Al-Darimi (d. 280 AH, may Allah have mercy on him) said in al-Radd 'ala al-Jahmiyyah (210):
Some of them [the innovators] said: "We do not accept these reports (athar), nor do we use them as evidence."
I [Al-Darimi] replied: "Indeed, nor do you accept the Book of Allah! Tell me, if you do not accept them, do you doubt that they are narrated from the Salaf, transmitted from them, and widespread among them, being inherited from the prominent figures and jurists generation after generation?" They said: "Yes [we acknowledge they are so narrated]."
We said: "Your admission is sufficient proof against you for our claim that they are famous and narrated, having been circulated by the scholars and jurists. So, bring from them [the Salaf] the like of them as proof for your claim—which all the reports have belied—for you will not be able to produce a single narration or report regarding it. You have known, if Allah wills, that the Sunan of the Messenger of Allah and his Companions, their rulings, and their legal cases cannot be grasped except through these reports and chains of narration (asanid), despite whatever differences they contain. They are the means to that knowledge and the path upon which the Muslims have proceeded. They have served as their guide in their religion after the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
From them they derive knowledge, by them they judge, by them they establish [the religion], upon them they rely, and with them they adorn themselves. The first among them bequeaths them to the last, and those present convey them to those absent, as a means of establishing proof and seeking reward in delivering them to those who have not heard them. They call them the Sunan, the reports (athar), jurisprudence (fiqh), and knowledge ('ilm), and they travel to the East and West of the earth in pursuit of them. By them, they permit what Allah has made lawful and forbid what He has made prohibited. Through them, they distinguish between truth and falsehood, and between the Sunan and innovations. They use them as evidence for the interpretation of the Qur’an, its meanings, and its rulings, and through them they recognize the misguidance of whoever has strayed from the guidance. Thus, whoever turns away from them only turns away from the reports of the Salaf and their guidance, desiring to oppose them so that he may take his own whim as his religion and interpret the Book of Allah according to his [personal] opinion, contrary to what Allah intended by it."
