The Principle of Declaring a Specific Person an Innovator and Describing the Opponent as a Compromiser
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: May Allah reward you. We hear in these times a principle repeated by some students of knowledge, which is: if you do not declare a specific person an innovator, then you are a compromiser in the methodology. They warn against their brothers who do not do this. He says: It has spread in this time among some students of knowledge a principle they state, which is: if you do not declare a specific person an innovator, then you are a compromiser in the methodology. They warn against their brothers who do not do this.
Answer:
We do not declare anyone an innovator except one who committed a religious innovation intentionally. Therefore, a specific person is declared an innovator, as well as a non-specific one. As for one who committed a religious innovation while believing it to be the truth due to his ignorance, the truth is clarified to him and the Sunnah is clarified to him. This is the methodology of the preceding Salaf.
He says: May Allah reward you. We hear in these times a principle repeated by some students of knowledge, which is: if you do not declare a specific person an innovator, then you are a compromiser in the methodology. They warn against their brothers who do not do this. He says: It has spread in this time among some students of knowledge a principle they state, which is: if you do not declare a specific person an innovator, then you are a compromiser in the methodology. They warn against their brothers who do not do this.
Answer:
We do not declare anyone an innovator except one who committed a religious innovation intentionally. Therefore, a specific person is declared an innovator, as well as a non-specific one. As for one who committed a religious innovation while believing it to be the truth due to his ignorance, the truth is clarified to him and the Sunnah is clarified to him. This is the methodology of the preceding Salaf.
Source
السلفية حقيقتها وسماتها — alfawzan.live (1:07:30)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.