Some of their later adherents (1) have even said, “There is no sin upon a Muslim if he takes from whichever of these schools he wishes and leaves whatever he wishes, for it is all Sacred Law!”

Both groups cling to that spurious hadith—ikhtilāfu ummatī raḥmah (“The differences within my community are a mercy”)—to justify their persistence in disagreement; we have often heard them cite it for that purpose. Some of them try to rationalize and defend the report by saying, “The disagreement was a mercy because it made things easier for the ummah.”

Yet this explanation flatly contradicts the explicit verses quoted earlier and the purport of the early imams’ statements. Indeed, some of those very imams explicitly rejected such a claim. Ibn al-Qāsim said, “I heard Mālik and al-Layth discussing the disagreement among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; they said, ‘It is not, as some people allege, a source of latitude. Rather, it involves right and wrong.’” (2)

Ashhab reported: “Mālik was asked about a man who follows a hadith transmitted to him by a trustworthy person from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Does he, in your view, have any leeway in that? Mālik replied, ‘No, by Allah! Not until he hits the truth. The truth is but one. Can two divergent opinions both be correct? The truth and what is right are only one.’” (3)