Why Teaching Creed Requires Sustained Effort

The call to Tawheed aims to establish it firmly in people’s hearts. This requires immense and continuous effort. Teachers today should not pass over the verses without detailed explanation simply because the earliest Muslims could understand them readily.

The first Muslims lived under different conditions. They easily understood the Arabic examples, and they were established upon a safe creed that had not been diverted. The later deviations and heresies in belief arising from philosophers and their rhetoric were not present among them. Their ease of understanding therefore cannot simply be assumed in a later audience.

Present circumstances differ completely from those of the first Muslims. Philosophy, rhetoric, deviation, and heresy have affected the setting in which correct creed must be taught. What could once be understood directly now requires fuller explanation so that Tawheed may be established in the heart without being confused by later ideas.

It is therefore a mistake to imagine that propagating the correct creed today involves only the same degree of explanation as it did in the first era. The creed itself remains the subject of the call, but the conditions surrounding its teaching are different. Those conditions make detailed, sustained instruction necessary rather than optional.

In the first three praiseworthy generations, receiving a practice of the Prophet could be straightforward. A Companion might hear it directly from him, and a Successor might then hear it directly from that Companion. In such conditions, there was no distinct “science of hadith” as later Muslims came to require it.

Nor was there a separate discipline of Al-Jarh wa Ta’dil—the disparagement and praise of hadith narrators. The Companions received hadith from fellow Companions whom Allah had already praised. The purity of the knowledge and the trustworthiness of those from whom it was received made the matter easier than it is today.

For the modern seeker of knowledge, however, the science of hadith and the criticism of narrators are indispensable. They are counted among the collective obligations because a scholar needs them to ascertain whether a particular hadith is true or false. What could once be received through trustworthy and readily known sources can no longer be treated as equally simple.

This development illustrates why later Muslims may require scholarly tools that the earliest generations did not need in the same form. Conditions surrounding the available sources have changed. Their purity and trustworthiness cannot merely be assumed, so careful investigation has become necessary. The absence of these formal sciences in the earliest period does not mean that later seekers can dispense with them; rather, their necessity arises from the greater difficulty of establishing what is authentic.

The alienation and strangeness of Islam today differs from that of the first epoch. At that time, the division was clear: on one side stood open polytheism and clear-cut disbelief; on the other stood unsullied monotheism and righteous belief. The issue did not carry the same confusion that now exists within the Muslim community itself.

Today, the creed has become polluted, creating serious problems that did not afflict the first Muslims. Many Muslims have defects in their understanding of Tawheed. They may even direct acts of worship to other than Allah and then call this “faith.” The problem is therefore not merely an obvious conflict between polytheism and monotheism outside the Muslim community. It appears among Muslims and within what some of them understand and practice as belief.

Doubts have also emerged from deviated people of innovation concerning the true creed and the true methodology. These doubts may be presented under attractive titles. The people of rhetoric, for example, claim and propagate the title, “Calling to the Book and the Sunnah alone.” Such labels do not remove the need to examine the defects and doubts affecting the creed.

This condition explains why the matter requires particular importance and diligence. The extreme strangeness of Islam today was not present during the time of the Salaf. In a narration concerning this strangeness, the Prophet said, “One of those strangers would have the same as 50 rewards.” The Companions asked, “50 of us or of the people from his time?” He replied, “From your like.”

The reward is cited for those strangers in the later condition of Islam. Their situation must be understood against the confusion of a time when defective conceptions of Tawheed and worship directed to other than Allah can still be described by Muslims themselves as faith.

The call to Islam should not move beyond Tawheed into mass political activity while Muslims still lack a proper understanding of the religion. The first concern must be the defects found in people’s understanding of Tawheed, including directing worship to other than Allah while calling it faith. It is therefore mistaken to say that Tawheed can now be left behind as though it were merely an earlier stage and that political work should take priority.

Political agitation can preoccupy people and prevent them from learning Islam properly. Before attempting to stir the people politically, they need instruction in creed, worship, social conduct, and behavior. These are not presented as secondary matters to be postponed until after mobilization. They are the knowledge and cultivation upon which sound Islamic life depends.

The size of a movement does not prove that its members possess this understanding. The author states that he does not believe there are people numbering in their millions who truly understand Islam in its creed, worship, conduct, and the cultivation required by them. Gathering large numbers is therefore no substitute for patient learning.

Distance from the language

Arabs should not rely upon the claims that they are Arabs, that the Qur’an was revealed in their language, or that it mentions them. The Arabs of today differ from those who truly adopted Arabic because many have become distant from the Arabic language. This distance from Arabic has also distanced them from the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet.

The needed effort is thus to understand Islam correctly. Political work should not distract people from that task. Correct learning begins with creed and extends to worship, social dealings, behavior, and cultivation upon all of them.