in your hearts such dread, fear, and overawed respect that you have become the weakest of nations in argument, the narrowest in path, the furthest from knowledge and lucid exposition, and the most incapable of establishing evidence and proof. At one time you fear the unbelievers, the philosophers, and others among the polytheists and deniers, so you either agree with their claims or bow to them in servility; at another time you fear the swords of the polytheists, so you either relinquish part of your religion for their sake or abase yourselves before them in submission.

Within you, then, lies a weakness both in the authority of proof and in the authority of victory, a weakness that lays bare your need for the establishment of the guidance and the religion of truth with which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His books. How astonishing that you turn away from that which guarantees your happiness in this world and the Hereafter to that which ensures your misery in this world and the Hereafter! This is the real wonder—not that one should believe in what secures happiness in both worlds while its rejection brings wretchedness in both worlds.

Nothing of this sort attaches to the Muslims, for there has always been—and will always remain—within them a group upholding guidance and the religion of truth, manifest through proof and discourse, and through hand and spear, until Allah inherits the earth and all who are upon it; and He is the best of inheritors. As is rigorously authenticated in the sound collections, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“ A group of my community will continue to stand by Allah’s command; those who forsake them or oppose them will not harm them until the Hour is established.”

In another wording: “ A group of my community will continue to prevail until Allah brings about His decree.”