Examples of Religious Innovations (The Story of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and Ibn Mas'ud Regarding the People Who Were Reciting Dhikr with Pebbles)

The Shaykh : It is good that we present to you an example that touches the lives of many worshippers today, who act with good intentions but with bad deeds. The bad deed is religious innovation in the religion. Listen to the following story. The story is narrated by Imam al-Darimi in his Sunan with his authentic chain of narration: "That Abu Musa al-Ash'ari came to the house of 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud one morning and found the people waiting for him. He said to them: 'Has Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, come out?' His kunyah is Abu 'Abd al-Rahman. They said to him: 'No.' So he sat and waited for him until he came out. Then he said to him: 'O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, I just saw something in the mosque that I disapproved of.' I hope you pay attention to this word and the one that follows it: 'I just saw something in the mosque that I disapproved of, and yet I saw nothing but good.' How do they come together? He saw good, and yet he disapproved of it. He had the right to do so because he saw a form of worship that he had not seen in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said to him: 'What did you see?' He said: 'If you live, you will see it. I saw in the mosque people in circles, and in the middle of each circle was a man saying to those around him: 'Recite tasbih so many times, recite tahmid so many times, recite takbir so many times.' And in front of each of them were pebbles with which they counted the tasbih, takbir, and tahmid. Ibn Mas'ud said: 'Did you not disapprove of them?' He said: 'No, I was waiting for your command or waiting for your opinion.' He said: 'Did you not disapprove of them and order them to count their sins? Nothing of their good deeds will be lost with Allah. He said: 'No, I was waiting for your command or waiting for your opinion.' Ibn Mas'ud returned to his house and went out veiled. 'Like this.' And he set out for the mosque so that he would not be recognized, and he stood by the circles. He saw what Abu Musa had described to him, so he removed the veil from his face and said to them: 'Woe to you! What is this that you are doing? I am 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). When they recognized him, they said: 'O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, pebbles, pebbles.' Meaning it is a simple matter. 'Pebbles with which we count the tasbih, takbir, and tahmid.' He said: 'Count your sins, and I guarantee to you that nothing of your good deeds will be lost. Woe to you! How quickly you are destroyed! These are the garments of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), they have not worn out, and these are his vessels, they have not been broken.' Meaning that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had recently departed from the Companions, so it is not yet time for you to innovate in the religion what was not known in his time (peace and blessings be upon him). They answered him, and the truth is that this answer is the tongue of most worshippers, but without guidance from their Lord. Their souls are pure and their intentions are good, but when they contradicted the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), they did not succeed, if they did not sin. They said: 'What?' They said: 'By Allah, O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, we did not intend anything but good.' Do you think that a good intention suffices for a good deed? That is, if a person's deed is not good but his intention is good, is that sufficient? It is not sufficient. And here is the crux of the matter. Just as a good intention does not intercede for a bad deed to make it good, so if the deed is good and in accordance with the Sunnah, but the intention is not good, this good deed will not benefit him at all. So both of the mentioned conditions must be present. When those people said to Ibn Mas'ud, and they were sincere in what they said: 'By Allah, O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, we did not intend anything but good.' He said: 'How many are there who intend good but do not attain it.' This is a bitter truth, and how many are there who intend good but do not attain it. That is, whoever intends good must take the path, follow the path that leads to good, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, affirming the word of Ibn Mas'ud, and Allah knows best. And now, this thought occurred to me for the first time in my life, and Allah knows best, that Ibn Mas'ud took this word from the hadith he narrated from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم كان بين أصحابه يوما فخط لهم على الأرض خطا مستقيما وقرأ الآية الكريمة وأن هذا صراطي مستقيما فاتبعوه ولا تتبع السبل فتفرق بكم عن سبيله وخط خطوطا عن يمين الخط المستقيم ويساره وقال عليه السلام موضحا للخط المستقيم هذا صراط الله وهذه طرق على جنبي الطريق المستقيم وعلى رأس كل طريق منها شيطان يدعو الناس إليه The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was one day among his Companions when he drew a straight line on the ground and recited the noble verse: “And this is My straight path, so follow it, and do not follow the paths that cause you to stray from His path.” He then drew lines to the right and left of the straight line and said (peace and blessings be upon him), explaining the straight line: “This is the path of Allah, and these are paths on either side of the straight path, and at the head of each of these paths is a devil calling people to it.” And this hadith is one from which we must take a lesson. It is sufficient for a Muslim to live like this, loose and uncontrolled in life. O people, follow the people? No, O people, follow the master of people. That is, you must know the Sunnah of your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in all your religious affairs, whether it is creed, or worship, or conduct. All of this must be known by every Muslim who hopes for salvation on the Day of Resurrection, as we said earlier. So it appears that when Ibn Mas'ud said to them: 'How many are there who intend good but do not attain it!' he was referring to this hadith, that they did not follow the straight path, and therefore they will not arrive, as the old poet said:
"You hope for salvation but do not follow its paths *** For the ship does not run on the land." So, the one who hopes for salvation must hold fast to the ship of salvation, which is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) brought of guidance and light. He said: "How many are there who intend good but do not attain it. Indeed, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) told us: 'The one who narrated this story said: So I saw those people.' That is, the people of the circles, the circles of dhikr that is not prescribed. 'He said: So we saw those people fighting us on the day of al-Nahrawan.' What does this mean? The people of the dhikr that is not prescribed, this small religious innovation, led them to the large religious innovation, which is rebelling against 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Rightly Guided Caliph, and fighting him. So what could he do, and what was left to him but to fight them until he uprooted their roots, and only two or three of them were saved. Therefore, we derived from this story what is similar to what some jurists mention: 'That minor sins are the herald of major sins.' If a Muslim persists in minor sins and is stubborn about them, the outcome of their affair will be that they will lead him to major sins. Likewise, the minor religious innovations that some people take lightly, and when you say to them, 'My brother, what is the harm in it?' they do not think about it at all, as some jurists also said: 'Do not belittle the sin, for it is great when you remember the greatness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and that He has forbidden you from it, so you must stop it.' Likewise, O one afflicted with some religious innovations by which you seek nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), do not say, 'What is the harm in it?' In it is that Islam has been completed. So if you say that this is a good religious innovation, it means that you are correcting this Lord who revealed in the Noble Qur'an: Now go to the mosque, whoever wishes of you, and after the prayer, if Allah wills, we will open the door for questions on this topic or any other topic. I have a word after the prayer, if Allah wills, short, as I hope, to complete this topic. So depart with wisdom. There remain words in my heart, I hope they will be few, so that we make room for receiving some questions on the previous topic, if there is a questioner, or on another topic.