is therefore regarded as good (1) inasmuch as it contains elements that the Law has sanctioned, and as evil (2) inasmuch as it embodies a wholesale turning away from the religion, like the condition of the hypocrites and the defiantly disobedient. (3) This trial has afflicted the greater part (4) of the Ummah in these later times.

You must, then, observe two etiquettes:

First: be keen to hold fast to the Sunnah, both inwardly and outwardly, in your own practice and that of those who follow your lead. Acknowledge what is right and denounce what is wrong.

Second: invite people to the Sunnah as much as you are able. When you see someone engaged in a certain practice who would abandon it only for something worse, do not urge him to leave one objectionable act by committing something even more objectionable, nor by neglecting an obligation or a recommended act whose omission would be more harmful than performing that disliked deed. Instead, if the innovation contains some good, replace it with legislated good (5) to the extent possible, for souls will not give up something unless they can take up something else. No one should relinquish a good deed except for one equal to it or better. Just as those who perpetrate these innovations are censured for doing what is blameworthy, so too are those who neglect the Sunan; for among the Sunan are matters that are absolutely obligatory and others that become obligatory only upon engagement—(6) just as supererogatory prayer is not obligatory in itself, yet whoever chooses to perform it must fulfill its pillars—(7) and just as anyone who commits sins is required to offer expiations, make up missed duties, repent, and perform good deeds that erase sin. Likewise, there are duties incumbent upon an imam, a judge, a mufti, or a governor, and obligations upon seekers of knowledge and upon those devoted to voluntary acts of worship.