Explanation of Additional Innovations.

The questioner : ... I have a question before we move on to the question ... ?

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : For example, this supplication and seeking refuge, I do that in every prayer after ... .

The Shaykh : No, no, I mean, one of the categories of religious innovation is specifying a general or absolute prescribed matter with a time or a manner in which the Shari'ah did not specify it. The general text should remain general, and the absolute text should remain absolute. However, acting in accordance with one or the other occasionally, without adhering to it as a fixed rule, does not invalidate the application of the general or absolute text. This is a very important rule: the basis of every innovation of the type that Imam al-Shatibi (may Allah have mercy on him), who specialized in this science, calls an additional innovation, is adhering to what is not required. That is, adhering to something where there is an absolute or general command. He does not act upon something that has no basis at all; he does not act upon a commanded matter or a restricted text. But when he takes this general text and specifies it with a manner or a form, or so on, he has introduced into the religion what is not part of it. Likewise, the absolute text when it is restricted by a condition. As we say, for example, the Shaykh of a Sufi order tells his followers: "Recite the tasbih a thousand times, recite *Qul huwa Allahu ahad* a thousand times." Now, this number is a restriction of a prescribed text, but its restriction by this number did not come from the text. Where did you get it from? This is where the authentic story of Ibn Mas'ud comes in, which is the backbone-breaker of innovators. You have surely read or heard it many times. When he entered the mosque, he found a circle here with a man in front of it, and a circle there with a man in front of it. This man, imagine, is a Shaykh of an order telling those around him: "Praise Allah thus, recite the tasbih thus, recite the takbir thus." When he saw that, he said to them: "Woe to you! What is this you are doing?" They said: "O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, as we say in Syria, there is nothing wrong with it; we are counting our tasbih, takbir, and tahmid with pebbles." He said: "Count your sins, and I guarantee you that nothing of your good deeds will be lost. Woe to you! How quickly you are destroyed! These are the garments of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and they have not worn out, and these are his vessels, and they have not been broken. By Him in whose hand is my soul, are you guided from the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), or are you clinging to the tail of misguidance?" They said: "By Allah, O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, we intended nothing but good." And indeed, the innovator, except for those among them who are malicious, intends good. But as the verse says, "You hope for salvation but you do not follow its paths," and so on. So Ibn Mas'ud's answer was: "How many are there who intend good but do not attain it. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) told us: The witness to the story said: "I have seen those people fighting us ... ."