their culture, their arts and letters, their statutes and laws. Even much of what we take to be Islamic culture, Islamic references, Islamic philosophy, and Islamic thought is, in fact, a product of this same jāhiliyyah.
For that reason, the values of Islam do not take firm root in our hearts, the Islamic outlook does not shine clearly in our minds, and a powerful generation of the type that Islam produced the first time is not raised up among us.
Therefore the method of the Islamic movement must, during its period of incubation and formation, strip away every influence of the jāhiliyyah in which we live and from which we presently draw. We have to return, from the very outset, to the pure spring from which those earlier men drank—the guaranteed fountain that has never been mixed or blemished in the slightest. Back to that spring we must go, drawing from it our understanding of the reality of all existence, the reality of human existence, and every linkage between these two realities and the perfect, true reality: the existence of Allah, exalted be He. From there we derive our conception of life, our values and morals, and our principles of governance, politics, economics—indeed, every component of living.
Next, we must rid ourselves of the pressure of jāhili society, of jāhili concepts, and of jāhili traditions lodged deep within our own souls. Our task is not to strike a compromise with the present reality of this jāhili society, nor to pledge allegiance to it, for in its current state—the state of jāhiliyyah—it is incapable of reaching any accommodation with us. Our mission is to change ourselves first, so that we may ultimately change this society.
On this path we shall meet hardship and toil, and great sacrifices will be demanded of us, yet we have no choice if we truly wish to follow the road of that first generation whom Allah confirmed upon His divine path and granted victory over the way of jāhiliyyah.
For that reason, all who labor for the Islamic call must join forces in freeing themselves from everything jāhili that contradicts Islam, and there is no way to achieve that except