He asks: What is bid'ah (religious innovation) and what are its categories? Is its division into five categories, as Shaykh al-'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam divided it, correct? And what does Ibn 'Abd al-Salam intend by his division of bid'ah? Please inform us of this. May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : He asks: What is bid'ah (religious innovation) and what are its categories? Is its division into five categories, as Shaykh al-'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam divided it, correct? And what does Ibn 'Abd al-Salam intend by his division of bid'ah? Please inform us of this. May Allah reward you with good?

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. Bid'ah in the Arabic language is a form derived from bad'a, which means inventing something without a precedent. From this comes the saying of Allah the Exalted: meaning He is the Creator of them, for He (Glorified and Exalted is He) created them without a precedent. This is the meaning of bid'ah in the Arabic language. As for bid'ah in the Shari'ah, it is any belief, statement, or action by which a person worships Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that did not come in the Shari'ah of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He).
And the Shari'ah bid'ah in all its categories—indeed, I say: the Shari'ah bid'ah has only one category, which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified in his saying: So every bid'ah in the Shari'ah is misguidance and is not divided into more than that. And this bid'ah, which is misguidance, whether it is in belief, in statement, or in action, is rejected from its doer and not accepted from him, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in what is authentic from him from the hadith of 'A'ishah: So the Shari'ah bid'ah is not divided, neither into five categories, nor more, nor less, but it is one category by the text of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who is the most knowledgeable of creation about what he says, the most sincere of creation in what he directs, and the most eloquent of creation in what he speaks. And the speech of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is free from complexity and contains nothing of complexity; it is clear and distinct. The division of bid'ah by some scholars, such as al-'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam and others, is only according to the linguistic bid'ah, where we can call something a bid'ah, while in reality it is from the Shari'ah because it falls under other generalities. And in that case, it is a bid'ah in terms of language, not a bid'ah in terms of the Shari'ah. And I say to the brother questioner and to others: The division of bid'ah into five categories, or more, or less, has led some people to a bad understanding, whereby they introduced into the religion of Allah what is not of it, claiming that this is from the good bid'ah. And they distorted the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when they said that the meaning of his saying: is that every bad bid'ah is misguidance. This is undoubtedly a criticism of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and implies a deficiency in the explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), because if we said that the hadith is on the assumption that "every bad bid'ah is misguidance," the hadith would have no benefit at all, because the bad is bad and misguidance, whether it is a bid'ah or not. For example, zina is known in the Shari'ah to be forbidden, and its prohibition is not a bid'ah, and yet we say that it is from misguidance and from transgression. So those who assume in the hadith "every bad bid'ah is misguidance" are undoubtedly criticizing the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and diminishing his explanation (peace and blessings be upon him). And there is no doubt that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the greatest of people in explanation, the most eloquent in speech, and the most sincere in intent and purpose, and there is no flaw in his speech and no obscurity in his speech.
I say: This division that al-'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam and some scholars adopted has led to a bad understanding by some people who are parasites on knowledge. And for that reason, they distorted the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And I say and repeat: Every bid'ah in the religion of Allah is misguidance, and the religious bid'ah is not divided into categories, but it is all evil and misguidance. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said at the end of the hadith, in what al-Nasa'i narrated: So a person should be well-mannered with Allah and His Messenger, not putting anything before Allah and His Messenger, not introducing into the religion of Allah what is not of it, and not legislating for himself what He does not approve of, because Allah says: So whatever is assumed to be a means of worship for a person to his Lord, and is not from what Allah has legislated, it is not from the religion of Allah. And I have lengthened this answer because it is important, and because many people who want good have immersed themselves in this evil, meaning the evil of bid'ah, and have not been able to extricate themselves from it. But if they returned to themselves and knew that this, meaning following bid'ah in the religion of Allah, entails a great danger in the religion of Allah, which is that the religion would be incomplete, because these bid'ahs mean that they are a completion of the religion of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), and Allah the Exalted says: And there is no doubt that it is a deficiency in the religion of the person, and that it does not increase him from Allah the Exalted except distance. And Allah grants success.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.