Questioner:

This is a question from one of the scholarship students, he is asking about those who say the affair of ʿAqīdah (creed and belief) has become subsidiary and we must put it aside in order that we may unite against the external enemy.

Shaykh Ṣāliḥ Ibn Fawzān al-Fawzān:

This statement is false and Allāh’s ﷻ  refuge is sought. ʿAqīdah is the foundation! ʿAqīdah is the foundation and basis of this religion – the correct and sound ʿaqīdah is the basis of this religion. 

Anyone who neglects ʿaqīdah is neglecting the foundation of the religion. It is the foundation of this religion – the testimony that none has the right to be worshiped in truth except Allāh ﷻ and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh is the first thing that enters a person into Islām, however it is not sufficient to simply pronounce the testimony of faith, rather he must know its meaning and act upon what is necessitated by it inwardly and outwardly.