A Principle in Describing a Person as Being from the People of the Sunnah or the People of Innovation

The questioner : This one says: Muhammad Khalil, is it true that it was the methodology of the Salaf not to rule that a man is from the people of the Sunnah unless he possesses the characteristics of the people of the Sunnah, and that if he innovates an innovation or praises the people of innovation, he is counted among them, and otherwise he is not counted among them? Counted among whom?

The Shaykh : Among the people of innovation. As the Salaf used to say, for example, whoever says that Allah is not in the sky is a Jahmi. There is no doubt that a person may have a side of correctness and a side of error, but the default is that he is judged by the majority of his states and the majority of his statements. If he claims affiliation with the people of the Sunnah and says, for example, “My imam in that is the imam of the people of the Sunnah, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal,” or something similar to this, and he deviates from the school of the people of the Sunnah in some cases, then he is considered to be from the people of the Sunnah, but it is said that he is from the people of innovation in this specific issue. As for the one who claims affiliation with the people of innovation, he is an innovator even if he says a statement of the people of the Sunnah, because the criterion is his origin and his affiliation. It is said that he is an innovator, but he has a statement that agrees with the people of the Sunnah in such-and-such. No, if they say “Jahmi,” they mean that this is from the statement of the Jahmiyyah. The Jahmi does not articulate his entire school, but he speaks about the prominent matters, such as the Highness, the Rising above the Throne, and the Descending, and the like of that. So he is called a Jahmi because this is what the people of Jahmiyyah manifest.