If You Sit with Ahl al-Bidʿah You Stand Against the Sunnah
It is impossible to sit with the people of Sunnah and innovation simultaneously and still be from the People of Sunnah.
It was said to al-Awzāʿī (d. 157 AH) :
A man says: I sit with the people of the Sunnah and I sit with the people of innovation.
Al-Awzāʿī replied: This is a man who wants to equate truth with falsehood.
Ibn Baṭṭah (d. 387 AH) commented:
Al-Awzāʿī spoke the truth. I say: This is a man who does not know the truth from falsehood, nor belief from disbelief. For people like this, the Qur’ān was revealed and the Sunnah of al-Muṣṭafā (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was transmitted.
Allāh the Most High said:
وَإِذَا لَقُوا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا ۖ وَإِذَا خَلَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ شَيَـٰطِينِهِمْ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِءُونَ
And when they meet those who believe, they say: ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone with their Shayātīn (devils – polytheists, hypocrites), they say: ‘Truly, we are with you; verily, we were but mocking.
(Al-Baqarah, 2:14)
Source: Al-Ibānah, 430.
Translated by: Munīb al-Ṣumālī
