The Variation in Religious Innovations and the Punishment for Them
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks, and he says: Does the variation in religious innovations (bid'ah), whether they are those that entail disbelief or shirk (associating partners with Allah), or those that entail open sinfulness, does this variation affect the punishment, or are they all equal in the penalty, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Every innovation is misguidance"?
Answer:
They are all misguidance; all religious innovations are misguidance, even the minor ones. And misguidance varies: some is severe and great, some is moderate, and some is less than that.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks, and he says: Does the variation in religious innovations (bid'ah), whether they are those that entail disbelief or shirk (associating partners with Allah), or those that entail open sinfulness, does this variation affect the punishment, or are they all equal in the penalty, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Every innovation is misguidance"?
Answer:
They are all misguidance; all religious innovations are misguidance, even the minor ones. And misguidance varies: some is severe and great, some is moderate, and some is less than that.
Source
شرح فضل الإسلام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب ما جاء أن البدعة أشد من الكبائر — islamhouse.com (1:18:37)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.