and forbid what is wrong, and know that whatever has reached you could never have missed you, and whatever has missed you could never have reached you. Do not repudiate any of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, and do not side with one of them over another; rather, leave the affair of ʿUthmān—and of ʿAlī—to Allah.

Abū Ḥanīfah said: “al-Fiqh al-Akbar—profound understanding of the religion—is better than mastery of academic minutiae, and for a man to grasp how to worship his Lord is better than amassing a great deal of knowledge.” End quote.

Abū Muṭīʿ added: I asked, “Inform me about the finest kind of fiqh.” He replied, “That a man learn faith (īmān), the rulings of the Sacred Law, the sunnah, the prescribed penalties, and the areas in which the leading imams differ.” He then addressed matters of faith, followed by issues of predestination (qadar), and offered an excellent rebuttal of the Qadariyyah—this is not the place to reproduce it.

He went on: I asked, “What is your view of a person who enjoins what is right and forbids what is wrong, people rally behind him, and he thereby rebels against the community—do you deem that permissible?”