And if it is possible to bring this person and the evidence is established against him, but he persists and refuses to return, is he considered an innovator or not?

The questioner : And if the people of the Sunnah are able to bring that person and establish the evidence against him regarding what he has contradicted of the methodology of the Sunnah, and yet he refuses to return to the truth that they are upon, is he considered an innovator or not?

The Shaykh : The answer to this is also clear: if he persists and refuses, he is considered an innovator. However, if he says, "The correct view in what you are saying has not become clear to me," or if he turns it around on them and accuses them of error in turn, then the matter remains a subject of scholarly disagreement between them and him. We should not believe that we know he holds in his heart a belief contrary to what he expresses with his tongue, making him a hypocrite. We are not in the position of the Messenger (peace be upon him) as indicated in the authentic hadith when that polytheist who fell under the sword of the Muslim declared, "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah," and he was killed. The story is well known. He (peace be upon him) said to him: He said, "O Messenger of Allah, he did not say it except out of fear or fear of being killed." So his (peace be upon him) statement was: And he was a polytheist, and the apparent evidence indicates without doubt that he said it out of fear of being killed. So what about a Muslim who bears witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and who affirms the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the pious predecessors, but he erred in an issue and the evidence was established against him? We say this with some caution, because not everyone who argues is knowledgeable, but we assume that the evidence was actually established against him by a scholar or by distinguished scholars, yet he was not convinced by it. Then his case is left to Allah. It is not permissible for us to let an error or errors outweigh the majority of the truth. The matter in this scientific issue is exactly like the matter regarding righteousness and wickedness. It is not possible for a Muslim not to fall into a violation of the Shari'ah; that is, he must commit a bad deed or a sin. And each of us is prone to error, as we all know. So if we see a man who has committed a sin or committed a transgression, do we call him an open sinner? Do we call him a wicked person? Or is the criterion what predominates? What predominates. So the scientific issue is exactly the same.