[Preface by His Excellency Dr. ʿAbdullah b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Āl-Turkī] The Imperative of the Straight Path to Differ from the People of Hellfire In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful Preface by His Excellency Dr. ʿAbdullah b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin Āl-Turkī Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Daʿwah and Guidance All praise is due to Allah, who has guided us to Islam; we would never have been guided had Allah not guided us. Blessings and peace be upon His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom He sent with guidance and the religion of truth so that He might make it prevail over all religion, and upon his family, his Companions, and all who tread their path until the Day of Judgment. To proceed: One of the greatest objectives and foundations of the religion is to distinguish truth and its adherents from falsehood and its adherents, to clarify the path of guidance and the Sunnah and to invite to it, and to expose the ways of misguidance and innovation and warn against them. The texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah contain numerous principles and rulings that illuminate this lofty foundation and noble objective. Among those principles is that the rules and evidences of the Shariah require Muslims to differ from the unbelievers in their beliefs, acts of worship, festivals, laws, corrupt manners, and in everything that is distinctive to them in which they have departed from truth and virtue. Our righteous predecessors—may Allah have mercy on them—gave this matter great attention. Foremost among those who authored works on it was Shaykh al-Islam Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyyah, d. 728 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.