THE SAHABAH (RADHIYALLAHU ANHUM) ARE THE CRITERIA BETWEEN SUNNAH AND BID’AH In every issue, the Ummah tends towards one of two extremes. One group of Ahl al-bid’ah label the acts of ibadah introduced by the Khulafa Rashideen as bid’ah in its legal sense, effectively accusing the Sahabah of being complicit in a heinous crime by innovating, or by performing with rigid constancy a non-Sunnah specified form of ibadah - which is also bid’ah. This group brand the taraweeh prayers as a bid’ah, or relegate the exact form as practised with rigid constancy by the Sahabah, to below the level of a Sunnah. Another group of the Ahl al-bid’ah attach the word hasanah to bid’ah in its legal sense, in order to open the door for any innovation in the religion. They attempt to justify innovations by non-Sahaabah, on the basis of the introductions of the Sahaabah, and they describe Sunnah acts of ibaadat as being ‘bid’ah’ (in its legal meaning) on the faulty basis that such acts were not initially or directly ordered by Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Acts of ibaadat introduced by the Sahaabah and which Nabi (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) himself had approved directly in his lifetime, or after his lifetime, through the principle found in Ahadith such as, “Cling with your jaws to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of my rightly-guided Khulafa.”, cannot be described as bid’ah in its legal meaning. Rather they are all Sunnah. 'Umar Ibn 'Abdul 'Azeez statement here demonstrates this tendency of the Ummah to diverge towards two extremes with regards to the actions of the Sahabah: "Stop where the people have stopped! For indeed, they stopped upon receiving knowledge. The clear evidences would suffice them, and they were the strongest at manifesting them. If there were any merit in something, then they would be the most deserving of it. So if you say: 'It was introduced after them' , then no one introduces something into it except that he has opposed their guidance, and desired other than their example. They have described it from what was sufficient, and they have spoken concerning it - what sufficed. What is above them is excessiveness, and what is below them is inadequacy. Some people have fallen short of them, and so they have drawn away. And others have transgressed them, so they have become extreme. But indeed they were between these two (extremes) upon a straight path." [Reported by Ibn Qudaamah in Al Burhaan li Bayaanil Qur'aan (p. 88-89), as a statement of 'Abdul 'Azeez Ibn Abil Maajishoon and then he said: He related it's meaning back to 'Umar Ibn 'Abdul 'Azeez. al Haafidh Ibnul Jawzee in Manaqibul Umar Ibn Abdul Azeez (p. 83-84). al Haafidh Ibn Rajab Fadhlul Ilmis Salaf (p. 36)]