and a genuine love of good for all Muslims: you love for them what you love for yourself and hate for them what you hate for yourself. 1

Abu Mansur Muʿammar ibn Ahmad al-Isbahani, in the treatise he composed on the Sunnah when he saw how unfamiliar it had become, how events had multiplied, and how whims were being followed, said: “Part of the Sunnah is to yield to the emirs and to the sultan—never rising up against them with the sword even if they are unjust; to listen to them and obey them even if the ruler is an Abyssinian slave whose nose has been cut off; and it is likewise of the Sunnah to perform the Hajj with them, to wage jihad with them, and to offer the Friday and the two ʿĪd prayers behind every righteous or wicked leader … .”

He added: “This entire section is corroborated by the Sunnah collections authored by the leading scholars. Foremost among them is Kitab al-Sunnah by ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal; the Kitab al-Sunnah of Abu Masʿud, Abu Zurʿah, and Abu Hatim; Kitab al-Sunnah by ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nuʿman; and Kitab al-Sunnah by Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Banna al-Sufi—may Allah have mercy on them all. Then come the later works on the Sunan, such as those by Abu Ahmad al-ʿAssal, who also composed books on the Sunnah. All of these scholars concurred