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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Does the statement that placing the hands after rising from bowing is an innovation of the act necessitate declaring the doer an innovator or the scholars who permit it?

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The Shaykh : And I see now, as you know, and some of our brothers present, and perhaps this is what is pushing me to seize this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, that as we said earlier: there is no difference for us between error in the principles or in the branches, but the difference is between one who intends the Sunnah and one who intends to oppose it at times. And what I want to say now, as killing two birds with one stone: that now many of our distinguished scholars in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan, and in other countries that care about the hadith and the Sunnah, as you know, place their hands after bowing. I say: this is a bid'ah (religious innovation), and I have said this for thirty years or more. But I do not believe that those who do this are innovators. In fact, I sometimes pray behind some imams who do this bid'ah, and I follow their action, based on his saying (peace be upon him):
The Imam is to be followed إنَّما جُعِلَ الإمامُ لِيُؤتَمَّ به
Sahih al-Bukhari 1236
Why is this bid'ah in my view? Because it contradicts the athar (reports) and the hadiths narrated from the Messenger (peace be upon him), as a way of life in which he used to pray. It is not mentioned in the Sunnah at all, and consequently, there is no report from the reports of the righteous Salaf that they used to do this. So this is a type of innovation in religion in which the masses have fallen, and then some of the people of the Sunnah followed them in it. And this is a suitable example for the topic. What is their argument? General evidence. There is no explicit text that the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to place his hands after raising his head from bowing. Rather, they argued with general evidence. And this is the method of the innovators who introduced into Islam thousands, if not tens of thousands, of innovations. They argue with general texts. What is our argument, we the people of the Sunnah who place their hands after bowing, and those who do not? What is our argument against these innovators? My brother, these texts that you argue with and understand the permissibility of what you do based on them: the righteous Salaf first knew them, and second, they were much more eager than you to apply them. If they had indicated what you understand from them, they would have done it. So since they did not do it, it means your understanding is wrong. From here, we argue with the noble verse, as you know:
And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers وَمَنْ يُشَاقِقِ الرَّسُولَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ الْهُدَى وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
[An-Nisa 4:115]
The path of the believers encompasses all of Islam, principle and branch. It is not limited only to creed, to creed, to worship, to transactions, to behavior, to morals, and so on. And therefore, we care a lot, and a very great deal, about the methodology of the righteous Salaf, because they were purer in heart, and more eager in worship and action, and so on. So when it does not come to us, not even from an imam of the imams of the Muslims, and let it be from the four, or from the forty, or the four hundred, that he prescribed placing the hands after raising the head from bowing, I classify this as a bid'ah. But I do not classify the one who does this as an innovator, because he relied on a text from which he presumed it indicates this. But I establish the argument against him with his own madhhab (school of jurisprudence) in which he agrees with me, which is:
"And all good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after."
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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