• Whoever espouses any of these assertions, or approves of them, or is inclined toward them (1), or is satisfied with them or loves them, has opposed the Sunnah, broken away from the community, abandoned the transmitted legacy, voiced contrariness, entered into innovation, and strayed from the path. Our success (2) is only through Allah—ʿalayhi tawakkalnā wa-bihi istaʿannā wa-lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā billāh (upon Him we rely, through Him we seek help, and there is no power nor strength except by Allah) (3).
• The partisans (4) of desires, innovations, and discord have invented vile and repugnant names, with which (5) they label the people of the Sunnah, seeking thereby to disparage them, malign them, entrap them, and belittle them in the eyes of the foolish and the ignorant (6).
= Imam Abu Bakr al-Khallal said: “Ahmad ibn Muhammad informed us; Abu Talib narrated to us: I asked Abu Abd Allah—meaning Imam Ahmad—whether disavowal, allegiance, and testimony are innovations. He replied: Disavowal (baraʾa) is to renounce any one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; allegiance (wilaya) is to side with some of them while shunning others; testimony (shahada) is to attest that someone is in the Fire.” Al-Sunnah, no. 763.
(1) In the T edition: “or correct it.”
(2) In the T edition: “and my success …”
(3) Omitted in the T edition.
(4) In the T edition: “and I have seen among the sectarians …”
(5) In the T edition: “they call.”
(6) Imam Abu Hatim al-Razi said: “The mark of the innovators is their disparagement of the people of hadith; the mark of the heretics (zanadiqa) is that they label Ahl al-Sunnah Hashwiyya, intending thereby to nullify the reports; the mark of the Jahmiyya is that they call Ahl al-Sunnah anthropomorphists (mushabbihah); the mark of the Qadariyya is that they call the people of hadith predestinarians (mujbira); the mark of the Murjiʾa is that they call Ahl al-Sunnah dissenters and deficient; the mark of the Rafidites is that they call Ahl al-Sunnah Nasibites; and the people of …” [text breaks off]