Sixth: His Era

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—lived in a time when innovations and misguidance were rampant. False doctrines prevailed, doubts became deeply rooted, ignorance, fanaticism, and blind imitation spread, and the lands of the Muslims were invaded by the Tatars and the Crusaders (the Franks).

A clear picture of that period emerges from the writings that have reached us, for he devoted himself to the most critical and pressing concerns of the Muslim community, addressing them with his pen, his speech, and his deeds. Whoever studies the Shaykh’s works will find the following features of his age:

• A proliferation of heresies and acts of shirk, especially around graves, mausoleums, and alleged shrines, along with false beliefs about the living and the dead—that they could bring benefit or harm and were invoked instead of Allah.

• The spread of philosophy, atheism, and contentious disputation.

• The dominance of Sufism and deviant Sufi orders over the common people, leading to the diffusion of esoteric sects and doctrines.

• The deep infiltration of the Rāfiḍīs into Muslim affairs: propagating innovations and shirk, discouraging the people from jihad, and aiding the Tatars, the enemies of the Muslims.

• Finally, we observe how Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah grew stronger through the Shaykh and how he roused their determination—an influence that, by Allah’s grace, continues to benefit the Muslims to this day in confronting innovations and wrongful acts, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and offering sincere counsel to both the leaders and the masses.

In the face of these deviations, the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy upon him—took a well-known and resolute stand, commanding and forbidding, advising and clarifying, until Allah rectified many of the Muslims’ affairs through him and granted victory to the Sunnah and its followers. All praise is due to Allah.