What is our role toward modernism and those who call for it?

Question:
Your Eminence the Shaykh (may Allah preserve him and grant him scrupulousness), there is talk circulating in the public sphere these days called modernism, and its foundations are known. Today we see it among some intellectuals in this country. What is our role toward them? And what is its danger for us and for them? May Allah reward you.

Answer:
Modernism is a thing that has appeared among people in recent times. It is a fallen literature, a new literature.
Its proponents claim affiliation with modernism, asserting that it is a new literature. They have published words, poetry, and obscure speech—speech that cannot be understood, neither foreign nor Arabic. It is fallen speech, fabricated speech. The reader does not know what it is. It contains hints among them and riddles among them. It is not counted as the speech of non-Arabs nor as the speech of Arabs. It is fallen, fabricated speech. It is evident from its proponents and their intent that they hate this religion, and they are eager to abandon it entirely and cast it behind their backs. They are enemies of all that is old upon which the believers have proceeded. They want to innovate and bring forth things that have no connection to the religion of Allah, but rather new customs and new conditions that they invent, far from Islam and faith, and close to the characteristics of beasts and people of desires.
Therefore, what I see is that it is obligatory to fight them, and to clarify their evil, their corruption, and their objectives on the pages of newspapers, on the radio, and in the writings of the zealous. Thus, for every disease there is a cure. If the people of falsehood reveal their falsehood, it is obligatory for the people of truth to reveal the truth and to strive against them. This abode is the abode of struggle and the abode of war, the abode of reform, and the abode of striving. The Hereafter is the abode of recompense and reckoning.
It is not permissible for the people of falsehood to be more active than the people of truth, nor is it permissible for them to be braver in revealing their falsehood than the people of truth are in revealing the truth. Rather, it is obligatory for the people of truth to be braver, more upright in the matter of Allah, and more sincere in the jihad against the people of falsehood. This is what I advise all who hear these words of mine, whether present or not. I advise everyone to stand up for Allah and to fight everything that appears among people that contradicts the Shari'ah of Allah, whether from modernists, communists, secularists, Sufis, or others from all categories of the people of falsehood. Whoever reveals something that contradicts the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), if he is ignorant, it is obligatory to clarify it to him, guide him, and call him to the truth. If he is intentional in his falsehood, it is obligatory to clarify his evil, warn against him, refute him, and call him to guidance, perhaps he will be guided. Do not despair of him, but call him to guidance, perhaps he will be guided. Our brother, the Shaykh Awad Muhammad al-Qarni, has authored a book that is not long, in which he clarified a number of their news, poetry, and stanzas, and other of their words in falsehood. He mentioned that and spoke about it with acceptable words. The book has been printed and will be distributed soon, if Allah wills. It is approximately one hundred and forty pages, and it clarified much of their false methods, poetry, words, and terminology. He mentioned a number of their names and exposed them, so may Allah reward him with good. I hope that Allah will make his book beneficial. I ask Allah to guide the modernists and return them to the right path, and to save them from the falsehood in which they have fallen, and to protect the Muslims from their evil and the evil of those like them. He is the best of those asked. May Allah reward you.