need them; it is therefore impossible for some people to know the truth concerning them while the early generations and the imams did not.

The respondent has written volumes on these matters, explaining the statements and actions of the Companions and the views of the Muslim scholars: what they agreed upon and what they disputed. He has distinguished the authentic prophetic hadiths from the weak ones, presented the scholars’ discussions of them, and explained the errors of those who opposed him in their writings on the subject, addressing all this at length.

Even if these people had adopted some of the scholars’ opinions, they would not thereby have established any proof against him. How much worse, then, when they have said what contradicts the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the consensus of the Muslim scholars concerning such a momentous matter—one which the Messenger explained to his community and which its scholars have understood, generation after generation, until the present! It is well known that such a judgment is invalid by the consensus of the Muslims.

The forty-first point:

Had they adopted some of the scholars’ opinions, believing them to be undisputed, they would have been a group comparable to those who suppose that the Sunnah for a visitor is to stand at the grave, face it, and offer greetings of peace to its occupant. Someone may suppose that this is a matter of consensus, but he is mistaken. Some scholars did not consider facing the direction of prayer recommended, while others did not consider standing at the grave recommended, as the reports from them have made clear in the relevant passages. These people, however, have issued a judgment based on a view that no Muslim scholar has ever held, and that is invalid by consensus.

The forty-second point:

If a mufti were to say what they have said, he would have to be censured