The Real Innovation and the Additional Innovation.

The Shaykh : Because Imam al-Shatibi (may Allah have mercy on him) divided religious innovation into two categories in a very subtle scientific division: real innovation and additional innovation. Real innovation is exemplified by the innovations of the Khawarij, the Murji'ah, and the Mu'tazilah, who bring forth things that contradict the Qur'an and the Sunnah. But the important part of the discussion is additional innovation, which is actually very precise, and it is from here that some of the innovators went astray by expanding the scope of worship through inventing things in the religion. Additional innovations, Imam al-Shatibi says, are those when you look at them...

The questioner : Peace be upon you

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Abu Layla : You eat fruit.

The Shaykh : We are eating fruit now, fruit sweeter than this, and we are talking about additional innovation, are we not? And now our Lord has sent us a fresh example.
Al-Halabi : Like fruit.

The Shaykh : Like fruit. It has become the custom of many religious people that when they enter a gathering like this, they do not suffice with the Sunnah of offering the greeting once, but rather each person offers the greeting individually. This is an additional innovation. Why? Because the Messenger, when he entered a gathering, would say "Peace be upon you" and sit where the gathering ended for him. As for saying "Peace be upon you, peace be upon you," I do not deny, of course, the handshake, and my speech is about repeating the verbal greeting. Do you see, Professor, how Allah sent you? They say, "She came on her feet." Yes.

The questioner : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)

The Shaykh : (Peace and blessings be upon him).

The questioner : would greet, greet three times.

The Shaykh: Okay

The questioner : And when he spoke, he would repeat the word three times so that it would be understood from him.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : If he greeted and repeated this...

The Shaykh : Okay, do you have patience? Do you believe that if he greeted three times, it means he greeted three people?

The questioner : No

The Shaykh : So your argument is not in its proper place, and the proof is that you are now contradicting the Sunnah by which you are arguing, because you did not repeat your word three times.

The questioner : ... May Allah reward you with good, everyone.
Abu Layla : Then, O Shaykh, on the occasion, O Shaykh, for whoever greeted three times, "May Allah send prayers upon him and peace," now for whoever knocked on the door and greeted, and that one did not respond.

The Shaykh : This is what I am referring to.
Abu Layla : Yes.

The Shaykh : This is what we are referring to.

The questioner : May Allah bless you and reward you with good.

The Shaykh : The point is, additional innovation: if you look at it from one angle, you find it to be in accordance with the Shari'ah, but if you look at it from another angle, you find it to be an innovation. If you look at it from the angle that the general evidences cover it, such as the exhortation to the remembrance of Allah and sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the like, but if you look at it from another angle, you find that you have added to it something from yourself, either in how or in what, or in time or place, or any of the additions that it is not fitting for anyone to add to a worship in terms of how or any addition, except from the Wise Lawgiver. So if you add any addition to a prescribed original in a general manner, you have innovated in the religion what had no mention before. Do you know some of the paths? They applied this verse, meaning they interpreted it with madness. Look at this verse that was revealed directly upon the heart of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), then he conveyed it to his Ummah secondly, then he explained it to them by his action thirdly. Do you see if there was anything in his application and explanation, as mentioned just now, of this madness that they do, and which that speaker said about it:
"O generation of innovation, worst of generations *** You have brought forth something impossible
Did my God say to you in the Qur'an? *** Eat like animals and dance for me." The Messenger of Allah, far be it from him, that he applied this verse in the manner that the Sufis do with the dance. If the meaning of the verse is one thing, and what is added to its text of wrong concepts is another thing. The point is, al-Shatibi gives an example of additional innovations. He tells you that from the Sunnah is seeking forgiveness after the prayer three times, and this is established in Sahih Muslim. First, he tells you that seeking forgiveness three times, each person for himself. So if they gather in seeking forgiveness with one voice, this is an additional innovation. Why? Because the gathering with one voice was added to it. And if they say "I seek forgiveness from Allah who..." to the end, this is also an innovation, because what came in Sahih Muslim is "I seek forgiveness from Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah" in a concise form. As for that seeking forgiveness which has a virtue, that is absolute. Just as it is not permissible to restrict the absolute except by a text, so it is not permissible to make the restricted absolute, because restricting the absolute is legislation, and making the restricted absolute is legislation. All of this is legislation, and none of this is permissible. Additional innovation, then, is a very precise issue, and most of the innovations existing today in the Muslim world are of this type. I mean, I return to the rule: every general text includes parts, some of which we know that the righteous Salaf did not do. So it is not fitting for us to argue with the general text to improve the form and manner in which we are situated today. If we know this reality, then the hadiths that I mentioned do not give us the manner that we want to call mixing. They do not give us this manner at all. This is all if we turn a blind eye to the evidences we cited just now, from what the Prophet did not permit mixing in the best of places. Is it permissible in what is not of the best of places? In the gatherings, meaning in the houses and apartments, as you mentioned just now, is it permissible in them what is not permissible by the Shari'ah in the best of places? I do not think a Muslim man who fears Allah and hopes for the Hereafter would say anything but that it is not permissible for this mixing, as long as it was not permitted in the best of mosques, in the best of places, which are the mosques. And do you imagine, Professor, a gathering where no violation of the Shari'ah can occur between these Muslims? Do you imagine a woman who does not laugh, and perhaps she has adorned her teeth by covering them with gold, so when she laughs, she bares her teeth? Or perhaps she did not laugh but smiled, and there would be no fitnah for some of the attendees, such as her guardian, and the like? Because you turned the discussion around the presence of a mahram.

The questioner: Yes ... .

The Shaykh : This is it, and therefore I am singing along with you around the example you gave. I do not believe that these gatherings are free from such fitnahs. So they say in some countries, and this is taken, of course, from some authentic hadiths, like his saying (peace be upon him) What do some people say? "Stay away from evil and sing for it." So these hadiths that I mentioned do not contain evidence for the mixing that we have established is not permissible by the Shari'ah. Yes.