The Refutation of Those Who Divided Religious Innovation into Good and Bad

The Shaykh : Unfortunately, many of the early and later scholars went astray; many of the early and later scholars went astray, and some of the contemporaries followed them; so they argued that there is a good religious innovation in Islam, saying: Look, 'Umar said: "O people, where is the good innovation in the tarawih prayer that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered?" There is no innovation; therefore, 'Umar's word: "What a good innovation" is equivalent to his saying - peace be upon him - : , so this Sunnah is what 'Umar called an innovation. And bid'ah in the language means a newly occurring matter; and therefore, among the compound names of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - is "The Originator of the heavens and the earth." What does "The Originator of the heavens and the earth" mean? It means: The One who created and brought them into existence without any prior example. And Allah is the Originator of the heavens; so bid'ah is a newly occurring matter without what? A prior example. Does this meaning apply to the night prayer that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab revived? Absolutely not; none of that is the case. The Messenger prescribed it in action and encouraged it in speech; so there is no innovation without a prior example. So he means by "What a good innovation" is what occurred in a stage after the death of the Messenger, the caliphate of Abu Bakr for two and a half years, and we do not know how many years passed in this state during the time of 'Umar, so he revived it, and something new was found after it had been old.
And exactly as happens today, with a very large difference: they know what they are saying, whereas the masses of people are ignorant. We bring the Sunnah and they say: This is an innovation. And they do the innovation and think it is the Sunnah. So today, I do not know where I saw in one of the mosques, yesterday; I prayed in a mosque, what is its name? "Taysir," and I was in a hurry in the car on the road, I prayed the obligatory prayer, the Maghrib prayer, or no, the 'Isha' prayer, yes, 'Isha', and there was an old man watching one of the young boys, these youths raised on the Sunnah, saying to him from a distance: Do not do this, it is forbidden. I said to myself: O Allah, accept my excuse, I am in a hurry now and I want to go. I sat and said to him: My brother, fear Allah, you are a scholar. Moving the finger, he says to him: This is forbidden, it is not permissible. And you know there are many examples; what we revive from the Sunnahs, they say: This is an innovation, and what they do of the innovation, they call it the Sunnah ... .

Another questioner : ... our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes?

Another questioner : They will not provide it.

The Shaykh : What did you say?

Another questioner : They will not provide it ... .

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar! Allah is the One to be sought for help.
So the intent of 'Umar's saying: "What a good innovation" is linguistically; that is: this newly occurring matter that happened now, and it is good. Where did this praise come from, if I may express it so? From its conformity with the practical and verbal Sunnah; therefore, it is not correct for the later scholars of the past, nor for some of the contemporaries today, to argue that there is in Islam an innovation that we can call a good religious innovation; because the Messenger - peace be upon him - always and forever pronounced blame when he mentioned bid'ah, saying: , , and so on.

The questioner : Okay; how does the hadith say: and 'Umar says: "This is a good innovation"?

The Shaykh : So Halimah has returned to her old habit!!
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, we are saying ... .