Al-’Abbaad on, ‘So and so is an Innovator, if You don’t Call Him an Innovator Then We will Call You an Innovator,’ when Both the One Making that Judgement and the one it is Made Against are from Ahlus-Sunnah and Have the Same Manhaj

Host: The questioner says, ‘Our Shaikh, may Allaah protect you, it is from the success that Allaah has given us that many of the students of knowledge were present for the [lessons on the] Introduction of Sahih Muslim explained by Your Excellency, only that this blessing, i.e., the principles which Imaam Muslim mentioned have become unclear to some of them such that some of them have applied the principles to some of their [own] brothers from Ahlus-Sunnah.

So when a scholar performs ijtihaad and calls someone an innovator but other people oppose him in that, then they oblige other people to call him an innovator [too] and they then go to the people who oppose them and boycott them and warn against them, believing that that is the methodology of the Salaf even though the ’aqeedah of both parties is one and their methodology is one, and the countries of many of these people are full of shirk and magic and Sufism, so do you have any advice to clarify the truth and bring about unity?

Al-’Abbaad: I say: the person to whom Allaah has granted success must clarify the truth and ask for Allaah’s guidance for the person he is clarifying the truth to, but after that what should not occur from him is to pursue that person [such] that if that person does not respond then he is boycotted and not spoken to like that which some of the small students do—because they know nothing of the religion and [they do this boycotting etc.,] while they are present in Europe and the East and the West, ya’ni, they know nothing about the rudimentary matters of the religion but they have been afflicted with calling people innovators and boycotting, ya’ni, ‘So and so called so and so an innovator so whoever does not call him an innovator then he is an innovator and is to be boycotted,’ this is not the way of the Salaf—Shaikh Ibn Baaz would never do this—how numerous his refutations are but he was [always] busy with knowledge and would not pursue the person that was refuted, he would just make the truth clear and then carry on along the path of the people of knowledge.  This is the correct way.

As for what some of the small students who are found in different places do and who have nothing in terms of knowledge, but only, ya’ni, they will meet their brothers and so [then will say], ‘So and so is an innovator, if you don’t call him an innovator [too] then we will call you an innovator,’ and he [i.e., the person they are calling an innovator] is from Ahlus-Sunnah and this is about people from Ahlus-Sunnah, it is not about people from Ahlul-Bid’ah but about people from Ahlus-Sunnah, he did something which is attributed to him, it [i.e., this thing attributed to him] may be correct or it may be incorrect, but [then] doing such [aforementioned] things is not allowed—this is not known from the Salaf of this Ummah: that when one of them would make a mistake that he would then be boycotted and called an innovator and that the people would then be asked to call him an innovator [too] and boycott him, this is not from the manhaj of the Salaf.

And the closest example [is that of] our Shaikh, Shaikh ’Abdul-’Aziz ibn Baaz through whom Allaah brought about benefit and that benefit covered the horizons and much, much good came about at his hands and his refutations are numerous but he was busy with knowledge, it wasn’t his mission, when he did call someone an innovator, to then go and say, ‘This is a must, because if not, whoever does not call him an innovator [too] then he will [also] become an innovator and is to be boycotted,’—Shaikh Ibn Baaz never did this—and nor those on the way of the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him

Taken from http://giftsofknowledge.net/