Turning a custom into worship through good intention
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, does the statement that a custom may turn into worship if the intention is good not open the door to religious innovation (bid'ah) in the religion?
Answer:
No, my brother. If you sleep at the beginning of the night, is that an innovation? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to sleep at the beginning of the night. He disliked talking after the 'Isha' prayer and would sleep. He disliked talking after it and would sleep. Allah the Exalted says:[Al-Muzzammil 73:6] This means standing up after sleeping, standing up for the night prayer after sleeping. This is the rising of the night. So, sleeping is worship if you intend it to help you in the obedience of Allah the Mighty and Majestic. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, does the statement that a custom may turn into worship if the intention is good not open the door to religious innovation (bid'ah) in the religion?
Answer:
No, my brother. If you sleep at the beginning of the night, is that an innovation? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to sleep at the beginning of the night. He disliked talking after the 'Isha' prayer and would sleep. He disliked talking after it and would sleep. Allah the Exalted says:
Indeed, the hours of the night are more effective for concurrence [of heart and tongue] and more suitable for words.
إِنَّ نَاشِئَةَ اللَّيْلِ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَطْئًا وَأَقْوَمُ قِيلًا
Source
إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان 01-05-1435هـ — alfawzan.live (1:01:17)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.