these words, and some of them began saying, “Are Jews and Christians tolerated, while we are not?”

I replied, “Jews and Christians are permitted, upon payment of the jizya tax, to retain their religion privately within their homes. But a religious innovator is not permitted to persist in his innovation.” This left them unable to reply.

The truth of the matter is that anyone who openly displays wrongdoing in the abode of Islam is not permitted to continue doing so. Whoever advocates a religious innovation and openly practises it is not allowed to persist, nor is anyone who openly displays wickedness. Likewise, non-Muslims under the covenant of protection are not permitted to display publicly the objectionable practices of their religion. As for others, anyone who is Muslim must fulfil the obligations of Islam and abstain from what it forbids. Anyone who is neither Muslim nor under the covenant of protection is either an apostate, a polytheist, or a heretic whose heresy is manifest.

I also mentioned the condemnation of religious innovators, saying: Muslim narrated in his Sahīh, from Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq, from his father Abū Ja‘far al-Bāqir, from Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say in his sermons:

“The truest speech is the speech of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst matters are those newly introduced into religion, and every religious innovation is misguidance.”

The Sunan collections also report from al-‘Irbād ibn Sāriya, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, delivered a sermon to us that brought tears to our eyes and made our hearts tremble. Someone said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, this seems like a farewell exhortation. What, then, do you enjoin upon us?’ He replied, ‘I enjoin you to listen and obey. Whoever among you lives on after me will see much discord. You must therefore adhere to my Sunnah and the sunnah of the upright and rightly guided caliphs