Is it said that bid'ah (religious innovation) is worse than sins?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it said that bid'ah is worse than sins absolutely, or in general?
Answer:
Yes, bid'ah is worse than sin, because the sinner knows that he is sinning and repentance is hoped for from him, but the innovator sees that he is correct and does not accept [the truth] and does not repent. It is rare for the innovator to repent because he sees that he is on the right path. Also, the sinner has not introduced anything into the religion of Allah, whereas the innovator has introduced an addition to the religion of Allah and legislated what Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has not legislated. So bid'ah is worse than sin in several respects.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it said that bid'ah is worse than sins absolutely, or in general?
Answer:
Yes, bid'ah is worse than sin, because the sinner knows that he is sinning and repentance is hoped for from him, but the innovator sees that he is correct and does not accept [the truth] and does not repent. It is rare for the innovator to repent because he sees that he is on the right path. Also, the sinner has not introduced anything into the religion of Allah, whereas the innovator has introduced an addition to the religion of Allah and legislated what Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has not legislated. So bid'ah is worse than sin in several respects.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [210 -521] هل يُقال إن البدعة شرٌ من المعاصي؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.