the Muslims considered it appropriate to shun those who showed signs of deviation by openly professing and promoting religious innovations or openly committing major sins. As for someone who conceals a sin or secretly holds an innovation that does not amount to disbelief, such a person is not to be shunned. Rather, it is the one who calls others to innovation who is to be shunned, for shunning is a form of punishment, and only someone who openly manifests disobedience in word or deed is punished. As for someone who outwardly shows us good, we accept what he presents outwardly and entrust his inner state to Allah Most High. At worst, he is like the hypocrites whose outward professions the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, accepted, while entrusting their inner states to Allah, when they came to him in the year of Tabūk, swearing oaths and offering excuses.

For this reason, Imām Ahmad and most of the imams before and after him, such as Mālik and others, would neither accept the narrations of someone who called others to an innovation nor sit with him, unlike someone who remained silent about it. The compilers of authentic hadith collections included reports from many people accused of innovation who remained silent about it, but did not include reports from those who called others to innovations.

What prompted these remarks was that your delegation told us of instances of division and disagreement among you. They even mentioned that matters had come close to fighting. There is no power nor strength except through Allah, the Most High, the Magnificent. It is Allah whom we ask to unite our hearts and yours, mend our relations, guide us to the paths of peace, and bring us out