The Shaykh’s explanation of the importance of purification and education for reforming the Muslim society.

The Shaykh : So where are the purifiers today who want to provide the cure so that the purified Muslim society may return? What we need at that point is to strive and know that this is our society, purely Islamic, not tainted with disbelief or shirk (associating partners with Allah), and so on. But the point of my words here is not purification; the point is the education that you are circling around in your question mentioned earlier. I am saying now that the problem in this age, without doubt or hesitation, is that there is an awakening, and I am among those who know it best and feel it with the touch of the hand, completely. But there is no education at all, because we find that those who awakened with us are, just as their fathers and grandfathers before them, unaware of the Islamic education that they should be upon, in terms of adhering to the morals that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was upon and that the Muslims were upon. If they return to that, they have the right to the conditional answer in His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . There is no doubt that Islam is not just knowledge, and it is not just belief, but He (the Exalted) said in the Noble Qur'an: to the end of the verse. So it is necessary to combine action with knowledge. This action is the education that we are seeking now, and we do not find an educator for it, because we are now at the beginning of the path of purification. In my opinion, a time will pass for us in which we will remain in the place of purification, and it is necessary that a time pass for us, which may be long or short, the matter is in the hand of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), until we find among us people of knowledge who have been purified, whose souls have been cleansed and purified from the shirk of the world and its debris, and who turned to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with their hearts and directed themselves to guiding the Ummah, advising it, and educating it. I do not believe that today there exists that model which you alluded to in the words of the Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him). And if one is found, it is only a drop from the sea that has no effect. I believe that as for this purification, there is no one who performs the obligation completely due to their fewness. As for the guides whose knowledge and hearts have been purified at the same time, this is, unfortunately, rarer than red sulfur, as they used to say in the past. And in brief, I say, with tolerance for the expression: how do we create or how do we make what will be? That is only by educating ourselves first on the correct knowledge and the correct Islamic morals. And as He (the Exalted) said in the Noble Qur'an: . So when such scholars exist who combine purification and education and are in a position to influence this Muslim society, then at that time the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah. Of course, when I say the Muslim society, I still have in my mind that those who do not obey, we do not give them weight and we do not take them into account; rather, we are speaking of the righteous who are in need of reform by the reformers. And this varies according to the Muslim countries. And finally, I do not imagine that the desired reform and the intended correction will not encompass the millions scattered and dispersed in the vast Islamic land, but rather we are striving to achieve the group about which the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed in many authentic hadiths: . In my opinion, this group is now scattered, and in some Muslim countries, these people do not do anything related to education, but they may do a lot related to purification. And when these people multiply, then it is necessary that these people divide into two groups: a group that exclusively occupies itself with continuing purification, and a group with education. I mean, in brief, now there should be among us guides and preachers like there were in the old days, for example, Ibn al-Jawzi, who used to grasp the hearts of the attendees so that some of the polytheists and disbelievers from the Jews and Christians would be affected by him, because they were drawn in by the sweetness of his speech. Because speech, as you know, if it comes from the heart, it enters the heart, and if it comes from the mouth, it does not go beyond the ears. Ibn al-Jawzi was one of the preachers who is cited as an example, and he was knowledgeable of the Book and the Sunnah, and especially the Sunnah, from which he purified a great deal in some of his authored books, such as al-Mawdu'at and al-'Ilal al-Mutanahiyyat and the like. So I do not believe that now we have anyone of this type, but it is necessary that there be, and that is by continuing purification and education. And may Allah (Mighty and Majestic) make that near.