Thus, our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the finest model for dealing with the problems that confront the Muslims in our own age—as indeed in every age. This obliges us to start where our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) started: first, by restoring what has been corrupted in the Muslims’ beliefs; second, by correcting their acts of worship; and third, by reforming their conduct. By setting them in this order I do not mean to segregate the first as “most important,” followed by “important,” and then “less important.” My purpose, rather, is to urge the Muslims—by which I naturally mean the callers to Islam, or more precisely the scholars among them—to give these matters intense and serious attention.

Regrettably, nowadays anyone at all, even someone destitute of the least share of knowledge, considers himself a preacher and claims to be calling people to Islam. If we recall that well-known maxim—recognized not only by scholars but by every rational person—“he who lacks something cannot give it,” we will realize that a very large segment, numbering in the millions, is now assumed to be “the preachers.” I am referring to Jamaʿat ad-Daʿwah, or Jamaʿat at-Tabligh. Yet most of them, as Allah the Exalted has said, “but most people do not know” (al-Aʿraf 187).