the writings of the philosophers, and they openly professed their agreement with them (1).

Thereafter the Ashʿarī school appeared—a composite of the views of several sects, such as the Muʿtazilah, the Kullābiyyah, and the Jahmiyyah (2).

Abu al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī—after whom this group is named—first imbibed Muʿtazilism from al-Jubbāʾī, remaining in his company for a long period. He later adopted Ibn Kullāb’s approach concerning the divine attributes, predestination, and other issues. A number of scholars followed his path, among them al-Bāqillānī, Ibn Fūrak, al-Isfarāʾīnī, al-Shīrāzī, al-Ghazālī, al-Shahristānī, al-Rāzī, and others. They flooded the world with their writings, adducing proofs and claiming that their method is the method of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah. The doctrine thus spread throughout the Muslim lands. The Ayyūbid dynasty embraced it, as did their Turkish mamluks. Ibn Tūmart carried it to the Maghrib and propagated it there, so that this school became the one best known in the major cities; all other schools were either forgotten or left unknown, so that today no school remains in opposition to it save that of the Ḥanbalīs (3).

From this brief survey of the sects it becomes clear how far-reaching is the influence of hidden forces—driven by Jewish and Magian hands—upon them, and that the enemies of Islam will spare no effort, will know no rest or peace of mind, until they put into practice the schemes they have long studied. They possess varied means of implementation and covert methods of infiltration, and they have made the Muslim’s creed their foremost target: if they can divert it, or at least impair it, everything subsidiary will follow.

The scholars of Islam have grasped the peril of this fragmentation and of what it conceals beneath the guise of Islam and its name, realizing that the objective is weightier and the goal nobler; and when the matter is examined closely one will find