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

The Shaykh : From these texts, some people are confused, while others rely on them and depend on them to strike at that rule which absolutely does not accept specification or restriction. They said, "Not every religious innovation is misguidance; rather, there is a good religious innovation," and they argued with the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . They interpreted this hadith in a way that contradicts the meaning the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) intended, a meaning that absolutely does not conflict with that Islamic rule. They said in interpreting this hadith: "Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam, or whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam." This interpretation is false; we have no doubt about it, not by the width of a fingernail, because it conflicts with the reason for the hadith's transmission and the occasion mentioned by the one upon whom is prayer and peace. When the listener hears the hadith and the occasion, the falsity of that interpretation becomes clearly evident. That occasion came with the hadith in the Sahih of Imam Muslim, the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, and others, from the hadith of Jarir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Bajali (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when a group of Bedouins came to him, wearing camel-hair cloaks and girdled with swords. Most of them were from Muzir, or rather all of them were from Muzir. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saw them, his face changed" meaning his features changed out of sadness and grief for the poverty of these Bedouins. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "What is the matter with them in that place?" Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, encouraging and affirming that Quranic command: "He said: Give in charity." The meaning here is that each of you should give in charity whatever is easy for you from the things mentioned in his speech (peace and blessings be upon him). So a man from those who were in the gathering of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) went to return to him (peace and blessings be upon him) with whatever was easy for him of food, dirhams, or 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 of 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 a polished silver plate, meaning the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) face illuminated after his Companions responded to him and each brought 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 for 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. If we return to the interpretation of the Khalaf of this Prophetic text, by their saying, "Whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam," this, as we said earlier, is a clear contradiction and divergence. This interpretation conflicts with this incident and this occasion, and this, in my opinion, is not hidden from any of the attendees, regardless of their level or culture, because no one doubts that there was nothing in the incident of newly invented religious innovations. It was not known before this incident, because only charity took place in it. How is it correct to say that the occasion of this charity is the interpretation of the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): that it means "whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam"? Where is this religious innovation in this Prophetic gathering, where he was standing, preaching to the Companions, reminding them of the word of Allah and his own word (peace and blessings be upon him), reminding them of charity for these people by the previous verse and by his encouragement of them: So the people gathered for charity. The only thing is that the first man reminded the attendees of this charity by his action when he went before the others and brought 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 took place in this gathering. Let it be a newly invented matter linguistically; nothing of that took place. So the interpretation of those people of this hadith, by 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. Even if this fabrication was not intentional, that is another matter; it is a fabrication against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when one of them says, "Whoever introduced in Islam, meaning whoever innovated in Islam." So show us, by your Lord, where is this religious innovation in this blessed incident, where only the charity took place, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) encouraged them to do, as we said, by the Book and in the Sunnah. And I say, if a non-Arab man, and I am not going far, if a man like me, Al-Albani, originally a non-Arab who became Arabized and knows the Arabic language, if such a person interpreted the previous hadith as these Arabs, the descendants of Jabalah, interpret it, meaning: meaning "whoever innovates" to the end of their saying, he would be the most ignorant of people about this incident, because he does not find in the incident, as we mentioned, a religious innovation in the sense in which they interpret the hadith. How can such an interpretation be attributed, if its attribution is to a non-Arab like me, for example? How can such an interpretation and exegesis be attributed to the most eloquent of those who spoke the Arabic language, 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 less severe. But this slip led its owner to interpreting an absolute rule that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed on various occasions, such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): This is the first point.