Al-Karaji (may Allah have mercy upon him) said: "Indeed, following the Imams whom we have mentioned regarding the principles (usul) in our time is equivalent to following the consensus (ijma’) that reaches us from the Companions and the Successors, for no Muslim is permitted to oppose it, nor is there any excuse for doing so. Truly, the truth does not deviate from them; for they are the guides, the masters of the schools of this Ummah, the foremost figures and sovereigns, the leading scholars, possessors of piety and religious devotion, truthfulness and trustworthiness, abundant knowledge, and manifest legal exertion (ijtihad).
For this reason, they [the people] took them as exemplars in the secondary branches (furu’), making them intermediaries between themselves and Allah, until they became the masters of the legal schools (madhahib) in the East and the West. Thus, let them likewise be content with them in the principles (usul) regarding what is between them and their Lord, and with what they have explicitly stated and called towards.
He said: 'For we know with certainty that they are definitively more knowledgeable regarding what is authentic of the creed of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companions after him, due to the quality of their discernment, their possession of the prerequisites of leadership (imama), and the proximity of their era to that of the Messenger ﷺ and his Companions.' [Majmu’ al-Fatawa (4/179)].
Furthermore, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz wrote to al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy upon him) asking him: 'What was the state of those Imams who passed before us, that they permitted the Magians to marry their mothers and daughters?'—and he mentioned several matters concerning them that he named. He said: So al-Hasan wrote back to him: 'To proceed; you are but a follower (muttabi’), and you are not an innovator (mubtadi’). Peace be upon you.' [Al-Amwal (94)].
The objective here is to clarify the creed of the People of the Sunnah and Narrations (Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Athar) regarding these two issues, and that it is not permissible for a Sunni except to follow and submit to that which the Pious Predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih) adhered to—those whose words al-Dashti exerted effort to compile in this book. And Allah is the One whose help is sought.
