What Does It Mean to Be a Muslim?

Fathi Yakan (born Fathi Mohamed Anaya) was a Lebanese Islamic scholar, author, and political figure who served in the Lebanese parliament and was a foundational figure of organized Sunni Islamic activism in Lebanon. Born in Tripoli in 1351 AH / 1933 CE, he earned a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic studies and emerged in the 1950s as one of the early voices of the Islamic movement in the Levant, drawing on the writings of Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb.

In 1964 he co-founded al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and served as its Secretary General from 1962 until his election to parliament in 1992. With his wife Mona Haddad he established al-Jinan University in Tripoli, one of the first private Islamic universities in Lebanon. He authored more than thirty-five books on Islamic activism, da'wah, and movement-building, including Madha Ya'ni Intima'i lil-Islam (What Does It Mean That I Am a Muslim?), Kayfa Nad'u ila al-Islam (How Do We Call to Islam?), and Nahwa Harakah Islamiyyah Alamiyyah Wahidah (Toward a Unified Global Islamic Movement).

Yakan was a vocal advocate for inter-Muslim unity and led joint Sunni-Shia Friday prayers in Beirut during the 2006 Lebanon war. He died in Beirut on 13 June 2009 / 1430 AH. His writings remain widely read across Muslim Brotherhood circles and Sunni activist movements in the Arabic-speaking world, though his political legacy and ideological positions remain subjects of ongoing debate within Lebanon and beyond.