Many answers given by Imam Ahmad and other imams were responses to questions from people whose circumstances they knew, or were addressed to particular individuals whose circumstances they knew. Such answers are comparable to the Messenger’s rulings on particular cases—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—which apply only to analogous cases.

Some people have treated these answers as general rulings and consequently practised forms of shunning and denunciation that they were not commanded to practise, and which are therefore neither obligatory nor recommended. In doing so, they may have neglected obligatory or recommended deeds and committed forbidden acts.

Others have disregarded this matter altogether, failing to shun the evil practices rooted in religious innovation that they were commanded to shun. Instead, they have merely kept away from them out of indifference, rather than abstaining from them with aversion, or have fallen into them themselves. They may also abstain from them with aversion, yet neither forbid others to engage in them nor punish those who deserve punishment for them through shunning or similar measures. They have thus neglected the forbidding of wrong that they were commanded to undertake, whether as an obligation or a recommendation. They therefore either commit wrong or fail to forbid it, doing what they were forbidden to do or neglecting what they were commanded to do.

That is how matters stand. Allah’s religion is the middle way between those who go to excess in it and those who neglect it. And Allah, Glorified is He, knows best.