1- Introduction

Any action depends upon knowledge, and the success of any project is contingent upon a clear and comprehensive vision. That is even truer when such project aims to get our umma [the Muslim community worldwide] out of its backwardness-at once intellectual, moral, military, and as a civilization-in order to become a strong, united nation capable of fulfilling the mission that God assigned to it.

All active Muslims anxious about the destiny of our umma endeavor, at least theoretically, to demonstrate that the Qur’ān and the sunna [the Prophet’s model practice] are necessary to make change.

The mumins, addressed in the Qur’ān by: "O you, who believe", received an education from the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace) and acquired, consequently and on an equal footing, the highest degree of willpower, resolution, and devotion to God. They formed a united brotherly community that assimilated gradually the objectives of the divine precepts through the exemplary conduct of their living model, the Prophet (God bless him and grant him peace).

A community presenting such dispositions is definitely inexistent in our age. Furthermore, the unifier who protects from errors has departed, as the office of Prophethood has ceased since his departure. Even the appeals for change in our Muslim lands differ in their approaches and analyses, and sometimes even contradict each other because the will to act and the degrees of receptiveness of the divine precepts are disproportionate.

To all those who admit that God is their Lord, that the Qur’ān is their Constitution and that Muhammad is their Messenger we say: “Yes for the Qur’ān and for the sunna, but with what kind of will and according to what sort of vision?”

The coordination of the will and the intellect to implement a plan of action that seeks to fulfil the Promise of God [the advent of the second global Caliphate] and that follows the way drawn by the Qur’ān and the sunna is epitomized in a Qur’ānic word, al-Minhāj [the Method], that some call: “program of education.”

For us a program is a detailed and practical list [e.g. educational program, governmental program, and economic program]. As for “the Method” it is the way to act. Where to start from, then, and how? How to use the means in order to carry out the planned objectives and attain the final ends?

There is a notable difference between us and the non-Muslim civilizations. The human and material elements are certainly the same, but the objectives and the missions are different. In the two camps man is the same, but the factor of imān intervenes in favor of the mumin and the community of the mumins and produces a psychological transformation. That gives them an advantage over the unbelievers and the hypocrites on condition that they get prepared to be strong intellectually, technically, practically, and organizationally.

By speaking of “the Method” we think of how to enable our underdeveloped umma to recover and earn back its dignity. That can only be achieved through the education of a believing generation capable of building a distinguished Muslim civilization that defends the Divine Truth and that transmits the heavenly Message to mankind.

By ignoring the Divine Call, the Muslims deserve their backwardness and underdevelopment at all levels. They find themselves governed by unworthy rulers that squander their human, natural, and material energies and potentials.

The Method that promises to re-establish the Caliphate as a system of government, according to the authentic hadith reported by Muslim and Imam Ahmad, is the only way that enables the Muslims to find the real meaning of the Message which they should personify and then transmit by exemplary conduct to the world at large. That will begin by educating the mumin, forming a community of mumins-the core of an Islamic society that will progressively supplant the society of fitna [secular disorder] in order to eventually establish the Islamic State.

The Method requires that all the divine precepts be put into practice progressively, but without falsification or use of subterfuges.

2- Rushing at the Summits

To explain our vision of the Method, let us take as a starting point Chapter 90 [the City], where God-Glorified be He-addresses man, every man, inviting him to advance towards Him by braving obstacles and rushing at the summits.

In this chapter of the Qur’ān, God-Exalted be He-speaks to man, every man, inviting him to overcome the obstacle towards Him: “We created man to lead permanently a laborious jihad. Let him then brave the obstacle. And what is the obstacle? It is to set free a captive, or feed in a day of privation an orphan near of kin or a needy in extreme poverty. It is then to be of those who believe, perform righteous deeds and recommend each other self-control, patience, constancy, and compassion.”

Man suffers when he forgets God. He will find his remedy, his quietude and his bliss only with a strong belief and firm conviction that behind this life here below full of trials there is a life of eternal bliss and abundance in the Hereafter. He only needs to work in this destination by freeing captives, feeding the orphans and the needy-in the largest sense of the word. That is a large program, indeed. Then he needs to join the rank of the mumins: those who form the elite of change and the beating heart of the umma, those who are addressed by God in the Qur’ān and the sunna to implement the Islamic Law with an observant mind and a loving heart.

The Method addresses man, invites him to reconcile with God and to rise from the grade of islam, to imān, and then to ihsān. Our methodical action makes of the mumin’s relationship with God, his longing for Him, his fear when standing before Him, his total reliance on Him, and his readiness to die for His Cause the center of his whole work on the levels of education, organization, and action.

Any organization allegedly founded in the name of Islam may run the risk of being undermined by the covetousness of its members for positions of responsibility should they not be immunized against such pitfalls by the purification of their souls. The fear of God and modesty lay thus at the base of our action. All the other considerations come afterwards. It is true that knowledge and reflection take on major importance, but the links based on imān that unite the mumins are essential.

Jihad-in its broader sense-is the peak of Islam. However, only the mumins aspiring to the station of ihsān and the muslims drawing on the Affluents of imān may carry out its requisites.

3- The Affluents of imān

The Method [Minhāj] is an ascending way that leads to God: islam, imān, and eventually ihsān. The Mujāhid, the true one, is the one who perseveres in jihad until he is admitted by God in the list of the chosen ones: those who have perfected their faith. The sunna lists a number of virtues that perfect the faith of Muslims.

The Prophet said: “Imān comprises seventy-and-so affluents [in al-Bukhāri’s narration: sixty-and-so affluents]. [Muslim adds:] the highest of which is to say, ‘there is no god but God’, and the lowest is to cast aside all material inconveniences from the roadway. Modesty is one affluent of imān.”

In our literature, the affluents of imān are arranged in a particular order that corresponds to a plan of jihad covering education, organization, and action.

That corresponds to a global vision that our saintly ancestors have bequeathed to us and that leads us to what follows: ten major virtues each underlying a number of affluents of imān according to a progressive order, not hierarchical but complementary since all of them lead eventually to “there is no god but God.” The last statement is the peak of Islam when it is founded on strong belief, perfect knowledge, and efficacious action.

We have presented in the most concise way possible a broad outline of the Method as we conceive it. We have summarized its fundamentals to make them comprehensible for the uninformed reader. We hope to have attained such goal.

Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his Family, Progeny, and all his Companions.