There is no doubt that the Muslims would not have fallen behind the advanced nations had they continued to hold on firmly to their Deen and paid guarded attention to this commitment upon awareness and sincerity without the being exposed to the least amount of slackness or diversion.

This backwardness began from the time that they began to leave their Islaam and permitted the foreign culture to leak in amongst them and found its way into their homes. Just as they permitted the western thought and concepts to go through to their minds and take control of them. And at the same time they were negligent in relation to carrying Islaam when they let go of the intellectual leadership in their lives and misapplied its rulings and systems in the running of their affairs.

And to get rid of this decline and backwardness it is necessary to work for the Nahdah (revival). And this work will not achieve its full fruits until the Islamic life has returned which will occur by carrying the Islamic Da’wah by way of the Islamic intellectual leadership and by building an Islamic State that takes hold of its role by carrying this intellectual leadership when it assumes the carrying of the Islamic Da’wah utilising every available means and carrying it to the entire world.

It is true that someone could say at this point: But why the Islamic thought alone and not other than it?

The answer to him comes from the reality that the nations of the earth are living through now and their suffering from the tragedies that communist socialism has left in its wake despite the fact that it tails have begun to trail and it has begun to diminish and retract within its own homeland. And what they have suffered in terms of degrading abuses from democratic capitalism that stands out with and distinguished by the vilest of systems and principles whilst it displays its technological advancements in a time that has been named the return to building a new world. A world which is subservient to the American hegemony against its will after the Russian communist power that competed with her has been taken out of the equation.

This is one very important answer and particularly to those whom the springs or sources of the pure Islamic intellectual leadership have not yet reached. And the second remaining answer despite being hypothetical due to the absence of the application of the Islamic thought in the reality but nevertheless is of no less importance than the first. It is the certainty that Islaam alone is capable of reforming this world that has been corrupted by the two other ideologies. And it alone is capable of bringing the sound true revival to the Muslims and anyone else. And for all of this to be realised it is necessary for the Islamic Da’wah to be carried upon this basis.

So what does it mean to carry the Islamic Da’wah to the world as an intellectual leadership (Qiyaadah Fikriyah)?

It is known that an idea, any idea, that when it connects to human behaviour it provides its carrier with concepts which guide his behaviour in a certain area. It can be an incomplete idea covering one area and not others or it can cover all areas of life if it is a comprehensive idea. This means that this thought has led the human in his life and has been a leader in respect to him. Therefore when the Islamic Da’wah is carried as ideas that lead its carriers to live according to them first and they then make others live by them in the same manner as they do. Then in this case it has been carried as an intellectual leadership (Qiyaadah Fikriyah) or as a leading thought to all those that have been connected to it whatever the means of connection was.

However how is this intellectual leadership realised in the carrying of the Islamic Da’wah?

It is by carrying the clear defined thoughts of the Islamic Aqeedah to others so that they become their thoughts. Then it is to explain the Islamic systems that emanate from that Aqeedah to regulate all of the affairs of life for the individual and the society and by explaining all of the thoughts that are built upon this leadership and the concepts that emanate from these thoughts. This is to influence, direct and overturn the view point in the life of the individual and society as long as they are tied to them and living is in accordance to them.

Seminar by Sheikh Dr Mohammed Hawarey