drawing out the lip, or a covert hand signal made while the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ is being recited, or when good is enjoined and evil forbidden (1). Of the same ilk are the claims voiced by some: “Islam is unsuited to the twentieth century; it belongs to the Middle Ages.” They brand it backward and reactionary, accuse it of cruelty and savagery in its ḥudūd and taʿzīr punishments, and allege that it wrongs women by permitting divorce and polygyny. They further insist that rule by man-made statutes is better for people than rule by Islam.

When a person calls to pure monotheism and denounces the worship of graves and shrines, they dismiss him as an extremist, or say he seeks to split the Muslim community, or label him a Wahhabi or the follower of some “fifth school.” All such remarks are nothing but abuse of the religion and its people, and mockery of the sound creed—there is no power nor might except with Allah.

They likewise sneer at anyone who holds fast to a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, saying, “Religion is not in the hair,” thus ridiculing the practice of letting the beard grow, and they spew other equally insolent phrases.