if it is discovered that one of them held an opinion for which a sound hadith establishes the contrary, he must have had a valid excuse for setting that hadith aside. All such excuses can be reduced to three kinds.

1. He did not believe that the Prophet ﷺ actually uttered the report in question.
2. He believed that the report was not intended to address that specific issue.
3. He believed that the ruling contained in the report had been abrogated.

They enjoy precedence over us: the favor of having come first, of conveying to us what the Messenger ﷺ was sent with, and of clarifying for us what would otherwise have remained hidden. May Allah be pleased with them and make them pleased. “Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith; do not place in our hearts any rancor toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed Most Kind, Most Merciful” (59:10).

To belittle the scholars because some of them erred in matters of ijtihād is the way of the innovators. It is one of the devious plots of the enemies of Islam: to cast doubt upon the religion, to sow enmity among Muslims, to sever the later part of the ummah from its earliest generations, and to disseminate—