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The misguided who have divided their religion and become sects are, as Mujāhid said, “the people of religious innovations and specious arguments.” They cling to what constitutes innovation in religion and is ambiguous to reason. As Imam Ahmad said of them:

“They differ over the Book, oppose the Book, and agree on opposing the Book. They argue from ambiguous statements and lead people astray through the confusion they create for them.”

The divided groups among the misguided establish for themselves a religion and religious foundations devised from their own opinions. They then measure the Quran and hadith against these. If the texts agree with their doctrines, they cite them as corroboration, not as their basis. If the texts contradict them, they sometimes distort words from their proper meanings and interpret the texts contrary to their true meaning—this is what their leaders do. At other times, they turn away from the texts and say, “We entrust their meaning to Allah”—this is what their ordinary followers do.

Inwardly, both groups rely on something other than what the Messenger brought. They treat their innovated doctrines as definitive, requiring that they be followed and their implications believed. Anyone who disagrees is, in their view, either an unbeliever or an ignorant person who does not understand this field and has no knowledge of rational argument or foundational principles