Chapter: On Shunning the Adherents of Religious Innovation and Deviant Desires

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

Everyone who holds fast to what we have set forth in this book of ours, al-Sharī‘ah, should shun all adherents of deviant desires: the Khawārij, the Qadariyyah, the Murji’ah, the Jahmiyyah, everyone affiliated with the Mu‘tazilah, all the Rāfidah, all the Nawāsib, and everyone whom the imams of the Muslims have identified as an adherent of a misguiding innovation, provided this has been reliably established concerning him.

Such a person should not be spoken to or greeted with salām; no one should sit with him or pray behind him. Anyone who knows his condition should neither give him a woman in marriage nor marry into his family, enter into partnership with him, conduct transactions with him, debate him, or dispute with him. Rather, he should treat him with humiliating contempt. If you meet him on one road, take another if you can.

If someone asks, “Why should I not debate and dispute with him and refute what he says?” he should be told: “There is no assurance that, in debating him, you will not hear words from him that corrupt your heart, or that he will not deceive you with the falsehood Satan has made attractive to him, causing you yourself to perish. The only exception is when circumstances compel you to debate him and establish the proof against him in the presence of a ruler, or in a similar situation, so that the proof may be established against him. Otherwise, you must not do so.”

What I have mentioned to you is the position of the earlier imams of the Muslims, and it accords with the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.