Study of Variations in Muslim Brotherhood Thought, from Hassan al-Banna to Rashid al-Ghannushi

The main aim of this paper is to make clear that، contrary to what is usually thought in Iran، Muslim brotherhood’s thought is not a unified and integrated one and there are remarkable differences among influential Muslim brotherhood scholars. In this paper four scholars of two different generations of Muslim brotherhood are selected to analyze their standpoint and to show the theory which reduces Muslim brotherhood’s thought to a unified totality is a simplified misconception. Thus analyzing thought of Hassan al-banna and Sayyid Qutb as representatives of the traditional generation of Muslim brotherhood and Yusuf al-Qardawi and Rashid Al-ghannushi as the new generation of Muslim brotherhood’s thinkers we conclude that the thought of post-Hassan Al-banna and Sayyid Qutb generation of Muslim brotherhood has remarkably changed، due to the fundamental changes in the first and most influential generation of Muslim brotherhood scholars including Hassan Al-banna. Furthermore through different periods of time there have been and still are remarkable differences among Muslim brotherhood thought.