what Allah has mentioned in His Book, when He, exalted is His mention, says:

“Allah has sent down the best statement.” [al-Zumar: 23]

This is the Quran. Thus, they are the bearers of the Quran, its people, its reciters, and its memorizers. It is likewise clear that they are affiliated with the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for they are its transmitters and bearers. There can therefore be no doubt that they deserve this name, since both meanings are found in them. For we see that people receive the Book and the sunnah from them, and that all creation relies upon them to establish the soundness of both.

We have neither heard of, among the generations before us, nor seen in our own time, any leading innovator in the teaching of the Quran from whom people received it in any age. Nor, in days gone by, has the banner of any of them been raised in the narration of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. Nor has anyone followed them in any matter of religion or in any of the laws of Islam.

Praise be to Allah, who has granted this group all the portions of Islam, honored them by combining all these distinctions within them, and distinguished them from all mankind. Allah has honored them through His religion, elevated them through His Book, raised their renown through His sunnah, and guided them to His path and the path of His Messenger. They are the aided group, the saved sect, the guiding band, and the just community that holds fast to the sunnah. They seek no substitute for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him; no alteration of his words; and no departure from his sunnah. The succession of ages and times does not turn them away from it, nor do changing events deflect them from its course. Nor can the innovations of those who scheme against Islam turn them aside from its way—those who seek to bar people from the path of Allah, to make it crooked, and to turn them away from its paths