An Account by the Wife of as Shaheed Yusuf Hawwash an Ikhwan companion executed together with
as shaheed Sayyid Qutb in 1966
We lived
together for two years, and he spent the rest of his life in prisons -
recounted the wife of Yusuf Hawwash.
Marriage and Prison
Muhammad Yusuf
Hawwaash (May Allah have mercy upon him) was born on the 12th of October 1922.
He joined the Ikhwaan (Muslim Brotherhood), during his studies in the
Gharbiyyah province. He married me in 1953 and I had from him two children,
Ahmad and Sumayyah. They are both now doctors, and each has four children.
Our marriage
initiated when one of the brothers recommended me to him as a wife, to help him
carry the burden of da`wah. Indeed we almost ended the matter due to Muhammad's
problems, until my brother advised me to pray Salaat-ul-Istikhaarah.
He was
imprisoned more than once during the beginning of our married life. He was
imprisoned after the Aqd [wedding contract],
then when he was released, we stayed together for one year, then he was
imprisoned in 1954 and after the sentence was passed, he gave me the choice of
staying with him or divorce. So I reprimanded him harshly, and informed him of
something he was not aware of before. That once he was hospitalised, we found
that one of his kidneys was severely damaged, because of an old illness he got
when he was imprisoned as a student, in a cell filled with freezing cold water
in winter. [At that time] the brothers offered me to cancel [the engagement] if
I wanted, but I refused not to be with him on this journey just because of a
situation that Allah Almighty had placed him in during one of his tribulations.
And when we
married in 1953 I bore Sumayyah after ten months of marriage, and after that in
just 17 days, the security services came to arrest him, and so he stayed on the
run for a while.
During this
time, he came to visit me once. After this, one of my sisters came, to take me
and host me during my husband's absence, but when we came to leave, we found
the security services surrounding us, and they wanted to arrest me.
So I decided
that I would not go with them silently, until I exposed their evil system in front
of the people who they had tricked, so I shouted in my highest voice that I would
not go with them, whatever they do, and I criticized their actions. Being a
neighbour, Anwar Sadat was there and he relented.
So I said to
him: ‘I am going to the house of your master and the crown over your head, the
respected Murshid (al-Hudaybi) [the
head of Ikhwaan]’. I remained with
the wife of the Murshid and his daughters alone in the house, because all the
men in his family were in prison, until my husband appeared, and was tried and
sentenced to a total of 55 years.
Muhammad and
Sayyid Qutb's close friendship probably started after their sentencing in 1955,
for he had been given 55 years, and the shaheed Sayyid Qutb 15; both were
released in 1964. They remained together throughout this period, whether in
prison or in hospital, so their relationship developed and strengthened for
each other. They complemented each other - Muhammad would benefit from and
learn, Fikr (thought), culture, Ilm (knowledge) and depth of the shaheed Sayyid, while Sayyid would learn
about the history of Ikhwaan, their
organization, Manhaj (methodology),
and anything related to the Jamaa`ah
(group) from the shaheed Muhammad, because he had joined before him. And so,
they were very attached to each other. Muhammad would say: ‘Every chapter and
every phrase in the books of Ustaadh Sayyid, I know when it was written, what
the occasion was, and the discussion about it when it appeared as it did.’
Brief Release 1964 and Imprisoned Again
Of his (last)
imprisonment in 1965, after his release in 1964, I went into hospital for an operation,
and after coming out, he said to me: ‘You should make dhikr and seek forgiveness during your work, and you will be rewarded,
and have patience and Ihtisaab
(looking to your reward in the Hereafter), in being good to your relatives.’
He would pray
two rak`ahs, (units of prayer) until
the food was prepared, and he continuously prayed from nine in the morning to
two in the afternoon. Whenever I opened the door, I would find him praying and
crying. Until we heard a bang at the door of the house, and found it was the
security services. So I opened the door to his room, and informed him that the
security services were there and that he should finish his prayer and see them.
And he did just that. They tried to take him with them, but he asked them to
leave him until he could make ghusl. He then asked me extensively for a Mushaf [copy of the Qur'aan], which I
did not have except the one which I had written a small message to Ahmad [our
son] and I intended to give it to him as a present. So Muhammad promised me
that it would be returned to me even if it had to go to Mars and back, and so I
gave it to him.
Regime's Vindictiveness and Oppression
Then the
oppression of the regime began to increase in harshness. For after I had been demoted
and transferred from a headmistress to a teacher, then from one province to
another, then from normal teaching to special needs. I recall that in Muhammad's
first period of imprisonment, the security services started their campaign to try
to imprison me.
Eventually, they
achieved what they wanted and I was imprisoned for six months in Al-Qanaatir
prison, which I spent in constant nazeef
[bleeding], until I had to have a surgical operation to remove my womb after
that. I did not attend court except for the sentencing.
When Muhammad finally
saw me in my weak state, he told me that he did not know of my imprisonment,
until the torture dogs had ripped his clothes in prison, and he had sent for
clothes from the house.
Our son Ahmad cleverly
gave the guard old clothes so that they would not steal the new clothes. And
when he saw them (only our children visiting him), he knew that I was not in
the house.
It was in this
painful situation that when my sister bore a baby daughter, and Ahmad asked me
to have for him a sister, and he would put up a tantrum, nag and cry, so I said:
‘Your father has to be here’, and when we went to visit his father, he kept
crying and pulling him saying: ‘Come with me father to the house, and mum can
have a sister for me. Who is stopping you? Him?’ and he pointed to the guard,
‘Don't be scared of him, I will hit him, and you come with me.’, until he made
me cry and subsequently made the guards cry.
Our Final Farewell
The final
moments of our farewell - they asked us to pay a final visit to him, before the
carrying out of the sentence, so I took Ahmad and Sumayyah with me. I prepared
for him good food, and we went to see him, but they refused to let me take the
food in. They kept taking us into a tent to wait for some time, then taking us
to another, until we had been into four tents, and in the end the guards
brought him, dragging him in a derogatory manner, and 'threw' him in front of
us inside the tent. And Muhammad would say: ‘I don't know what to be remorseful
over? They want me to appeal for clemency and to regret what I have done, but
what have I done to be regretful about?’
And when I asked
the officer to bring in the food, and he refused, Muhammad said to me:
"Don't tire yourself, and waste the time that we can spend together. If
they bring the food in, then they will insist that I eat now, but I am
fasting." Ahmad went and sat on his father’s lap and kept crying saying:
"The boys keep saying to me, you, whose father wanted to kill
Abdul-Nasser". So Muhammad comforted him: "The scales today are
reversed, and they will not be corrected today, but indeed: ‘We Shall set up the Scales of Justice for
the Day of Judgment.’ (Sûrah al-Anbiyâ’: 47)
He advised me to
good with the children, and I advised him to good with himself, and the visit
ended.
On the morning
of 29th of August 1966, the radio broadcasted the news that the death sentence
had been carried out on the three Martyrs. And I was preparing breakfast at the
time, so I kept saying ‘Inna lillaahi wa
innaa ilayhi raaji`oon’, and seeking forgiveness, with my tears not
stopping, while no one was aware of my situation. The murderers were not
content with this, and sent for me, and made me sign a consent that there would
not be a janaazah (funeral prayer) for
him, and they gave me his things except that Ahmad's Mushaf (Qur’an) was not
amongst them.
About My Husband
Muhammad (may
Allah have mercy on him), was of kind manners. One of his most important attributes
was his generosity. The helper who used to work for him, once complained to me
after the Aqd (marriage contract),
that he did not eat from the food that she would prepare, because his house was
always open to the brothers who were students, away from home or in hardship.
Similarly in Ithaar [preference of
others], he would not accept at all that there could be a misunderstanding
between him and his brothers. He was clean in body and manners. He would make ghusl more than five times a day apart
from wudoo'.
My relationship
with my shaheed husband strengthened
despite the short time we spent together, I continue to discover good
characteristics about him through his letters from prison concerning Tarbiyah [educative] lessons in Aaqeedah [belief], Imaan [faith], Sabr
[patience], and Istiqamaah
[steadfastness]. They were a provision for me on this path, and here are some
examples:
On Eed-ul-fitr he sent a letter saying: ‘Eed would come to the sahaabah, and the
honourable of them had been martyred, the loved of them had been lost, and they
would have been tested in their spouses, parents and children. But all of this
would not dampen the happiness of `eed in their souls. In fact this is the real
meaning of `eed, effort, work, and sacrifice. So we, with the conditions we are
in, are the most rightful of people to celebrate `eed, and the most realistic
in our happiness for what Allah has given us, and for our knowing Him. And to observe
thankfulness to Allah for it, on this great day. We now taste this deen, and
feel it, and we find it in our khalajaat, fresh and soft just like the day it
was revealed, alive and beating in our hearts and our blood mixing with it.’
Just as he was
gentle in feelings, he would place his hand on the place of pain, and would
nurse it with softness, and gentle medicine. He says in another letter; "It is hard on me, while I spend these
moments with you, to see on you the signs of struggle and the indications of
tiredness, and it is as if the journey has been long, and the hardships heavy.
And I do not deny the hardships on this path, and I do not claim that I do not
feel its difficulty, for indeed I am a weak human. Except that I feel, and I
would like you to feel with me, that on either side of this long path, are
oases with shade, that passers-by can relax in, if they tire, and in whose
shade travellers can rest whenever the toils of travel take their toll. So
would you like that we turn to one of these oases, perhaps we may find in it
cool and calm? Then we can take from it water and food, which will help us continue
our journey, and finish our travel?"
And here is what
he wrote in a copy of the Book of Allah Almighty which he gave to me as a
present:
In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious the Most
Merciful,
To you. To you my wife.
To you O sister in creed.
To you O partner in Jihad.
To you O calmness of the soul and mother of the child.
To you O flower of the heart. To you this great book,
upon whose law Allah brought us together as spouses, through which He gathered
us as brothers, and in whose path He made us in the ranks of the believers two
soldiers.
To you my beloved this grand book, in appreciation,
love and faithfulness from your husband. Lest Allah may bring me back to you,
and gather us under His aim.
And peace be upon you, and mercy from Allah, and His
blessings, and all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
12th Shawwaal 1383
Aside from these
cherished letters, I heard a lot from his brothers speaking about him. Asked
about his favourite season and he chose: ‘Autumn,
as the falling of the leaves reminds me of the end of one's allotted time.’
In his dreams,
he also saw the Prophet s.a.w more that once, and Yusuf (as) and `Eesaa (as),
and he would have true visions.
If he would
become very tired in the long prison queues he would say: ‘Yes my Lord, how gentle you are.’ And if they spoke about torture
in front of him, he would reply: (…then
leave them in their wasteful discourse and trifling) (Al-An`aam:91)
And if they
discussed with him the expectations of sentences, he would say: "Indeed these do not judge, and for Allah is
judgment, and Allah does not judge except by the truth and those who they call
upon beside him, do not judge by anything. What are we and they while in the
qabd (grasp) of Allah like an atom? If Allah sees us as worthy of Martyrdom, He
will choose us for it, and if not, then Allah's qadar - destiny will pass us
and them."
A Mushaf Returned
Ahmad's Mushaf (Qur’an) has a story . When they
imprisoned him in 1965, and he took the mushaf
[Qur’an] with him, I did not find it in the belongings after his Martyrdom.
And after twenty years, while we were in the holy city of Madeenah, in the
house of my daughter and her husband, I saw it on the shelves, so I asked my
daughter's husband where he got this mushaf
from so he said that during his vist to the haram
(masjid), a woman heard his brothers calling him, so she went to him, and said:
‘Are you so and so?’, and he replied in the affirmative. She said: ‘Then wait
for me and do not leave until I give you a trust.’ Then she informed him that
her husband had given her a mushaf
that he had taken from the shaheed (Muhammad)
and told her to take it to his heirs.
And that this mushaf had been to France, London and
Saudi Arabia, until it eventually reached us 20 years later. And I did not
expect that Allah Almighty had fulfiled the promise of the shaheed.
If I were to to
send him a letter today, I would say, I
pray to Allah Almighty that I am still upon the covenant, and have not changed
after you, and that you are now in the levels of the Shuhadaa [Maryrs] and
Sideeqeen [Truthful], and that Allah Almighty gathers me with you: (They and
their wives in groves of shade, reclining on thrones) (Surah Yaa-Seen:56).
adapted and
edited from Ad-Da'wah Issue 109, Muharram 1422 (www.cageprisoners.com)
