Reading from the author's words with commentary and collation of manuscripts: "And as for the third category, which is what they have innovated in terms of acts of worship or customs
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The reader: "And as for the third category, which is what they have innovated in terms of acts of worship or customs or both, it is the ugliest"
The Shaykh : I have in my copy "or both"
The reader: In my copy it says "or both" in the nominative case, and the correct is "both" as I have written, because it is conjoined to a genitive.
The Shaykh : ... "both" is more correct, yes.
The reciter: "And as for the third category, which is what they have introduced of acts of worship or customs, or both, it is the ugliest and most ugly. For if the Muslims had introduced it, it would have been ugly, so how much more so when it is something that no prophet has ever prescribed, but rather the disbelievers introduced it? The conformity to them in this is manifestly ugly. This is a principle, and another principle is that everything in which they are imitated, whether in worship, custom, or both, is among the innovations in this Ummah and among the religious innovations (bid'ah), since the discussion is about what was specific to them. As for what is prescribed for us and was done by our predecessors, there is no discussion about it.
So all the evidence from the Book, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus (ijma') indicating the ugliness of religious innovations (bid'ah) and their being disliked, whether forbidden (haram) or merely disliked (makruh), these imitations fall under them. Thus, they combine the fact that they are newly introduced innovations and the fact that they are imitating the disbelievers. Each of these two descriptions is a cause for prohibition, since imitation is prohibited in general, even if it was done by the predecessors, and religious innovations (bid'ah) are prohibited in general, even if the disbelievers did not do them. When the two descriptions combine, they become two independent causes for ugliness and prohibition."
The Shaykh : This is clear. What they have introduced combines the fact that it is imitation, and conforming to them in it is imitation, and it is also a religious innovation (bid'ah). Yes.
The Shaykh : I have in my copy "or both"
The reader: In my copy it says "or both" in the nominative case, and the correct is "both" as I have written, because it is conjoined to a genitive.
The Shaykh : ... "both" is more correct, yes.
The reciter: "And as for the third category, which is what they have introduced of acts of worship or customs, or both, it is the ugliest and most ugly. For if the Muslims had introduced it, it would have been ugly, so how much more so when it is something that no prophet has ever prescribed, but rather the disbelievers introduced it? The conformity to them in this is manifestly ugly. This is a principle, and another principle is that everything in which they are imitated, whether in worship, custom, or both, is among the innovations in this Ummah and among the religious innovations (bid'ah), since the discussion is about what was specific to them. As for what is prescribed for us and was done by our predecessors, there is no discussion about it.
So all the evidence from the Book, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus (ijma') indicating the ugliness of religious innovations (bid'ah) and their being disliked, whether forbidden (haram) or merely disliked (makruh), these imitations fall under them. Thus, they combine the fact that they are newly introduced innovations and the fact that they are imitating the disbelievers. Each of these two descriptions is a cause for prohibition, since imitation is prohibited in general, even if it was done by the predecessors, and religious innovations (bid'ah) are prohibited in general, even if the disbelievers did not do them. When the two descriptions combine, they become two independent causes for ugliness and prohibition."
The Shaykh : This is clear. What they have introduced combines the fact that it is imitation, and conforming to them in it is imitation, and it is also a religious innovation (bid'ah). Yes.