their sound governance, their integrity in dealings, their faithfulness to covenants, and their kindness toward the Muslims. The clearest proof of this is seen every year by all who come to the Sacred Mecca for Hajj and ʿumrah: they witness the care extended to the pilgrims and the tireless efforts made to ensure their comfort—facts that have prompted tongues and pens alike to laud them and their government. Much the same is attested by the majority of those who travel to the Kingdom for employment.
Secondly, his claim that “most people shun them with the greatest aversion” is blatant falsehood and flatly contradicts reality. The daʿwah they have championed—from the time of Shaykh Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1206 AH) up to the present—is a call to Islam, to pure tawḥīd (monotheism), and to the rejection of shirk, innovations, and superstitions. This call has won acceptance throughout the world and has spread widely across many lands; today’s observable facts are the most compelling witness to that.
This reality is manifest in the efforts of the Saudi government—may Allah preserve it and guide its steps—which, spurred by its scholars and embraced by its rulers, has established Islamic universities that graduate large cohorts of students from across the Muslim world at its own expense. It is also manifest in the dispatch of preachers to every corner of the globe, the distribution of beneficial books, the generous support given to Islamic institutions, the aid extended to the needy throughout the Muslim ummah, the convening of conferences and seminars, and the construction of mosques and Islamic centers so that Muslims may gain clarity about their religion. All of this—praise be to Allah—has had the greatest impact and has been warmly received, and the evidence is plain for all to see. It completely invalidates the spiteful critic’s assertion that “most people shun them with the greatest aversion.”
As the poet put it:
I have a means against the tale-bearer,
but none against the liar;
Who fabricates the very words he speaks—
my resource with him is scant.