most ignorant people concerning it. Whatever book they find containing something that accords with their desires, they quote it without any knowledge of hadith—just as we find this author and others like him quoting whatever they find that accords with their desires.

Were they to quote both what supports them and what counts against them from the books they draw upon—such as al-Thaʿlabī’s Quranic Commentary, Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s The Virtues of the Companions, Abū Nuʿaym’s The Virtues of the Companions, and the additions made to Ahmad’s book by al-Qatīʿī and Ahmad’s son—people would be able to obtain justice from them. Yet they accept as true only what accords with their own hearts.

As for jurisprudence, they are among the people furthest removed from it. The foundation of their religion in matters of the Sacred Law consists of issues they transmit from certain scholars of the Prophet’s household, such as ʿAlī ibn al-Husayn, his son Abū Jaʿfar Muhammad (1), and the latter’s son Jaʿfar (2) ibn Muhammad.

These men—may Allah be pleased with them—were among the foremost authorities of the religion and the leaders of the Muslims. Yet they do not examine the chains of transmission leading back to them to determine whether the reports from them are established, for they have no knowledge of the technical disciplines of hadith and its chains of transmission. Furthermore, when one of these men expresses an opinion, they neither seek its proof in the Quran and Sunnah nor consider what may contradict it. Nor do they refer matters disputed among the Muslims to Allah and the Messenger, as Allah and His Messenger commanded.

Rather, they have laid down three principles for themselves:

The first is that these men are infallible.

The second is that everything they say was transmitted from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

The third is that the consensus of the Prophet’s kindred constitutes binding proof, and that these men are his kindred.