Discussion of the meaning of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): (Indeed, Allah has veiled repentance from every person who commits religious innovation).

The Shaykh : From here, our understanding of one of the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) becomes clear, upon which renowned scholars built their rulings, stating that: religious innovation in Islam is worse than sin. Why? Because the innovator thinks he is on the right path; therefore, it is not expected that he will repent fully, just as Allah said regarding those whose evil deeds were made attractive to them: . Does the one who thinks he is doing good repent? Repent from goodness? That is not conceivable. Therefore, the scholars said that the danger of religious innovation for its practitioner is greater than the danger of sin.
Because the sinner knows that he is sinning, so it is hoped that he will repent one day and return to his Lord. As for the innovator, his inner state says: My Lord, increase me; My Lord, increase me; he is doing good deeds.
From here, we understand the hadith you referred to, which is his saying (peace be upon him): . "Veiled" means that this veiling is a natural occurrence, not a legal prohibition; meaning that this person who walks the path of innovation is made to think that this is good, so he does not repent. This is the veiling, prevention, and barrier of repentance from the person who commits religious innovation. From here, the scholars said that innovation in religion is more dangerous than sin, as I explained to you.
This is a regrettable and very serious matter. Eight hundred million Muslims, most of whom live in religious innovation in creed and worship. Today, for example, in the Levant, there is a regular practice for the call to prayer that must have a conclusion, and sometimes an introduction and a conclusion. There is no good in this innovation. And wherever we travel in the countries, we find in some of them innovations that we do not find in other countries. For example, here with you, they call the call to prayer for the 'Asr prayer twice. We used to complain about the two calls for Jumu'ah, and then we were surprised by a new innovation, which is two calls for the same time, 'Asr. And perhaps, also, what? In the Zuhr prayer. What is this? They used their minds to approve a call to announce the entry of the time, and a call to announce the practical preparation for the prayer. Fine; and what is the iqamah? It is the iqamah, it is the second call. They were not satisfied with this complete legislation, so they made two calls and an iqamah. This is innovation in religion. Try now to turn the masses of people away from this error. Oh, for the sake of Allah's jealousy!! They changed, replaced, and innovated in religion, and they are the innovators!!
Some of our brothers in Jordan discovered the error in the call to prayer for the Fajr prayer. They call the call to prayer a third of an hour or half an hour before Fajr. This awareness spread among many conscious Muslim youth and reached some officials in the Ministry of Awqaf there. He strongly condemned this rumor, calling it a new fitnah from the Salafis, meaning there. This official claimed so. Some of the Salafi brothers close to him softened the matter and said: Let us go to a place outside Jordan, outside Amman, and see the matter with our own eyes. If it is so, we will correct and clarify; otherwise, we will silence these people who spread errors among people that are not errors. He said: So they went to an agreed-upon place, and they were broadcasting the call to prayer with a loudspeaker, one call. And this is also a new innovation; the call to prayer is not made in every mosque, but there is a mosque called Masjid Darwish on a very high mountain, and the call to prayer is made from there and broadcast on the radio. The mu'adhdhin called out. Look, so-and-so, you official, where is the dawn? Where is the breaking of light? It is not there!! Come, come, come, come, in about a third of an hour, fifteen minutes, the light appeared. He saw with his own eyes that they were calling the call to prayer about half an hour before Fajr. After he saw it and was convinced, he returned to say: By Allah, now if we want to give a warning, it will cause a commotion. What will happen? It will cause confusion among the people; therefore, let the old way remain as it is!! Even though here it means that they are praying the Fajr prayer before its time, meaning that they are forbidding food and drink to the fasting person before the time. All of this is clear astronomically, so it cannot be said that so-and-so did such and such without doubt. People will talk about this; it is the nature of the matter, it is new. But after that, the truth will settle and people will proceed on the right path. He did not do this, and this is one of the simplest matters that can be corrected. And thus the Muslim world lives in accumulated errors. And yet, we seek Allah's victory and want to establish the Muslim state, and we have not yet established a part of the Muslim state specific to each of us. So we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to inspire us with guidance and grant us success in understanding the Book of our Lord and the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf.