315 — Al-Hasan ibn Uthman informed us: Ahmad ibn Hamdan informed us: Bishr ibn Musa related to us: Mu'awiyah ibn Amr related to us: Abu Ishaq related to us: I asked al-Awza'i, and he said:

“Hold fast to the sunnah. Stop where the people stopped; say what they said; refrain from that from which they refrained; and follow the path of your righteous predecessors. What sufficed them will suffice you.

“The people of Syria had been unaware of this innovation until some of the people of Iraq—who had embraced that innovation after their jurists and scholars had refuted it—cast it among them. It then took hold in the hearts of groups among the people of Syria, and their tongues came to speak it. Thus, they were afflicted, as others had been, by disagreement over it.

“Yet I do not despair that Allah will remove the evil of this innovation, until they become brothers, joined in mutual affection after division and mutual hatred in their religion. Had this been goodness, you would not have been singled out for it to the exclusion of your predecessors. No good was withheld from them only to be reserved for you because of some merit you possess. They were the Companions of His Prophet—those whom He chose and among whom He sent him. He described them as He described them, saying:

‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Those with him are firm against the disbelievers and compassionate among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating, seeking Allah’s bounty and His pleasure.’ [al-Fath: 29]”