the blameworthy “vacillator” (mudhabdhab) is the one who is neither with the believers nor with the unbelievers; he presents one face to the believers and another to the unbelievers, just as Allah says about the hypocrites: “The hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but He is deceiving them; when they stand for prayer they stand lazily, showing off to the people and remembering Allah only a little … wavering in between, belonging neither to these nor to those” (Quran 4:142–143). He continued: “Whoever shows fanatical partisanship to one particular imam while ignoring the others is akin to someone who champions one Companion to the exclusion of the rest—like the rafidi who sides with Ali alone and rejects the first three caliphs and the majority of the Companions, or the khariji who disparages Uthman and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them. Such are the ways of the people of innovation and desire. Anyone who is bigoted for a single imam—be it Malik, al-Shafi‘i, Abu Hanifah, Ahmad, or anyone else—resembles these sectarians. “At best, the partisan of one imam is ignorant of that imam’s true rank in knowledge and religion as well as the rank of the others; he is therefore both unjust and ignorant, whereas Allah commands justice and knowledge and forbids ignorance and injustice. “Abu Yusuf and Muhammad (ibn al-Hasan) were the foremost followers of Abu Hanifah and the most knowledgeable of his doctrine, yet they differed with him in innumerable issues once the Sunnah and the evidence became clear to them and obliged them to follow it. Even so, they continued to venerate their imam, and no one calls them ‘vacillators.’ Likewise, Abu Hanifah and the other imams would voice an opinion, but when the proof contrary to it became manifest they adopted that proof, and no one calls them ‘vacillators’—for a human being is ever seeking further knowledge and faith; such a person is guided, and Allah increases him in guidance. Indeed, He says: ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge’ (Quran 20:114). “Thus every believer must ally himself with the believers and the scholars among them, must aim solely at the truth and follow it wherever he finds it, and must know that a mujtahid who gets it right receives two rewards, whereas one who errs still receives one reward for his ijtihad and his mistake is forgiven. Believers should follow their imam whenever his action is permissible to follow, but no one may turn the view of a particular scholar into a slogan that obliges adherence while forbidding anything else that has come through revelation…"