Mentioning the harms and damages of religious innovations.

The Shaykh : Pay attention, now. Among the harms of bid'ah (religious innovation) is that the one who engages in it wastes a established sunnah (recommended practice). Whoever engages in an innovation, his engagement with it will cause him to waste a sunnah. For this reason, some of the Salaf (the earliest generations) said: "No people ever innovated a bid'ah without leaving behind a sunnah equal to it or worse." Why? Because a person is a worker; if he works with something, he is occupied with it to the exclusion of the other thing. So if he works with innovations, he is occupied with them to the exclusion of the Sunnah. And among the damages of bid'ah is that, as this verse indicates, it is placing something before Allah and His Messenger, and it is encroaching upon the religion of Allah and upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And among the harms of bid'ah is that its content implies that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was either ignorant of it and that it is from the religion of Allah, or that he concealed it. Both of these matters are extremely serious. Because we address the innovator and say: Was the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) aware of this innovation of yours and that it is from the religion of Allah, or was he ignorant of it? What does he say? There is no god but Allah. Pay attention. We ask the innovator: Was the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) aware of the innovation you brought and claimed to be from the religion of Allah, by which you seek nearness to Allah, or was he ignorant of it? And what does he say? If he says he was ignorant of it, this is very serious, because he is accusing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of ignorance regarding the religion of Allah. And if he says he was aware of it, we say to him: Then was he conveying the message of his Lord, or concealing it? Yes, he must have been concealing the message of Allah and not conveying it, because we have searched his Sunnah and did not find this innovation in his religion. So at that point, he would be concealing it. Therefore, the innovator, without doubt, his innovation necessitates describing the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with one of two things: either ignorance or concealment. And both are a great defect for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If he says it is possible that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) conveyed it, but the Companions did not transmit it, we say: This is problematic, because this claim necessitates that the Companions concealed the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) and neglected its transmission. This is one aspect. It also necessitates another, greater harm, which is that Allah did not preserve the Shari'ah, even though Allah the Exalted says: If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) conveyed it as this innovator claims, but it was not transmitted to us through the Companions, then it necessarily follows that the Shari'ah is not preserved, because it was not transmitted to us. This is a harm that no one who believes in Allah and the Last Day can accept. And among the harms of bid'ah is that its practitioner feels that he has established a method; he has established a method by himself for people to follow. And at that point, he claims for himself a share in the message of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and that he is a legislator. For this reason, he brought this innovation to the people so that they would follow it. The occasion does not require more than what I have mentioned now, as the time is approaching for answering questions. But I say: If there were no harm in bid'ah except that it is placing something before Allah and His Messenger, that alone would be sufficient to deter one from it. And we say in a short, concise phrase to the innovator: Be content with what is established from the Shari'ah of Allah, and leave what is not established. Is that so or not? You want to seek nearness to Allah, so be content with what is established from His Shari'ah and leave what is not established. Leave what is not established, spare yourself and spare others, avoid evil and the causes of evil, and you will find all good.