68 – Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Baqi told us, saying: Hamd ibn Ahmad al-Haddad reported to us; al-Hafiz Abu Nuʿaym, through his own chain of transmission, related from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz a statement to the same purport as what has just been quoted.

69 – Al-Awzaʿi—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “Hold fast to the reports of the early generations, even if people abandon you; and beware of the opinions of men, even if they adorn those opinions for you with eloquent words.”

70 – Abu Ishaq said: I asked al-Awzaʿi about this, and he replied: “Make yourself patient upon the sunnah. Stop where the people stopped; say what they said; refrain from what they refrained from; and follow the way of your righteous predecessors—for what sufficed them will suffice you. If these newly-invented matters (that is, the innovations) had contained any good, they would not have been singled out for you to the exclusion of your forebears. Allah did not withhold any good from them only to store it up for you because of some merit you possess. They were the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whom Allah chose for the company of His Prophet, sent him among them, and praised them when He said: ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; and those who are with him are firm against the disbelievers and compassionate among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating, seeking bounty from Allah and His good pleasure…’ (Surah al-Fath 48:29).”

71 – The Imam [Ahmad ibn Hanbal] said: “The foundations of the sunnah, according to us, are to adhere to what the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were upon, to take them as exemplars, and to abandon innovations—for every innovation is misguidance.”

72 – ʿAli ibn al-Madini made the same statement.