SUDAN'S REPUBLICAN BROTHERS AND ISLAMIC REFORM

The Koran itself, according to Republican Brothers teaching, falls into two distinct though not mutually exclusive categories, the Meccan texts and the Medina texts. The difference has not so much to do with the place of revelation but arises from the different levels to which they were addressed. Whereas the earlier Meccan texts were concerned with announcing the fundamentals of faith, with questions of human freedom and the equality of the sexes, the Medina texts are seen as reflective of the necessity of preserving the new community's very existence. Consequently, the latter texts enjoined the expansion of Islam by the sword and, for existentially valid political and economic reasons, placed women under the control of men. The Medina texts were thus concerned with existing but transitory social realities. On this division, according to the Republican Brothers, 'their position is based on the most radical statement in the history of Islamic thought, namely, that Islam as revealed in the Koran, is not one but two messages, the First and Second....'
Since the Medina texts were purportedly concerned with the establishment of the first Islamic regime, they are considered to constitute the First Message of Islam. Cognizant of existing political and economic realities, the First Message, while marking a decided advancement over prevailing moral and societal standards, was nevertheless transitional and preliminary to the final message. The Second, contained in the original Meccan revelation, was addressed to all times and all peoples. Although the message was repealed by the limited objectives of the Medina text, the Prophet himself, in his own daily practice, purportedly abided by the more lofty ideals of the Meccan revelation.
According to Ustaz Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, it is now incumbent upon all Muslims, in conformity with the higher level of human conscience and knowledge to which mankind has evolved, to consciously evolve the Islamic laws and legislation from the Medinese to the Meccan level ... guided by the genuine spirit of Islam, embodied in the search for absolute individual freedom and demonstrated by the Prophet's life. Only in this way, he argues, can Islam accomplish its divine mission a universal mission to all mankind in every age.
If the Second Message of Islam is to solve the needs of modern man, say the Republican Brothers, then it must also be capable of constructing the good society where democracy and socialism are reconciled. In this "scientific phase" a revitalized Islam will not only order the correct relationship between reason and faith, it will also address the totality of the individual's psychological needs through interior reconciliation and application at a higher plane of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
As the culmination of revelation, the Koran is seen by the Republican Brothers as containing not only the restrictive, discriminatory but essentially transitional provisions of the "First Message, but also, at a higher level, the fundamental ayat, which are "to be implemented as a matter of voluntary moral commitment rather than legal obligation." It is the postulation of this higher level of understanding which necessitates that some aspects of the Sharia be discarded as inconsistent with the requirements of modern life and as an unnecessary barrier to the spread of Islam in today's technologically developed and politically conscious world.
Such a conception of Islam, it is held, is not available in the present body of traditional Islamic jurisprudence. In fact, some aspects of traditional Sharia are seen as clearly inconsistent with modern constitutional government.
To equate Sharia with the totality of Islam is seen as the ultimate betrayal of the faith. Specifically, the Republican Brothers disassociate Islam from all contemporary regimes and movements claiming to be Islamic, whether Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya or the Muslim Brothers. All of them are alleged to contravene the basic principles of the very Sharia which they purport to apply. Islamic fundamentalists are castigated for sharing in the same confused and distorted understanding of Islamic principles. For example, their notion of Jihad, it is argued, is utilized to justify terrorist, inhumane activities against other Muslims despite the fact, according to Sharia, that it can only be invoked against non-Muslims in open and fair battle with prior warning. Jihad itself, however, as set forth in the Medina texts, in the sense of legitimating compulsory conversion to Islam, is considered repealed and inoperative. The only legitimate means of conversion now open, argue the Republican Brothers, is peaceful conversion based on conviction.