108 — Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbār al-Sūfī informed us, saying: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim al-Harrānī narrated to us, saying: Īsā—that is, Ibn Yūnus—narrated to us, from al-Awzāī, from Makhūl, who said: “The sunnah is of two kinds: a sunnah whose observance is obligatory and whose abandonment is disbelief, and a sunnah whose observance is meritorious and whose abandonment entails no blame.”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn said: “What I have mentioned in this part concerning adherence to the true revealed law and steadfastness upon that to which Allah Most High called the community of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and to which the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—called them is sufficient, if a discerning person reflects upon it ⦗425⦘, for him to know that he is required to hold fast to the Book of Allah Most High, the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the way of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, all the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—all who followed them with excellence, and the imams of the Muslims; to refrain from disputation, contentious debate, and quarrelling over religion; to shun the people of innovation; to follow and to abandon innovation. The knowledge of the Muslim imams of generations past—men whose names one does not shrink from mentioning—has sufficed us, leaving us no need for the doctrines of the people of innovation and misguidance. Allah alone grants success in every right course and provides the help to pursue it.”