For this reason, scholars of hadith possess immediate knowledge of the Messenger’s sayings and intentions that is shared only by those who share in the means of acquiring it.

The point here is that the early generations were the most accomplished in knowing the truth and its proofs and answering objections to it, though they differed in their degrees of attainment. Not every one of them undertook all of this; rather, some undertook one part and others another, just as with transmitting hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and other religious matters.

The discourse they condemned was of two kinds:

The first is discourse that is itself false and untrue. Everything that contradicts the Quran and Sunnah is false and untrue, for the truest speech is Allah’s speech.

The second is discourse that entails harm, as reflected in the statements of many of them forbidding sitting with the people of innovation, debating with them, or addressing them, and instructing others to shun them.

This is because shunning them may benefit the Muslims more than addressing them. When the truth is manifest and known to the Muslims, and someone who holds an innovation wishes to call others to it, he must be prevented from doing so. Thus, if he is shunned and disciplined—as the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, did with Sabīgh ibn ‘Isl al-Tamīmī, and as the Muslims used to do—or put to death, as the Muslims put to death