Mustafa al-Sibai (1915–1964) was one of the key figures in Syria’s Islamic movement. He became the first general leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, but his biography extended beyond religious activity: he was a preacher, politician, journalist, publisher, university lecturer, and author. A native of Homs, he was elected to parliament from Damascus, took part in drafting the constitution, and left a significant mark on the country’s public life. Al-Sibai died on October 3, 1964, before reaching the age of 50.
He was born in Homs in 1915, during World War I, and came of age against the backdrop of the Ottoman withdrawal, the arrival of the French, and the rise of the Great Syrian Revolt. His family belonged to a prominent Homs lineage: his ancestors had served as preachers at the Great Mosque. Mustafa memorized the Quran and studied religious sciences under his father’s guidance, graduating from a Sharia secondary school in 1930. In 1933, he went to Egypt, enrolled in the fiqh department at al-Azhar, and progressed from receiving an ijaza to earning a master’s degree and a doctorate, which he received in 1949 for his dissertation “The Sunnah and Its Place in Islamic Law.” As early as 1932, he was arrested by the French authorities in Syria, and in 1934 the British detained him in Cairo for taking part in an anti-colonial demonstration.
While studying in Egypt, al-Sibai met Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and came under his influence. After returning to Syria, he founded the local Muslim Brotherhood organization and became its first general leader. According to some researchers, the movement took shape in 1945–1946 through the merger of several Islamic associations under his leadership. The French imprisoned him from 1941 to 1943; after his release, he held a conference in Homs where it was decided to establish the Futuwwa organization. Later, the groups “Muhammad’s Youth” and “Muslim Youth” united under the name Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Sibai was elected head of the Syrian and Lebanese branch. The organization took part in the national struggle against French aggression in 1945: its detachments delivered food and weapons and carried the wounded under fire.
Beginning in 1950, al-Sibai taught Islamic law at the Faculty of Law at Damascus University. In 1955, he was tasked with establishing a faculty of Sharia and became its first dean; later, he founded the Arab Institute, which eventually became the Arab-Islamic Institute. In 1949, he was elected a deputy from Damascus and joined the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1950 constitution. There, he became involved in the dispute over the article concerning the state religion. Speaking from the parliamentary rostrum, he said: “In Islam, there is no clergy possessing the final word... We will retain our parliament, deputies, laws, and institutions, but with spiritual elevation, clean hands, and upright morals.” Ultimately, the constitution established that “the religion of the president of the republic is Islam,” while the preamble included a reference to the state’s adherence to Islam; al-Sibai regarded this as a clear indication of the state religion.
Al-Sibai passionately supported revolutions against colonial rule. He took part in demonstrations in Egypt and was imprisoned; the British accused him of supporting the revolt of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani in Iraq, arrested him, deported him to Palestine, and handed him over to the French. During the 1948 Palestinian catastrophe, he was among the first volunteers in the Arab Liberation Army. He trained a Muslim Brotherhood battalion at the Qatana camp and entered Jerusalem with it via Jericho. After the Nakba, he called for an annual “Zionist Danger Week,” demanded that the Palestinian issue be taught as a compulsory subject, and ran a column titled “The Stolen Pearl” in the magazine Hadarat al-Islam.
Al-Sibai advanced the idea of “Islamic socialism,” took part in the 1949 elections under the name “Islamic Socialist Front,” and published the book The Socialism of Islam, which appealed to Gamal Abdel Nasser. Although he belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Nasser had banned, he refused to support Syria’s separation from Egypt, which brought their union to an end. Under Baathist rule, he spent the last three years of his life partially paralyzed and turned to writing after a state of emergency law banned his political and public activities. Six months before his death, he witnessed Baathist tanks demolishing the Sultan Mosque in Hama in 1964. He died at the age of 49, leaving behind a rich national and intellectual legacy, as well as a movement that searched for a leader of comparable stature.
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What did “Islamic socialism” mean in the Syrian context of the 1950s, and how did it relate to Baathist ideology and Nasserist Arab socialism? — In 1950s Syria, “Islamic socialism” was a reformist current that combined demands for social justice, anti-feudalism, and redistribution with Islamic principles, including zakat, the prohibition of usury, and the responsibility of the wealthy toward the poor. Its main proponent was Mustafa al-Sibai, founder of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and author of The Socialism of Islam. It was close to Baathist ideology in its anti-imperialism, Arab nationalism, support for land reform, and criticism of the elites, but the Baath understood socialism as a secular project of the Arab nation rather than an Islamic one. Nasserist Arab socialism was state-centered, secular, and statist, with a one-party system; Islamic socialists accepted part of its social program but insisted on an Islamic moral and legal framework.
What prompted the episode involving the destruction of the Sultan Mosque in Hama in 1964, and why is it considered an important milestone in the history of relations between Syrian Islamists and the authorities? — In April 1964, an uprising against the Baathist regime that had come to power after the 1963 coup broke out in Hama. Its causes and broader context included secular reforms, the arrest of Islamic activists, and restrictions on the influence of the ulema and local notables; the historic Sultan Mosque became the center of the protest. The authorities suppressed the uprising by military force, and the mosque was destroyed—according to different accounts, as a result of shelling or demolition. The episode is considered the first major armed confrontation between Syrian Islamists and the Baath, as well as an important milestone because it established a pattern of “protest–repression–radicalization” that later led to the tragedy of Hama in 1982.
How did Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood under Mustafa al-Sibai interact with Hassan al-Banna’s Egyptian organization, and why was their activity banned after Syria united with Egypt? — Mustafa al-Sibai studied in Cairo, was associated with Hassan al-Banna, and founded the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1940s as a related but organizationally independent structure. He maintained contacts with the Egyptian leadership and adopted al-Banna’s ideology of Islamic reformism. After the establishment of the United Arab Republic in 1958, Nasser banned all political parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to establish one-party control; the ban on the Egyptian organization following the 1954 assassination attempt against Nasser was an additional factor. Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood initially supported the union but was forced underground; the ban marked the beginning of its long-running conflict with the state.
Full version: Mustafa al-Sibai: The Biography of a Pioneer of Syria’s Islamic Movement