People are only ever equal when they are all as ignorant as each other or as bad as each other.
Sunnah, Bid’ah and Arabic
ʿAbdullah b. Zayd Al-Numayrī reports that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī said:
They (the heretics) were destroyed by their inability in Arabic (al-‘ujmah). Al-Bukhārī, Al-Tārīkh Al-Kabīr Vol.5 p99. And Imām Al-Shāfi’ī said: People didn’t become ignorant and didn’t differ amongst themselves except because they left Arabic and leaned towards the language of Aristotle. Quoted by Al-Suyūṭī in Ṣawn Al-Manṭiq p15. He said on p22: I have found Salaf before Al- Shāfi’ī indicate what he did: that the cause of heresy (al-ibtidā’) is ignorance of Arabic language.
I have found Salaf before Al- Shāfi’ī indicate what he did: that the cause of heresy (al-ibtidā’) is ignorance of Arabic language.
Also read
Related sayings.
Another prohibition from the Salaf against sitting and debating with the people of bid’ah.
It is reported that Ibrāhīm Al-Taymī – Allāh have mercy on him – said: What a great difference there is between you and those people [of the past, the Salaf]! Worldly wealth came to them but they fled from it, whereas the world turns its back on you and you go after it. Ibn Al-Mubārak, […]