Preface
This pamphlet is the first to be issued, in English, by the “Republican Brothers” who has issued, in Arabic, over eighty books and pamphlets. The aim of this pamphlet is to introduce to the reader, who is not well versed in Arabic, or who can not read it, the movement of the Republican Brothers, which is also known as the New Islamic Mission. The New Islamic Mission started as the Republican Party just over thirty years ago, in October 1945. Hence the name the Republican Brothers. Of course, the Republican Party was dissolved in May 1969.
Ever since its inception, and through the various stages of its development, the New Islamic Mission, which has always been led by Al-Ustaz Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, has adopted an ideology based on Islam, or to be more precise, based on the universal elements of Islam, which transcend the barriers of creed, sex, race, etc ... The Islamic ideology adopted by the New Islamic Mission is called the Second Message of Islam.
Islam, renewed along the lines suggested in this pamphlet, is capable of providing the legislative ground-work for the construction of a good society where socialism and democracy are reconciled, and where social equity prevails. The need for this kind of society is, indeed, a global one...
Furthermore, the renewal of Islam, as suggested in this pamphlet, helps every individual to realize his “individuality” or “originality;” in other words, helps every individual to attain his absolute individual freedom...
Individuality is, really, the central axis about which rotates the new understanding of Islam presented by the New Islamic Mission. This fact is what makes this new understanding of Islam relevant to contemporary humanity. In this context, it may be pertinent to conclude by quoting Al-Ustaz Mahmoud Muhammad Taha who said this in a letter to a certain American, Mr. John Voll: “Our present civilization of collectivism and impersonal bigness is giving way to the age of small things-- the individual, the- man- in- the- street. Every individual is, authentically, an end in himself. He is not a means to any other end. He-even if he were an imbecile--is a “God” in the making, and must be given the full opportunity to develop as such ...”
