The very occurrence of this (1) and similar events counts among the miracles of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for he declared, “You will most certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, as closely as one feather matches another” (2). Although the report originally referred to the Jews and Christians, the point is that whenever a community deviates from the straight path there will arise within this nation people who imitate every such deviation—whether ancient or recent—with the same exactness, even to the extent that, were those others to crawl into a lizard’s hole, they would crawl in after them.

Exalted is Allah, the Magnificent! Where are the minds of these people? Have their outward and inward eyes gone blind? Can they not see the blindness and bewilderment that engulf humanity in this pitch-black age in which the unbelievers control most of the world, while only a cramped enclave (3) remains where the believers can still catch the scent of Islam? Even within this narrow refuge there is a darkness spawned by corrupt scholars and preachers of falsehood—those who strive to uphold error and suppress the truth and its people—so vast that no book could enumerate it.

Yet Allah, exalted be He, has shown mercy to this ummah by raising up a man of resolute ambition, though physically frail, who has scattered his very self and energy across the interests of the world: rectifying its corruption, tending to its urgent affairs and needs, all while confronting innovations and misguidance and gathering the raw materials (4) of prophetic knowledge by which the world’s corruption may be mended and people returned, as far as humanly possible, to the original, pristine religion. Otherwise, where could the reality of that ancient faith still be found?