were the yardstick for the ummah—indeed, the scale by which the Qur’an and Sunnah themselves are to be measured. His own verdict is the decisive text (1) while their passages are deemed ambiguous; whatever of the two Revelations agrees with the dictum of the scholar he imitates he cites as proof, elaborates upon, and brandishes in debate, whereas whatever conflicts with it he twists in interpretation or consigns to suspension. Thus the overriding criterion, in his eyes, is his own opinion and school. He has squandered the legal schools of the scholars among the Companions, the Successors, and the imams of the Muslims; he regards them only with the gaze of one who dismisses and turns away, not of one who follows—until they appear to him as though they belonged to an entirely different law!

We declare our innocence before Allah of this blameworthy disposition and of that pasture whose end is ruin for its grazers. We befriend (2) the scholars of the Muslims, selecting from their statements whatever accords with the Book and the Sunnah and weighing those statements against them; we do not weigh the two Revelations by anyone’s word, whoever he may be. Nor shall we, apart from Allah Most High and His Messenger ﷺ, take any man—who at times is right and at times errs—and then follow him (3) in everything he says while forbidding, indeed declaring unlawful, the following of anyone else in matters where he differs.

This is what the imams of Islam have enjoined upon us; it is their covenant with us. In this we tread their path, follow their road, and take their guidance, not that of those who oppose us. Success is from Allah, exalted be He.

Section

If it is said: Is this contract (4) to be classed under leases, or