If You Sit with Ahl al-Bidʿah You Stand Against the 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-Sumālī