The Right Way

Every group claims to be following the Qur'an and the Sunnah. They cannot all be right, and the ordinary Muslim caught between them needs some way of telling which claim holds. The Right Way is Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah's answer to that problem.

The Standard He Applies

Ibn Taymiyyah's method is consistent throughout his writing and it appears clearly here: a belief or practice is judged by the Qur'an, the authentic Sunnah, and the understanding of the first generations who received both directly. Not by how widespread it is, not by the standing of whoever advocates it, and not by how well it fits contemporary sensibilities.

That standard sounds simple until it is applied. Applied honestly, it cuts against inherited custom, against the reader's own school where the school departs from evidence, and against positions the reader may hold comfortably. Ibn Taymiyyah applies it anyway.

What the Book Addresses

• Allah's Names and Attributes — affirming them as revelation affirms them, without distortion or denial
• Sincerity — why intention decides whether an act of worship counts at all
• Innovation (bid'ah) — how a practice enters the religion without warrant, and how to recognise it
• Sectarianism — loyalty to a group displacing loyalty to the truth
• Extremism (ghuluw) — excess in religion, including excess in things that are themselves good
• Blind following (taqlid) — the difference between benefiting from a scholar and surrendering judgement to him
• The path to salvation — what the texts identify as the saved way, and on what basis

Who Should Read It

Students of knowledge working through the foundations. Muslims who have encountered several competing groups and want a principled way to weigh them rather than a verdict handed to them. Teachers of Islamic studies. It is a translated work and readable, but it is a scholar's book — the reasoning is compressed and rewards a second pass.

Related Reading

• Sharh Al-Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyah — Ibn Taymiyyah's creed treatise with Khalil Harras's commentary
• Sunnah & Caution Against Innovation — Shaykh Ibn Baz on the Sunnah as the measure of acceptable worship
• Should a Muslim Follow a Particular Madhab? — the question of taqlid treated on its own