the early generations and their knowledge to a degree not found among the people of the Sunnah and the community. Professing adherence to the doctrine of the early generations is not one of their distinguishing marks, even though they affirm the caliphate of the four caliphs. They also revere leading scholars of Islam, and the majority of them, in a way that those other groups do not. Yet their disparagement of many of these scholars is beyond the scope of this discussion.

“As for al-Nazzām,” his disparagement of the Companions is likewise beyond the scope of this discussion.

Even if these proponents of religious innovation disparaged the early generations partly because of shortcomings and transgressions among those claiming adherence to them, and because some of them exercised independent scholarly judgment in matters where the correct view lay elsewhere, such occurrences became a trial for their opponents, leading them far astray.

The point here is that the groups commonly known among the people of the Sunnah and the community for religious innovation do not profess adherence to the early generations. Indeed, the group most notorious for religious innovation is the Rafidites, to the extent that ordinary people recognize no distinguishing mark of religious innovation other than Rafidism. In their usage, a Sunni is anyone who is not a Rafidite. This is because, more than any other group, the Rafidites oppose the Prophetic hadiths and the meanings of the Quran, disparage the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars, and attack the majority of the community. Since they are furthest from following the early generations, they are the most notorious for religious innovation.

Thus, it is clear that the distinguishing mark of the proponents of religious innovation is their failure to profess adherence to the way of the early generations. Hence Imam Ahmad said in the epistle transmitted by ‘Abdūs ibn Mālik:

“The foundations of the Sunnah, according to us, are to adhere to the way of the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”