The Answer to the First Doubt Raised by Those Who Divide Innovations into Good and Bad Innovations Based on the Saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)

The Shaykh : From these texts that pose a difficulty for some people, while others rely on them and depend on them to strike that rule which absolutely does not accept specification or restriction ; they said: Not every innovation is misguidance, rather there is a good innovation, and they argued with the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): . They interpreted this hadith contrary to the meaning the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) intended, a meaning that absolutely does not conflict with that Islamic rule: ; they said in interpreting this hadith: The meaning of is whoever innovates a good innovation in Islam; this interpretation is a false interpretation, and we have no doubt about it to the extent of a speck of dust; that is because it conflicts with the reason for the hadith’s coming and the occasion in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned it; such that if the listener hears the hadith and the occasion, the falsity of that interpretation becomes clearly apparent. That occasion came with the hadith in “Sahih al-Imam Muslim” and “Musnad al-Imam Ahmad” and others, from the hadith of Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) when a group of Bedouins came to him, wearing their cloaks, carrying swords, most of them from Mudar, indeed all of them from Mudar. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saw them, his face became darkened. That is: his facial features changed out of sadness and regret for the poverty of these Bedouins. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in his sermon to them in that place: , then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, encouraging and affirming that Quranic command: . ‘Give in charity’ here means: Let each of you give in charity with whatever is easy for you from these matters mentioned in his (peace and blessings be upon him) speech.
So a man from those who were in the gathering of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) went out to return to him (peace and blessings be upon him) with whatever was easy for him of food or dirhams and dinars in the corner of his garment. When the other Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw that, and among them were Abu Bakr and Umar, as in a narration from al-Imam al-Tabarani in his “Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir,” each of them stood up to return with whatever was easy for each of them of charity. So before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gathered mountains of food, dirhams, and dinars. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saw that, his face brightened as if it were polished; that is: the face of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was illuminated after his Companions responded to him and each of them came with whatever was easy for them of charity. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) rejoiced at this response, and his joy was greater and greater regarding the first man who opened the way to this practice, which is charity. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said on this occasion: to the end of the hadith.
So if we return to the interpretation of the Khalaf of this Prophetic text with their saying: That is, whoever innovates a good innovation in Islam, it becomes clearly apparent, as we said earlier, the conflict and divergence between this interpretation and this incident and this occasion. And this, in my opinion, is not hidden from any of the attendees, whatever their level and culture; because no one doubts that there was nothing in the incident of the newly invented innovations that were not known before this incident; because only charity occurred in it; so how is it correct to say regarding the occasion of this charity in interpreting the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): that it means whoever innovates a good innovation in Islam?! Where is this innovation in this Prophetic gathering, in which he stood and preached to the Companions and reminded them of the word of Allah and his own word (peace and blessings be upon him), reminding them of charity for these people with the previous verse, and with his saying encouraging them: , so the people gathered on charity. All that happened was that the first man reminded the attendees of this charity by his action when he went out before the others, bringing whatever was easy for him as you heard, then the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) followed one after another in this charity; so it is self-evident that nothing of the newly invented matters occurred in this gathering, and even if it were considered a newly invented matter linguistically, nothing of that occurred; so the interpretation of those people of this hadith with which they support their deviation from that rule is another error. The first error is the deviation from this rule, and the other error is their interpretation of the hadith in a way that negates the rule. And this interpretation is an error and a fabrication. If this fabrication was not intentional, that is another matter, but it is a fabrication against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) when one of them says: that is: whoever innovates in Islam; so show us, by your Lord, where is this innovation in this blessed incident, and only charity occurred in it, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraged them to do, as we said, by the Book and the Sunnah?!
And I say: If a non-Arab man—and I do not go far—if a man like me, of Albanian origin, a non-Arab who Arabized and became familiar with the Arabic language; if such a person interpreted the previous hadith as these Arabs, by lineage and nobility, interpret it; that is: ; that is: whoever innovates, to the end of their saying; he would be the most ignorant of people regarding this incident; because he does not find in the incident—as we mentioned—an innovation in the sense in which they interpret the hadith; so how is such an interpretation attributed if its attribution is to a non-Arab man like me—for example? How is such an interpretation and exegesis attributed to the most eloquent of those who spoke the Zayd, to the one upon whom the Noble Quran was revealed in the language of the Arabs? No doubt this is a slip; if it had stopped at the Arabic language, the matter would have been somewhat forgivable, but this slip led its owner to interpreting an absolute rule that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed with various occasions; that is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): This is first.