211 – Others drift into some innovation in their religion or into open vice in their worldly affairs, until people point at them and say, “He used to be devoted in his faith, but then he became such-and-such.”

212 – This is the very danger that threatens anyone who abandons the prescribed acts of worship for invented additions.

213 – For that reason Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd said, “Measured adherence to the Sunnah is better than strenuous effort upon an innovation.”⦗1⦘

214 – Nevertheless, the genus of jihad is superior. Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: “A man from among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by a mountain ravine that contained a small pool of sweet water, and it pleased him. He said, ‘How I would love to leave people and stay in this ravine; but I shall not do so until I seek the permission of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ He then mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, ‘Do not do it, for a person’s station in the path of Allah is better than his prayer in his own house for seventy years. Would you not love that Allah forgive you?’”