Does Imam Ahmad's saying, "Pass them on as they came," concerning the hadiths of warning, such as "Two qualities in my Ummah are disbelief in them," "By Allah, he does not believe," and "The fornicator does not commit fornication while he is a believer," mean that they should not be interpreted, even though their apparent meaning is excommunication?

The phrase "Pass them on as they came" is a methodology of the Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (People of the Sunnah and the Community), and it is used in hadiths concerning the divine attributes, promises and warnings, and virtues. Its intent is to preserve the speech according to the meaning intended by its speaker, without distortion or the false interpretations of the people of innovation. Thus, "passing them on" means retaining the original meanings indicated by the hadiths, and refraining from the interpretations of the people of innovation that remove them from the Lawgiver's intent. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah clarified that Imam Ahmad and the imams before him used to invalidate the interpretations of the Jahmiyyah and affirm the texts according to their apparent meanings. He also explained that Ahmad interpreted the hadiths of warning in other contexts as indicating exaggeration and severity, not excommunication, which demonstrates that his intent by the statement "we do not interpret them" was to avoid interpreting them with the interpretations of the innovators.