Reports from the Pious Predecessors on Moderation

• The statement of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) on the minbar: “Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians exaggerated in praising the son of Mary. I am only His servant, so say: the servant of Allah and His Messenger.”
• The statement of Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him): “Follow and do not innovate; you have been sufficed. Every innovation is misguidance.” And his warning against extremism, overburdening, and newly invented matters.
• The report that Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “We were forbidden from affectation (takalluf).”
• The statement of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them): “I found my companions upon a matter. If I were to oppose them, I fear that I would not catch up with them.”
• The saying of some of the salaf: “Allah has not commanded a command except that Shayṭān has a stance in relation to it: either towards negligence and falling short, or towards excess and extremism. He does not mind which of the two he achieves.”
• The consensus of the companions and the imams that a person who errs is not declared a disbeliever merely because of his mistake; and that declaring people disbelievers due to extremism is against this consensus.
• The statement of Imām Mālik (may Allah have mercy on him): “The latter part of this Ummah will not be rectified except by what rectified its first part,” and his saying: “Every time someone comes who is more argumentative than the other, he wants us to leave what Jibrīl brought to the Prophet ﷺ?”
• The saying of the salaf: “The religion of Allah is between the one who goes to extremes in it and the one who falls short of it.”
• The statement of al-Awzāʿī (may Allah have mercy on him): “Be patient upon the Sunnah. Stop where the people (of knowledge) stopped, say what they said, and refrain from what they refrained from…”
• The letter of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (may Allah have mercy on him) in which he emphasised adherence to the Sunnah and abandoning innovations, and said: “…Accept for yourself what they (the early generations) accepted for themselves, for they stopped upon knowledge, restrained themselves with insight, and were more capable (than us) of uncovering the truth…”
• The statement of Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him): “We follow and we do not innovate, and we emulate and do not initiate. We will never go astray as long as we hold to the traces (āthār).”