[attishina]

Assalamu alaykum my dear brothers and sisters.

I would like to advise you that the shaytaan has attacked the religion of Islam in the guise of bid'ah hasanah. apparently some people have exhausted all the sunnahs and are so bored of them, they thought thee would invent their own forms of worship, which have no basis in the qur'an, hadeeth or understanding of the sahaba.

I would like to start this advice by bringing forth a well known statement of imam nawawi that is unfortunately being misused to justify "bid'ah hasanah". Afterwards I will provide imam nawawis own explanation of what he meant by good bid'ah. For those of you who simply want to follow the haqh, rather than sticking to what suits your desires regardless of its status in the eyes of Allah, please read with an open mind. I know many of you reading this already dont agree with good innovations in worship but please read on just to stregnthen your conviction in this issue andenable you to have some responses to the extreme sufis who unfortunately give many of you a bad name, simply because you go under the same umbrella of tassawuf.

Here is the original statement that is often cited:

"His (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam's) saying (كل بدعة ضلالة), "Every innovation is misguidance." This is a generalisation which has been qualified (by other texts), and the intent behind it is the majority of innovations (not all of them). The scholars of the language have said that [bidah] is: "Every thing that is performed without any prior example (precedent)." The Scholars have said bidah is five types, obligatory, recommended, unlawful, disliked and permitted.

And supporting what we have said is the saying of Umar Ibn al-Khattab (radiallaahu anhu) regarding Tarawih, "What an excellent innovation this is." And that the generalization in his saying "Every innovation" is supported by the word "Every (كل)" does not prevent from that it is subject to being qualified such as what occurs in His saying (تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ) "Destroying every single thing (46:25)" [Meaning, even though "every (كُلَّ)" was used, not everything was actually destroyed, hence it is a generalization that is qualified with exceptions]"


unfortunately this quote is deceptive. it is taken from sharh saheeh muslim under the hadeeth every innovation is misguiadance... what you are failed to be informed of is that in the actual arabic text there is a whole chunk of writing smack bang in the middle of this text that is conveniently left out. here is the full text:

"His (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam's) saying (كل بدعة ضلالة), "Every innovation is misguidance." This is a generalisation which has been qualified (by other texts), and the intent behind it is the majority of innovations (not all of them). The scholars of the language have said that [bidah] is: "Every thing that is performed without any prior example (precedent)." The Scholars have said bidah is five types, obligatory, recommended, unlawful, disliked and permitted.

So from the obligatory [innovations] is organization and composition of the evidences of the Mutakallimin for refuting the atheists and innovators and whatever resembles that. And from the recommended is authoring of the books of knowledge and building schools and hospices and other than that. And from the permitted is (taking pleasure through) indulging in the variety of foods and other than that. And as for the unlawful and disliked (types), then they are very clear. And I made this matter clear alongside its evidences in Tahdhib al-Asmaa wal-Lughaat and by knowing what I have mentioned, it becomes known that the hadeeth is [considered] to be a generalization that is qualified, and likewise (is the case with) whatever resembles it form the reported ahaadeeth.

And supporting what we have said is the saying of Umar Ibn al-Khattab (radiallaahu anhu) regarding Tarawih, "What an excellent innovation this is." And that the generalization in his saying "Every innovation" is supported by the word "Every (كل)" does not prevent from that it is subject to being qualified such as what occurs in His saying (تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ) "Destroying every single thing (46:25)" [Meaning, even though "every (كُلَّ)" was used, not everything was actually destroyed, hence it is a generalization that is qualified with exceptions]"


so when we talk of "good innovation", we are only talking of innovation from a linguistic perspective, e.g. hospitals etc. In the shariah, the blame worthy bid'ah that we such as issue with, is innovsting new acts of worship into the religion which cannot be observed from the beloved rasuulullahi salalllahu alayhi wasslam. THey accuse us of not loving the prophet, yet who is the one who claims to have some better practices than the prophet sallallahu alayhi wassalam, and who is simply asking the muslim ummah to follow what the prophet did and nothing more, nothing less?

I urge everyone here to take a stance against the likes of innovated acts of worship that have no basis in the shariah. If I started jumping up and down and doing cartwheels and told you I was worshipping Allah, would you say "SubhanAllah!!!" or would you say"you have departed from the sunnah of the prophet sallahu alayhi wassalam"?

How many of us even read suratul kahf on a friday? Why busy ourselves with innovation when we have the beautiful sunnah?