Comparing Religious Innovation and Sin
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
O children of the Shaykh (may Allah preserve you), is a sin, no matter how long it continues, a means for an opening, no matter how much harm it causes, or is there a distinction?
Answer:
There is no doubt that bid'ah (religious innovation) is a means for Shaytan from the sinner, because one expects the sinner to repent and regret, and he knows that he is wrong. The sinner knows that he is wrong, but his desire or lust overcame him, and he will soon regret and repent, because he knows that he is wrong. But the innovator, may Allah protect us from that, sees that he is a reformer and that his deed is correct, so it does not reach Allah the Exalted. From this perspective, bid'ah is more severe than sin, and more beloved to Shaytan than sin. Yes.
O children of the Shaykh (may Allah preserve you), is a sin, no matter how long it continues, a means for an opening, no matter how much harm it causes, or is there a distinction?
Answer:
There is no doubt that bid'ah (religious innovation) is a means for Shaytan from the sinner, because one expects the sinner to repent and regret, and he knows that he is wrong. The sinner knows that he is wrong, but his desire or lust overcame him, and he will soon regret and repent, because he knows that he is wrong. But the innovator, may Allah protect us from that, sees that he is a reformer and that his deed is correct, so it does not reach Allah the Exalted. From this perspective, bid'ah is more severe than sin, and more beloved to Shaytan than sin. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 12/9 شرح كتاب لمعة الاعتقاد : الشريط التاسع — youtube.com (1:00:08)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.