The Ruling on Sitting with the People of Innovation, Their Companionship, and Cooperating with Them

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: Is it permissible to say that one of Satan’s schemes is that he encourages the person and the Muslim to sit with the people of innovation, keep their company, and cooperate with them in matters of religion?

Answer:
There is no doubt that all evil, whether it be innovations or otherwise, comes from Satan. However, innovations have specific criteria, and people do not commit innovations except those who have knowledge and understanding. Everyone who disagrees with them says, “This is an innovator,” just as some of the pretenders to knowledge do: anyone who disagrees with them or does something they do not know, they say, “This is an innovator; boycott him and stay away from him.”