as well as erecting statues and memorial monuments, holding mourning assemblies and other funeral-related innovations, constructing edifices over graves, and the like.
Chapter Three
The Stance of the Muslim Community toward the Innovators and the Methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah in Responding to Them
The stance of the Muslim community toward the innovators
and the methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah in refuting them
- The position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah toward the innovators:
Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah have always confronted the innovators, denounced their innovations, and sought to prevent them from practicing them. Below are some illustrative cases:
(a) Umm al-Dardāʾ reported: Abū al-Dardāʾ entered my house in a state of anger, so I asked, “What has upset you?” He replied, “By Allah, I recognize nothing of Muhammad’s religion among them except that they all pray together.”(1)
(b) ʿUmar ibn Yaḥyā said: I heard my father relate from his father who said: We used to sit at the door of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd before the dawn prayer. When he came out, we would walk with him to the mosque, and there came to us