ABSTRACT
Returning to a golden age is a common theme in many religious and philosophical traditions. Central to the Muslim Brotherhood's view of the past is that it provides some kind of moral and political order that should be used as a reference point for building a new political order. Yet, the relationship that members of the organization envisage between a proposed political order and the ideal one embodied in the prophetic era varies. This chapter discusses how three key intellectual figures of the Muslim Brotherhood have understood and used the period of early Islam. It then discusses the organization's political aspirations with particular reference to how the group's reliance on the past impacts its perception of religious authority. The early Islamic model provided the model by which al-Banna modeled his idea of the ideal contemporary practice.
