Al Irt­ibat and Al Usrah Al Dan­daraweyah, please click here to read Trans­la­tion of Al Wat­siqah Al Baidha’ For­ma­tion and Model © 2013

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