The political activities of Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani started very early. Before establishing Hizb ut-Tahrir he had no organised political activity, save for the period in his teens and twenties he had spent with the famous mujahid Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, whom he helped lay down plans for the well known revolutionary upheavals against British colonial rule, and against plans to set up the state of Israel by the Zionist movement. He also had extensive contact with the Muslim Brotherhood, and exchanged views with Sayyid Qutb. He also maintained ties with the Palestinian leader Amin al-Husayni during the Palestine mandate. During the period of Jordanian rule in the West Bank, however, Nabhani grew critical of the Brotherhoods close links with the Jordanian regime because of its pro-Western leanings. In November 1952, Nabhani established the Liberation Party in Jerusalem. Nabhani left Palestine for Syria in 1953 and moved to Lebanon in 1959. Many of his early al-Azhar colleagues later bore witness to his tireless activity in attending political and Islamic study circles. They also praised his contribution to numerous political discussions during which he did not abstain from criticising the internal circumstances, which he believed had led to the political and intellectual downfall of both the Muslims and the Islamic Caliphate. In addition, he used to urge the Ulema at al-Azhar to give up the adopted lassitude vis-à-vis the Ummah and her affairs and appealed to them to seek the best way for revival. On his return to Palestine, he became more and more aware of the Westernisation of the Islamic Ummah by colonial powers such as Britain and France. The loss of Palestine in 1948 together with the failure of a coup attempt by Abdullah al-Tall in Jordan to which al-Nabhani had been party convinced him that only a structured and deep intellectual work could bring the nation back to its glory and strength. Consequently he began preparations relating to the Party structure, literature and the like, as early as 1949 while he was still a judge at al-Quds. In his first written work, which appeared in January 1950 under the title Inqadh Filastin (Saving Palestine), he showed how deeply rooted Islam had been in Palestine since the seventh century. He also analysed the main cause for the set backs which had befallen the Arabs which, as he said, was due to nothing but the fact that the Ummah had resigned and submitted itself to the greedy colonial powers. In August 1950 he sent a long letter, published later as a book entitled Risalat al-Arab The Message of the Arabs, to the members of the Culture Summit of the Arab League in Alexandria, Egypt. In his exposition of the matter, he stressed upon the point that the true and real message of the Arabs is Islam, on whose basis alone the intellectual, and hence, political revival of the Ummah could be achieved. As no reaction was forthcoming by the Summit members to this letter, Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani was now convinced, more than at any time before, that establishing a political party was essential.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 07:11:00 +0000
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