Their argument using the hadith: (Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam), and the refutation of them.

The Shaykh : Among the most famous things the masses today use as evidence in their approval of religious innovation is the well-known hadith, which is in "Sahih Muslim": .
They use this hadith to argue that there is a good religious innovation and a bad religious innovation in Islam. Exposing the error in this argument can be based on two things:
The first thing is that we recall the reason for the hadith's occurrence; for our knowledge of the reason for the hadith's occurrence will directly reveal to us the error in arguing with the hadith that there is a good religious innovation in Islam that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not bring and did not command, but rather the Muslims consider it good.
The reason for this hadith, as is also mentioned with the hadith in "Sahih Muslim" and others, is as follows: Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali said: We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when Bedouins came to him, wearing undyed woolen cloaks and wearing swords, most of them from Mudar - indeed, all of them from Mudar. When the Messenger of Allah saw them, his face changed color - meaning: the features of sadness and grief appeared on him because of what he saw in these Mudar people of severe poverty. So he addressed the people, admonished them, and reminded them. And among that, he said to them: "the grateful ones" .
Yes?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: . He recited this verse to encourage the Companions to give charity to these people, and he added to that by saying (peace and blessings be upon him), explaining the verse: . So one of them stood up to go to his house and return with whatever charity he could manage, and he placed it in front of the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him). When the other Companions saw him, each of them also stood up and brought whatever charity he could manage. So there gathered in front of the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) mountains of food and dirhams. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saw that, his face became like polished silver; his face brightened as if it were polished silver - silver plated with gold - his countenance (peace be upon him) shone with joy at the response of his Companions to his admonition (peace be upon him), and he said: to the end of the hadith.
Now, they interpret "whoever introduces" to mean "whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam," and here in the second part: ; meaning: whoever innovates a bad religious innovation in Islam. They interpret "whoever introduces" to mean "whoever innovates" in both places. So now we return to the first part of this hadith, which contains: , and they interpret it by saying: whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam. Where is the religious innovation in this story so that it is correct to interpret the hadith as they claim?! We do not find in this story anything but charity, and charity is prescribed by the text of the Qur'an before this incident. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) reminded them in the previous verse: . So this charity is not an innovation. And the Messenger (peace be upon him) confirmed it for them and encouraged them to give charity, even if it were just one dirham...
So there is no good religious innovation in this incident to say: that the Messenger said on this occasion: whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam!! It does not correspond at all if we distort the wording of the hadith to this wording: whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam. This wording does not correspond with the incident at all; because the incident does not contain any religious innovation at all. This clarifies the error of this interpretation. And as I say on this occasion: interpreting this hadith with this late interpretation; whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam, a non-Arab man who is not an Arab would not do this if he had some Islamic jurisprudence and some knowledge of the Arabic language; because there is no match or any agreement between the incident and the saying of whoever might say: whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam on such an occasion!! This indicates the error of this interpretation, and the correct interpretation is very clear, from our slight contemplation of the incident. If we return to the structure of the hadith: , we ask now: is charity good or bad? There is no doubt that it is good. Okay; did Allah (Mighty and Majestic) prescribe it by the text of the previous verse and did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prescribe it in his hadith, or not? It was prescribed by the text of the previous verse and by his hadith.
So this first person who gave charity did not bring a good religious innovation, he did not bring something new that was not known before... rather, charity is among the virtues of deeds, and there are many hadiths about it.
So what is the meaning of the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this specific hadith: ? It is very clear from the incident that the first man was the first to respond to the admonition of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and the first to go to his house to bring whatever charity he could manage. So the Companions followed him in that, so he, by his going, was the first for every person that for these people is this good practice; so he, so that you are not unaware of a charitable project, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) inspires one of them to stand up for this project. This project is mentioned in the command in the Book and the Sunnah. If we suppose collecting money for orphans, for the poor, to build a mosque, for any charitable work, no person with an atom of jurisprudence can say: this charitable work is a religious innovation, ever. But this person was the first to move for this charitable project, and the people helped him in that; so this first person is called one who introduced a good practice in Islam, but the judgment is not from him, the judgment is from the One who has the judgment and application, which is Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), but he was the first to move to open the door of this good project by the text of the Shari'ah, by the text of the Book and the Sunnah.
So whoever introduced, meaning whoever opened a path to a good practice by the text, not by reason and desire as the masses of people interpret it today, has its reward and the reward of whoever works by it until the Day of Resurrection.
Likewise, the completion of the hadith, if a person does it, applies to him: . What is the bad practice? A matter that is religiously known to be wrong and misguided by the text of the Shari'ah, a person stands up and opens the door for this evil, so he bears its sin and the sin of whoever works by it until the Day of Resurrection. For example, tabarruj (a woman's display of her adornment), raising graves and boasting about their construction, building mosques on graves; all of these are forbidden in Islam. So the first one who opened this forbidden practice bears its sin and the sin of whoever works by it until the Day of Resurrection. He did not bring a wrong that is not known religiously, it is known that it is wrong by the Shari'ah, but the people were safe from this wrong, so Zayd from the people came and opened the door for this wrong; so he did not introduce a bad practice in the sense of innovating and creating something in the Shari'ah that did not indicate its status... rather, he opened the path of the wrong before the people, so he bore its sin and the sin of whoever worked by it until the Day of Resurrection. This is the first thing by which we can understand the hadith correctly and refute the wrong interpretation that came in the later times; because the meaning of the hadith: meaning: whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam, this interpretation is wrong, and the correct interpretation has become clear to you.
The second thing is that we say: in this hadith, the good practice is mentioned and the bad practice is mentioned; so what is the standard for distinguishing between the good practice and, let us say with them now, following their wording: what is the standard and the scale for distinguishing between the good religious innovation and the bad religious innovation except the Qur'an and the Sunnah? We have nothing else.
Therefore, anyone who says, “This is a good innovation,” or “This is a bad innovation,” must provide evidence from the Book or the Sunnah that supports what he says. As for mere assertion, which we constantly and perpetually hear from the supporters of the Sunnah when they tell people, “This, my brother, is an innovation,” the answer is: “What is in it, my brother? Is this Islam? What has made you think that this is a good Sunnah?” The one who considers this innovation good must provide the evidence that makes it good, and the one who rejects the innovation and calls it a bad innovation must also provide evidence that it is a bad innovation.
Here, it is necessary to remind people of the error those individuals make. When it is said, “This is an innovation,” they respond by saying, “You are entirely an innovator.” They rush to say, “You are entirely an innovator.” Why? “This is not from the Sunnah, and this is not from the Sunnah,” and so on. None of this existed in the time of the righteous Salaf. This is their negligence in feeling the favor and grace of Allah upon people, as mentioned in the previous verse. He said: Every person has the right to eat, drink, and wear what he wishes, but within the limits of the Shari'ah. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly stated this, saying: These people mix up religious innovation with worldly innovation. The first time a religious innovation is rejected, they turn around and argue with you using a worldly innovation. My brother, the Messenger of Allah did not come to teach us trades, inventions, or innovations in worldly matters. Rather, he (peace be upon him) said: As for worldly means and expanding upon them, these have no relation to religion.
Therefore, whoever interprets the hadith by saying that one who innovates a good innovation must provide evidence from the Book and the Sunnah that this is a good innovation. When they do that, we concede to them if they bring a hadith supporting the claim that what they call an innovation in religion is actually a good innovation, and they provide evidence that it is good. In that case, the disagreement between us and them remains, as the jurists say, a verbal disagreement. We do not agree with them in calling what has been proven good by Shari'ah evidence an innovation, while they call it an innovation. That is fine, but the important thing is that there must be evidence supporting their description of the innovation as good. I will give you an example, and we strongly condemn the division of innovation into five categories.