Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

has kept my hands pure. Hence I would not want to taint my tongue with
it.” And another person said, “That was a nation which has passed on. It will
have [the consequence of] what it earned, and you will have what you have
earned. And you will not be asked about what they used to do.” 1 However,
if an innovator comes about and criticises them with false accusations, it
becomes necessary to defend their integrity and advance such arguments
which will destroy his evidences with knowledge and impartiality. 2
But when doing so, two things have to be considered:
1.
2.
Through investigation of whatever he will narrate regarding them, because
much of what is reported is either, false, added to, or distorted.
Finding the best and most plausible explanation for whatever is
established. 3
Ibn Taymiyah mentions:
إن هذه اآلثار المروية في مساويهم،‏ منها ما هو كذب،‏ ومنها ما قد زيد فيها ونقص وغير من وجهه،‏
والصحيح منه هم فيه معذورون:‏ إما مجتهدون مصيبون،‏ وإما مجتهدون مخطأون ومن ثم فهم محفوظون
عن ما يوجب التضليل والتفسيق
These reports which are reported regarding their demerits, some of them
are false, in some additions and omissions have taken place and in some
distortions have been made. In that which is authentically established from
them, they are excused due to either doing Ijtihād (applying themselves to
the best possible extent) and reaching the right conclusion or doing Ijtihād
and reaching the wrong conclusions. Hence they are, in both cases, free
from anything which necessitates deeming them misguided or sinful. 4
1 Sūrah al-Baqarah: 134.
2 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 6/254.
3 Risālah al-Qayrawānī p. 9; al-Khaṭṭābī: al-ʿUzlah p. 23; al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Muḥriqah 2/621.
4 Majmūʿ Fatāwā Shaykh al-Islām 3/155.
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