A refutation of those who divided religious innovation into good and bad, citing the hadith: “Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam…”

The Shaykh : The praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. . . . As for what follows, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the worst of matters are those that are newly invented. Every newly invented matter is a religious innovation, every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. My topic this blessed morning, if Allah wills, revolves around an issue on which the views of scholars, particularly the later ones, have long differed regarding a phrase in the sermon of need that you heard just now. Our Prophet (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) used to begin all his sermons with it, especially the Friday sermon. I mean by this, from this sermon: . Many of the later scholars held that religious innovation is divided into five categories. By doing so, they are forced to say that the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is a general statement with a specific exception. The meaning of this is that the matter is not one of absolute and comprehensive scope, such that every religious innovation is misguidance. Rather, after they interpreted this phrase as a general statement with a specific exception, its wording becomes the exact opposite of its explicit meaning; that is, not every religious innovation is misguidance. In this interpretation, which removes the statement from its apparent meaning, we must know the doubt of these later scholars who interpreted the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) as you have heard. There are many doubts to which those people are inclined, but I wish to dedicate this session to an authentic hadith on which they rely in what I mentioned earlier. The summary is that there is a good religious innovation in Islam. One of their strongest proofs in terms of transmission, not in terms of indication, is the famous authentic hadith: . As I said earlier, this hadith is one of their strongest proofs in terms of transmission. When I say in terms of transmission, I mean exactly what I intend, because when we reflect on the reason for the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saying this hadith first, and then investigate its meaning second, the hadith turns into an argument against them in terms of its indication. First, let us remember the reason for the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saying, or the occasion on which he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said this authentic hadith. The hadith was narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih, Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, and others, from the hadith of Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) when Bedouins came to him, wearing torn cloaks and wearing swords, most of them from Mudar, or rather all of them from Mudar. Jarir said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saw them, his face changed, meaning the features of his face changed out of grief and sorrow for the signs of poverty he saw on them. What the Messenger of Allah (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) did was to preach to them, admonish them, and order his companions to give charity to these Bedouins from Mudar who had come to the city as poor people. Among what he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) recited was: . And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said in his sermon: . Then a man, the first of those present to stand in response to the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) admonition, went to his house to bring back whatever charity he could manage. He placed it before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). When the other companions saw what this man had done, they followed his example and also went to bring back whatever charity they could manage. Jarir said: A collection of charity gathered before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) like mountains, meaning piles. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saw that, his face brightened, as if it were gilded, contrary to the state of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) when the Bedouins first came, when his face had changed, his features altered out of sorrow. But here, his face (may peace be upon him) brightened with joy. Jarir compared it by saying: “As if it were gilded,” meaning as if it were silver coated with gold, shining. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saw that, he said the aforementioned hadith: . If we return to the reason for his (may peace be upon him) saying this hadith, or the reason for its occurrence, and reflect on it, we will find that nothing happened in terms of acts of worship or obedience that was not known before. We will find nothing but charity, where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) reminded them of the mentioned verse regarding what is obligatory upon them of charity, and followed it with words from himself (may peace be upon him) to encourage even a little charity, as came in the authentic hadith: . So the subject of the hadith, as you see, is about charity. If we return and interpret the hadith by separating it from its reason for occurrence, and say as those later scholars do, “Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam,” meaning whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam, if we interpret his (may peace be upon him) hadith with this interpretation, the interpretation conflicts with reality. Because there is no religious innovation to mention in the reality at all. Everything in it is his (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) encouragement of charity and the companions’ response to him by bringing it. The whole matter is that one man among them preceded the others in bringing charity, and the others followed him. So because this first man stood before all others and brought charity, the others were stimulated to this charity and followed him in that, he (may peace be upon him) said: . This means the hadith is contrary to the meaning of the innovator who also enters into the generality of his (may peace be upon him) saying: . So that their saying “Whoever introduces a good practice in Islam,” meaning whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam, is also an innovation in Islam. Why? Because the correct meaning of this hadith is: Who, linguistically, opened a path. Who opened a path to a matter prescribed by the Book and the Sunnah, which people had let die with time or with heedlessness, and a man stood up and revived this practice prescribed in the Book or in the Book and Sunnah, is it said of him that he innovated a good religious innovation in Islam? No, and no. He only brought a previously prescribed matter. The only new thing in the subject is that he revived this practice. So if we return only to the reason of the hadith, we know the invalidity of that interpretation, which was one of the strong reasons for specifying the generality of his (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) saying: . This is the first reason that clearly indicates the invalidity of the mentioned interpretation. The second reason: If we stop at the text of the hadith: , and the completion of the hadith is: , we will say to those who interpret this hadith other than its correct interpretation: What is the way to know the good practice and the bad practice? Is it reason or the Shari'ah? If he is truly from the people of the Sunnah, the answer will be that the way to know the good and the bad is only the Shari'ah, and there is no place for reason in that at all, contrary to the Mu'tazilah, both ancient and modern. The ancient Mu'tazilah are named and designated as such, and the modern Mu'tazilah are designated but not named, and they are many, hiding under many names, and very many, misleading the masses into thinking they are on the Sunnah. If what the Mu'tazilah say, which is what they separated from the people of Hadith and the people of the Sunnah, is true, namely their saying of rational beautification and disapproval, if this saying of theirs is among the misguidance that gathered them into a sect from the sects mentioned in the hadith: , and they thereby exited from being part of the saved sect because they followed their minds and their desires and exited from the community and the saved sect which says that reason has no role in beautification and disapproval, and its function is only to understand the good and the bad, then to bring the good and leave the bad. If the people of Mu'tazilah separated from the people of the Sunnah and the people of Hadith, even if some of the people of the Sunnah were swept along with the Mu'tazilah in some of their issues, in this issue they were misguided with the group. That rational beautification and disapproval is false, and the good and the bad cannot be known except by the Shari'ah. If this is agreed upon by the people of the Sunnah, then we say to those who interpreted the hadith with the wrong interpretation, “Whoever introduces” meaning “whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam,” we will now say: Let us leave your discussion of the wording, the expression “whoever innovates,” because I said in some lectures in this research: If an Arab, or rather a non-Arab like me, who has become Arabized, said in the same occasion in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said that phrase, if a non-Arab who has become Arabized said “whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam,” it would certainly be said of him that his non-Arabness has overcome him, because there is no religious innovation for him to formulate to say “whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam.” How can it be attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), who is truly the most eloquent of those who spoke with the Dhad, that he said on the occasion of this first man and his bringing of charity, that he (may peace be upon him) said what, in their meaning, is “whoever innovates a good religious innovation in Islam”? Where is the religious innovation in this event? It is a disgrace for the Arabized non-Arab to say such a meaning on such an occasion. How can this meaning be attributed to the most eloquent of those who spoke with the Dhad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)? So we return and say: If the good and the bad are not known except by the way of the Shari'ah, then if they agree with us—and there is no doubt that those who claim to be from this Sunnah are with us in this particular point at least, which is that rational beautification and disapproval is false, and that beautification and disapproval is only by transmission from the Shari'ah—then we will say: Whenever you bring a religious innovation and claim that it is good, we say to you: Bring your proof if you are truthful. If their proof stands to prove what they claimed of the goodness of that religious innovation, we accept it from them, not because it is a religious innovation entering into the generality of his (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) saying: , but because the Shari'ah evidence has stood that the matter they beautified is a prescribed matter. In this case, we have followed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in his general call, which he was referring to before his saying: , where he was saying: , to the end of the hadith. Likewise, we say in the completion of the hadith: . One of the wonders of these innovators in the last times is that when they beautify a newly occurring matter, they resort to their minds, and by doing so, they contradict themselves that beautification is for Allah and not for the servants of Allah. Also, contrary to that, when they say to some of the newly occurring matters that they are religious innovations and warn people from them, especially if these people are from the people of the Sunnah who strive not to add anything to what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) brought, not to add anything to the acts of worship that the Messenger (may peace be upon him) brought, these who did not understand this hadith well say: You are saying that such-and-such addition is a religious innovation. What is wrong with it, my brother? What is it, for example, but dhikr, or but the prayer upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)? They left their original position that beautification and disapproval is for Allah and became Mu'tazilah, such that they ruled by their minds by saying, “What is wrong with it, my brother?” Then they return to say, “My brother, the watch you wear and the car you ride, these are also religious innovations. How do you accept this and reject that?” This is a serious and very serious heedlessness. First, as we are in explaining the meaning of the authentic hadith: , Islam indicated its goodness. , Islam indicated that it is bad. For example, is the use of a watch, or a car, or all these modern means today, of which the least that can be said is that they can be used in what is permissible, let alone that they can be used in what is prescribed, can these means that occurred enter into the generality of his (may peace be upon him) saying: ? This in reality requires us to stop, perhaps for a long time, in order to ward off or repel this doubt, which is that some of the newly occurring matters may be obligatory despite being newly occurring and not having been before. But we do not say with their occurrence that they are a religious innovation, because religious innovation is blamed generally in the hadith we mentioned at the beginning of this speech and in other authentic hadiths. To distinguish what is prescribed of what occurred after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and is not a religious innovation by way, and what occurred after him (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) and is as he said: , I have postponed that for another occasion, if Allah wills, because I see that some of the young lions have begun to be teased by sleep. So I say: A glance to the left, and peace be upon you.