Is it correct to say that Islam is a creed, a methodology, and morals?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. We have some questions for His Eminence, may Allah reward him with good, to kindly answer.The Shaykh : The first question: Is it possible, in the context of teaching and instruction, to say that Islam is a creed, a methodology, a Shari'ah, and morals, citing some texts from the Book and the Sunnah, such as the saying of Allah the Exalted: , and the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): , and his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): ? Here, the whole is sometimes conjoined with the part, and sometimes the part with the whole. Is it permissible to mention such things in the context of teaching?

The Shaykh : It is well known that the scholars have stated that every group may adopt whatever terminology they wish, and that there is no dispute over terminology. If people agree on certain expressions and words that do not contradict the Shari'ah, we see no objection to that whatsoever. In fact, it may fall under the category of "speak to people according to their understanding," along with the principles of jurisprudence, the sciences of grammar and morphology, and what is called the instrumental sciences, except in the sense of terminology to facilitate the transmission of knowledge to people's minds, especially after the emergence of alienation among the Muslims. If the terminology does not contradict the Shari'ah, it is a means of making things easy for people through the methods that have arisen in this time. However, it must be noted that some terminology contradicts the Shari'ah terminology, and in that case, one should avoid it. Yes, I am drawing attention here to an issue: for example, the word "dislike" (karahah) is used in some books of jurisprudence to mean "disliked" (tanzihi), whereas in the Qur'an it means "forbidden" (tahrim). Such terminology should be avoided. As for agreeing on words that do not suggest a contradiction with the Shari'ah, I do not think any scholar would say it is not permissible. Oh Allah, the Generous. Well, what else do you have?

The questioner : We have some principles that we can list quickly regarding the fitnah that occurred in the issue of declaring people innovators (tabdi'), so we will present them to you.
Abu Layla : Our Shaykh, regarding the issue of declaring people innovators...

The Shaykh : Well, let us listen. Do you have any tapes on this topic that we might listen to?