Allah, and even asking the dead for help—something that runs flatly counter to the meaning of the testimony of monotheism as we all understand it (and on this point you are with us). So do you really want us not even to examine, let alone correct, the meaning of the testimony simply because the issue is disputed?!”
He replied, “Yes. Even that must be set aside for the moment so that we can close ranks, unite our voices, and ward off the greater danger: atheism and …”
I said, “And of what use would such a coalition be—if it could be achieved at all—when it is not built upon pure monotheism and the avoidance of associating partners with Allah? You know that the pre-Islamic Arabs believed in Allah as Creator, yet they denied Him as the only true God: ‘Indeed, when it was said to them, “There is no god but Allah,” they behaved arrogantly’ (Quran 37:35). That belief availed them nothing and did not spare them from the Messenger’s combat against them.”
He said, “Today we are content simply to gather the people under the slogan ‘There is no god but Allah.’”
I replied, “Even if they understand it wrongly?!”
He answered, “Even so.”

I say: This conversation in fact reflects the real state of a great many Muslim preachers today and their negative attitude toward the Muslims’ fragmentation in understanding their religion. They invite everyone who affiliates with them to join—each with his own ideas and opinions—without compelling them, by knowledge and proof drawn from the Book and the Sunnah, to bring those views into unity and to correct what is mistaken among them. Most of their concern is limited to steering people toward Islamic manners; others occupy themselves solely with schooling their followers in politics and economics and similar matters that dominate the writings of most authors today, and among them we even find those who do not establish the prayer! Yet all of them strive to create an Islamic society and set up an Islamic state. Far, far indeed! Such a society can never be realized unless the preachers begin with what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ began with: calling people to Allah in the manner laid down in the Book of Allah and clarified by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

It is self-evident that this call cannot be revived after so much that does not belong to it has crept in—fabrications foisted upon the Prophet in the name of hadith, and distortions inserted into the Quran’s exegesis under the guise of interpretation—unless there is a serious, scholarly effort to purify those two sources of everything that has infiltrated them. Only then will we be able to cleanse Islam of the various ideas, opinions, and doctrines that are widespread among the Islamic sects, even among those who claim adherence to the Sunnah.

And I am convinced that any movement not built upon this sound foundation of purification will never