What is the bad innovation and the good innovation?
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The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers. The first question of this evening is: What is the bad innovation and the good innovation?
The Shaykh : An innovation cannot be a good innovation; all innovations are bad. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us of this, and in the report of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) all the attributes of perfection in a report are gathered. This is because his report comes from knowledge, from good intention, from truthfulness, and from complete eloquence. He is the most knowledgeable of creation regarding the religion of Allah, he is the most truthful of creation in what he reports, he is the most sincere of creation to the servants of Allah, and he is the most eloquent of creation in what he speaks. All of this is a matter agreed upon by all Muslims.
And he said in clear and distinct words:, , . This phrase is general and comprehensive, bounded by: , which is a text indicating generality. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not divide innovation into good innovation and bad innovation. Whoever claims that some innovation is good, his claim is not correct, because this claim revolves around two possibilities:
Either what he thought was an innovation is not an innovation, meaning he thinks this is an innovation but it is not, or what he thought was good is not good, meaning he thinks it is good but it is not.
As for it being both an innovation and good, this is absolutely impossible, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:.
As for those among the scholars who divided innovation into categories, if you examine their speech, you will find that what they thought was an innovation is not an innovation. This is because innovation is for a person to introduce into the religion of Allah what is not part of it, not to introduce means that were not known in the time of the Prophethood to achieve a legislated matter. The means that lead to a legislated matter are judged according to this objective. For this reason, it is a known expression among the scholars that the means have the rulings of the objectives.
For example, among the innovations that were not known in the time of the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and blessings be upon him) but are innovations of means are the classification of the Shari'ah, its categorization and division. For example, this is the science of Tafsir, this is the science of Hadith, this is the science of Tawhid, and this is the science of Fiqh. Then, in Fiqh, this is the book of Taharah, this is the book of Salah, this is the book of Zakah, this is the book of Siyam, and so on. Do we find such a division in the Prophetic hadiths?
No, and I do not know it to be so in the speech of the Rightly Guided Caliphs either. But the scholars divided it into these categories out of the need of the Ummah for this division. It is in the category of making knowledge accessible and containing knowledge so that people’s minds do not become scattered. In that case, we do not say this is an innovation, but rather what is it?
It is an innovated means to achieve a matter whose legitimacy is established, or to achieve a matter whose legitimacy has been established. So this is not in the category of innovations.
Similarly, if someone says: The Mushaf was not written in this manner in the time of the Prophethood, and now it has been written, vocalized, and dotted, so this is an innovation. What do we say?
We say this is a non-independent innovation, but it is a means to achieve a prescribed matter, which is the standardization and preservation of the Qur'an so that people do not make mistakes in it and do not transgress its limits. And unfortunately, in our present age, the Qur'an is dotted, vocalized, and conjugated, yet many people read it with broken grammar. They are also Arabs, and the Qur'an is Arabic, and you find them reading it with broken grammar, unable to read it correctly.
And this is one of the calamities, that there exists among the Muslims someone who cannot establish the letters of the Qur'an. But, praise be to Allah, in the recent era, schools for memorizing the Qur'an have begun to spread in the mosques and at the official level. And people, praise be to Allah, have a great enthusiasm for memorizing the Qur'an and reciting it in the best manner. This is a blessing from Allah that He has bestowed upon this era, so we ask Allah for more of His grace.
The important point is that there is no good innovation at all. And whoever says about an innovation that it is good, then either what he thought was an innovation is not an innovation, or what he thought was good is not good. As for it being both an innovation and good, this is an impossible thing.
The Shaykh : An innovation cannot be a good innovation; all innovations are bad. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us of this, and in the report of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) all the attributes of perfection in a report are gathered. This is because his report comes from knowledge, from good intention, from truthfulness, and from complete eloquence. He is the most knowledgeable of creation regarding the religion of Allah, he is the most truthful of creation in what he reports, he is the most sincere of creation to the servants of Allah, and he is the most eloquent of creation in what he speaks. All of this is a matter agreed upon by all Muslims.
And he said in clear and distinct words:
Every innovation is misguidance.
كل بدعة ضلالةEvery
كلEvery innovation is misguidance.
كل بدعة ضلالةEvery
كلEither what he thought was an innovation is not an innovation, meaning he thinks this is an innovation but it is not, or what he thought was good is not good, meaning he thinks it is good but it is not.
As for it being both an innovation and good, this is absolutely impossible, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Every innovation is misguidance.
كل بدعة ضلالةAs for those among the scholars who divided innovation into categories, if you examine their speech, you will find that what they thought was an innovation is not an innovation. This is because innovation is for a person to introduce into the religion of Allah what is not part of it, not to introduce means that were not known in the time of the Prophethood to achieve a legislated matter. The means that lead to a legislated matter are judged according to this objective. For this reason, it is a known expression among the scholars that the means have the rulings of the objectives.
For example, among the innovations that were not known in the time of the Messenger (may Allah’s prayers and blessings be upon him) but are innovations of means are the classification of the Shari'ah, its categorization and division. For example, this is the science of Tafsir, this is the science of Hadith, this is the science of Tawhid, and this is the science of Fiqh. Then, in Fiqh, this is the book of Taharah, this is the book of Salah, this is the book of Zakah, this is the book of Siyam, and so on. Do we find such a division in the Prophetic hadiths?
No, and I do not know it to be so in the speech of the Rightly Guided Caliphs either. But the scholars divided it into these categories out of the need of the Ummah for this division. It is in the category of making knowledge accessible and containing knowledge so that people’s minds do not become scattered. In that case, we do not say this is an innovation, but rather what is it?
It is an innovated means to achieve a matter whose legitimacy is established, or to achieve a matter whose legitimacy has been established. So this is not in the category of innovations.
Similarly, if someone says: The Mushaf was not written in this manner in the time of the Prophethood, and now it has been written, vocalized, and dotted, so this is an innovation. What do we say?
We say this is a non-independent innovation, but it is a means to achieve a prescribed matter, which is the standardization and preservation of the Qur'an so that people do not make mistakes in it and do not transgress its limits. And unfortunately, in our present age, the Qur'an is dotted, vocalized, and conjugated, yet many people read it with broken grammar. They are also Arabs, and the Qur'an is Arabic, and you find them reading it with broken grammar, unable to read it correctly.
And this is one of the calamities, that there exists among the Muslims someone who cannot establish the letters of the Qur'an. But, praise be to Allah, in the recent era, schools for memorizing the Qur'an have begun to spread in the mosques and at the official level. And people, praise be to Allah, have a great enthusiasm for memorizing the Qur'an and reciting it in the best manner. This is a blessing from Allah that He has bestowed upon this era, so we ask Allah for more of His grace.
The important point is that there is no good innovation at all. And whoever says about an innovation that it is good, then either what he thought was an innovation is not an innovation, or what he thought was good is not good. As for it being both an innovation and good, this is an impossible thing.