He was asked, “And what is al-Mathnāh?” He replied, “Anything that is written down besides the Book of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.”¹

Perhaps for this very reason Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him, ever intent on keeping all allegiance for the Book and the Sunnah—used to dislike the composition of works packed with detailed subdivisions and personal opinion,² fearing that people might prefer them to the Book and the Sunnah. That is exactly what the muqallids have done: whenever a disagreement arises, they give precedence to their own school over the Book and the Sunnah and turn it into the yardstick against which the two are measured, as we quoted earlier from al-Karkhī. What was incumbent upon them was to follow the Book and the Sunnah, as the preceding proofs require and as the statements of their own imams oblige, and to rally to whichever other school happens to have the Book and the Sunnah on its side. Yet—sad to say—they have remained divided and contentious.

For this reason Ibn al-Qayyim said ⦗2/333⦘, after citing the Prophet’s words, “Whoever among you lives long will see great discord, so hold fast to my Sunnah …”:

“This is a denunciation of those who invent novelties and a warning against treading their path. The abundance and gravity of disagreement have arisen only because of taqlīd and its devotees—people who have fragmented the religion and turned its followers into sects, each faction championing its leader, calling others to him, vilifying anyone who dissents, and refusing to act on anyone else’s words, as though they belonged to an entirely different religion.”