This account, then, offers a most telling admonition about the perils of departing from the methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah in so great a foundational matter: whoever abandons their way reaps nothing but such ruinous outcomes, all the while turning his back on the truth and straying from what is right.

Another example is Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him. He lived at a time when the authorities were manifestly deficient and neglectful. Indeed, he himself was harmed by the ruling power for upholding and spreading the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah and for refuting deviant sects such as certain Sufi and Ashʿarite groups. For that he was imprisoned repeatedly, and he eventually died confined in the Citadel of Damascus.1

Yet despite all of this, he issued stern warnings against rising up against the rulers or withdrawing obedience from them, making clear that such a path brings about corruption far greater than any immorality, injustice, or oppression perpetrated by the rulers themselves.