A word on the relationship of additional innovations to the general texts.

The Shaykh : After this brief word, I say that truly, in these long years of mine, while studying the Book and the Sunnah and what our righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them) were upon in general, and studying the rules or principles of the science of innovations from another angle, it has become apparent to me that innovations, in the majority of cases, and these are what Imam al-Shatibi calls additional innovations, no innovation is free from having a general root in the Book or in the Sunnah. And the basis of the innovators, whether they are scholars who exerted themselves and went to the division of innovation into good and bad, or divided it into the five categories that the five rulings revolve around, or whether they are students of knowledge or from the general Muslims, all of these, these, and these, do not fail to argue for their innovation with a general text. Then the position of those like us who follow the righteous predecessors is to say, even if in a brief sentence, and they may need it detailed and explained in a satisfying manner, that we say: if it had been good, they would have preceded us to it. And all good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after. So when they argue for their innovation, they are arguing with a general text, and for the type of innovation that I quoted earlier from Imam al-Shatibi, which he calls additional innovation, they will find a general text for it. And we have no argument except that the righteous predecessors did not act upon this part of what that general text includes. And we praise Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that there still remain many Sunnahs that the righteous predecessors followed in accordance with what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon. The people, even those who act upon dozens, or even hundreds, of innovations, have not innovated additional innovations in those Sunnahs. So my speech now is not with those innovators, because my speech is directed to those who are with us in the generality of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) and his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) As for the discussion with those, its research is long and very long. I found that much of what some of the people of the Sunnah and the people of hadith do from acts of worship, they proceed to act upon them based on general texts and are content with arguing with them for that, and they do not find a basis for them except the basis of the people of innovation, whom we agree with in denouncing them. And as it is said, if I forget, I will not forget, I read an article in the journal al-Salafiyyah, the university Salafiyyah in India, yes, by one of the scholars of hadith there. He goes in this article to the permissibility of supplication after the prayer in congregation, and he brings an argument for what he went to, which is what we are currently discussing, of arguing with the generalities. And we know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah mention, and everyone who followed their path, that gathering for supplication, indeed gathering for dhikr after the prayer, and even other than the prayer, is from the newly invented matters. So I found this noble scholar, who is from the people of hadith, taking the stance of those innovators who argue with the generalities in something that was not transmitted from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And I said there: there are no Sunnahs that the people, praise be to Allah, still act upon without attaching an additional innovation to them. So I give an example now. There is a disputed issue: does the one who makes qunut in the qunut of witr raise his hands or not? Even though it has been established in some reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his hands in the qunut of witr when he supplicated against those who killed the seventy reciters in the Fajr prayer. And as Anas says: I did not see the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) become angry at a group as he became angry at those. The qunut of witr, I said before, this is not in the qunut of witr, because I said he supplicated against them in the Fajr prayer, yes, and he was raising his hands. Despite this, he gives us a key to permitting the raising of hands in the qunut of the calamity now. But we also find there some athar from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and others that they used to raise their hands in the qunut of witr. With this, it is said and said: is it prescribed or not? We leave this aside. There are places in the prayer where prostration is prescribed, and especially, excuse me, where supplication is prescribed, and especially his saying (peace be upon him) when he mentioned the tashahhud And there is the hadith that is narrated byThe Shaykh : An or one of them, from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When the one praying begins to implement this Prophetic command, he seeks refuge with Allah from four, then he chooses from supplication what he wishes. And it has been established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in Sahih Muslim that he used to say: to the end of it. Do you see if an innovator now innovated the raising of hands in this supplication? And this is an example, an example from dozens of examples where the Sunnah remains as it was in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and in the time of the righteous predecessors, nothing from the newly invented matters has been added to it. This is as an example: if a man raised his hands in this supplication, this supplication which is prescribed as we mentioned, do you think he would not find general texts that help him in raising his hands? There is no doubt and no ambiguity. And this is known to students of knowledge, like his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) There is no doubt that I do not say only the people of the Sunnah and the community in the old expression, and the Salafis in the new expression, are with us in that raising the hands here is not of the Sunnah in any way, but it is the innovation itself. I do not say that only these will be with us, but even the people of innovation, because they, praise be to Allah, have not yet noticed the entry of this branch into that general text. So if an innovator wanted to oppose us, as many of our young people oppose us todayThe Shaykh : Correct, we weaken, hasan is closer to weakening, to the end of it. If the people of innovation, or at least one of them, wanted to oppose us and say, as they say in every additional innovation: "What is the matter with this, my brother? Raising the hands? The Messenger said so and so." What do we reply to them with? We have absolutely nothing except what was mentioned before as an introduction to such speech. This is a general text, on the head and forehead. But did he who spoke it apply it in this specific part? The answer is no. So "All good is in following those who came before, and all evil is in the innovation of those who came after," as I said earlier. Here, many and very many details enter. We do not care about the details where we, praise be to Allah, all agree, O you Salaf, in denouncing them, whether they are in the adhan, or in the prayer, or in fasting, or in Hajj, or in 'Umrah, to the end of it. And perhaps you remember that it was made easy for me, because some of the innovations in the rituals of Hajj and 'Umrah, for example, were printed and placed, and whoever Allah wills benefited from it.