Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Bismillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi salallahu alayhi wasallam amma ba'da Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Brothers and sisters, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you and to introduce you to a brand new show and a brand new podcast called The Hot Seat. To understand a little bit more about The Hot Seat, we first have to understand the context of the modern day world we find ourselves living in in the year 2019. It is a world in which perhaps, perhaps there are more doubts, misconceptions and misinterpretations that are thrown around about the religion of Islam than in any other period of time in the history of mankind.
The internet is the number one source used by people globally to acquire information on any topic and it is riddled and full of false notions and erroneous ideologies about the Deen of Allah as is the wajab. Our kids, ourselves are being exposed to this kind of information on a daily and if not daily then at the very least weekly basis and whether we know it or not, whether we choose to accept it or not, it is having an effect on ourselves, our hearts, our minds and ultimately our understanding of this beautiful religion. To further complicate the problem, many of us find ourselves living in western societies where the governments and the social norms and pressures are constantly trying to redefine what is good and what is bad, what is accepted and what is rejected, what Islam is and is allowed to be and what Islam is never allowed to be.
All of this my brothers and sisters ultimately leads to confusion, it leads to ignorance and if Allah permits it can lead to misguidance. The hot seat has therefore been designed with the permission of Allah alone to counter these kind of modern day contemporary issues head on by using the knowledge and the guidance of the Muslims of the past, the early generations of Muslims, the best of generations. There's not a single Muslim on the face of the planet today that would doubt the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala completed our religion for us over 1400 years ago and that that completed, holistic, perfect religion is just as applicable now in the year 2019 as it was back then.
We truly do have classical solutions for contemporary problems. However, this isn't your normal, average Islamic lecture series. First of all, it's not a lecture, it's a discussion between two parties, often opposing parties in an attempt to reach the truth bi'idhnillah.
And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it's a unique, one-of-its-kind, interactive podcast where you, from the comfort of your own home, have the opportunity to vote for and to choose the topic we'll be discussing on the show. You also have the chance to ask your own questions on these contemporary issues and to grill the speaker if you feel like he hasn't been grilled enough on the show itself. I'll be releasing details of how you can do both of those things at the end of this episode.
But for now, without any further ado, let's get into this episode of The Hot Seat. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh. Jazākallahu khayrun once again for joining me on another episode of The Hot Seat.
Wa-jazākallahu khayrun for having me. The votes have been counted, and the topic that we're going to be discussing today is misconceptions of bid'ah, i.e. innovation, in a Muslim society. And when I was doing some research on this topic, I realised that it really revolves around three fundamental concepts.
And these are the concepts that we're going to, bi-idhnillāh, tackle today. The first, what is the reality of innovation? What is the true definition of innovation? The second, what is the default position when it comes to acts of worship? If somebody is doing an act of worship, is it upon them to prove that this is a valid act? And the third one is, if the Messenger ﷺ has left something, then what is the ruling with regard to that? Do we have to then leave it as well? So let's start with the first one. What is the true definition of innovation? What I'm going to first do, inshallah ta'ala, is I'm going to define bid'ah lughatan in the Arabic language, the lexical meaning.
And then what I'll do after is I'll define it in the shari'ah, or the istilahi, the technical definition. The word bid'ah, as al-Imam al-Tartushi mentions in his kitab al-Hawadith wal-Bid'ah, and this is the lexical meaning, the linguistic definition of it. He says, asru hadhi kalimati minal ikhtira'ah.
The original meaning of this word in the Arabic language is al-Ikhtira'ah. Al-Ikhtira'ah means to innovate. So the person is innovating something.
And then he says, wa huwa al-shay'un yuhdatun min ghayri aslin sabaqa wa la minthalin ihtudhiya wa la ulifa mithlu. And then he brings the ayah from the Qur'an, where Allah says, badee'u al-samawati wal-ard. Allah was the first one.
No one came before him. He was the first to create the heavens and the earth. No one did it after him, and no one did it before him.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the word badee'u is being used here, which is bid'ah. And the second ayah is, qul ma kuntu bid'ah minal rusuli.
Allah is saying to Muhammad, say to them, I am not the first messenger to come with this message and to come with this obligation. So those two verses are based on the lexical linguistic usage. Okay, fine.
Okay. As for the technical definition, what it means in our sharia, then the best definition that's been given is the definition of Abu Ishaq al-Shartibi, in his great book, Al-I'tisam. Sorry, just before you go on.
Al-Shartibi died in which year? 730 Hijri. 730 Hijri. So an issue like this, which is obviously considered by itself to be so important, and you have to refer to the definition of a man who died in 730 Hijri.
Did the Prophet ﷺ not define it? Did the companions, at the very least, not define it? So what I'll do, insha'Allah ta'ala, is I'll give you the definition of Al-Imam al-Shartibi and then I'll show you that Shartibi's definition is taken from the Quran and the Sunnah. Okay. To show you that he hasn't come with anything new.
Shartibi, rahimahullah, he said, when he defined the word bid'ah, he said, So you're saying, he said that the word innovation is an expression of a path taken in the religion which is invented and resembles the shari'ah and by whose practice exaggeration in worshipping Allah is intended. That's the definition you've just given. So if we dissect the definition of Al-Imam al-Shartibi, rahimahullah, and we break it up, it's a path within the religion.
So it's something that's been brought into the religion. It's been innovated. It's been brought.
It looks and it's made to resemble the shari'ah. What do you mean by that exactly? So it means that this act is not from the religion, but a person is doing it in a form, in a timing, in an amount that wasn't set. Okay.
So it looks and it resembles the shari'ah. And the person is trying to get closer to Allah by this act. Okay, so pause there then for a second.
So if I'm making adhkar in the masjid and I'm using prayer beads as a means, it's not what I'm getting close to Allah. I'm getting closer to Allah with my dhikr, with my remembrance of Allah. I'm using prayer beads as a means.
It's permissible? Beads is a concept that was there at the time of the Prophet. Okay, I understand. Microphone was never there at the time of the Prophet.
I understand. The Prophet could have used it, yes or no? He could have used it. Did he use it? No, he didn't.
He left it, right? Okay. He rather legislated something opposite to it, which is the? The fingers. And he said that the fingers are going to intercede on your behalf the day of judgment.
Okay, but we can sit here all day thinking of examples. For example, the Messenger ﷺ. Not to mention that the beads and etc. is an act which is, as Imam Sheikh Bukhara Abu Zaid has a risalah on this.
He mentions this is taken from the Buddhists, aslam. So, going back to your definition. So, I said that Shatibi, he said in his definition, it's a path within the religion.
So, it's not worldly issues. It's a religious issue. The person is doing it within the deen and it's innovated.
No one done this before you. It wasn't done in the early three generations. The Messenger ﷺ's time, it wasn't done.
No verses in the Quran is in support of this. And then it resembles the sharia. Shatibi, may Allah have mercy on him, said, And the person is trying to get closer to Allah by it.
Okay. I now want to go back to a question you asked. Shatibi died 7th year 30.
So, how is it that we're taking his definition on something that, you know, is very vital in our religion. It's very big. It's a big concept.
Shatibi took this from the Quran and the sunnah. I'll give you an example. You know the famous hadith of Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala.
Which is found in sahih. Which is found in the sahih. That the Messenger ﷺ, he said, Anyone who introduces in our affairs, that which is not from it will be rejected.
Anyone who introduces. So the word means, He brings this to the religion. Anyone who brings something into the religion.
Okay. Remember, when somebody brings something into the religion, they try to get closer to Allah by it. Because that's why they brought into the religion.
So there's two points now. Okay, I agree with that. He brings something into the religion.
The second thing that we take from that is that he's trying to get closer to Allah by it, right? Yes. That which is not from it. Yep.
That which is not from it. He's trying to bring something that's not from the religion. How can something not be from the religion? Either it's not in the religion in totality, has no place within the religion.
It's nowhere to do, no place in the religion. Or it does have a place in the religion in the sense where, originally it has a ruling. But the way that this person applied it, the how that the person done it, is not what the Prophet ﷺ or his companions did it.
And this is what Shatibi was saying when he says, resembles the religion. Resembles the religion. Okay.
So that definition doesn't leave that hadith that we just mentioned. Correct. So he said, a word innovation is an expression of a path taken in the religion.
You've already explained that. In the religion, which is invented, you said that, and resembles the sharia by whose, in worshiping Allah, it is intended. Okay, whose exaggeration was, okay, fine.
Okay, you've proved that. So Shatibi took it from the Nasus al-Wahyan. He took it from the Quran.
And so you took it from the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, that particular hadith, and many other hadith if we bring it together. Even so, that's the only definition you rely on? You depend on that single definition? I mean, of course, it goes in line with the hadith of the Prophet. Of course, I take it now.
If someone says a definition, we will look at it, if it's in line with that which the Quran and the Sunnah came with. If that definition doesn't meet that criteria, then we say, we say that it's rejected. And if it is in line with the Quran and the Sunnah, it's accepted.
So I've heard another definition. Why isn't this one accepted? And that is that an innovation is something that has no basis in the religion, but it is deemed and defined as being wajib, as being obligatory. It's not talking about the voluntary deeds.
Only talking about something that is deemed as obligatory. Repeat that one more time. So an innovation is something that has no basis in the religion.
We agree that's an innovation. It has no base in the religion. But the only thing that makes it an innovation is if the person who's doing it says it's obligatory.
Because he's trying to implement something in the religion. He's trying to make something. So if a person brings something into the religion and he doesn't say it's obligatory, that's only when it's called a bid'ah.
Correct. We would have to find out who said that. First of all, that's the first question.
Who said that definition? I mean, I gave my definition based on the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. Okay. Anyone who says that needs to provide it. Number two.
The ahkam, the jurisprudent rulings, they are three things. Pay attention. That any act a person is trying to do is one of three things.
It's either they're trying to say it's wajib. Meaning obligatory. Obligatory.
Okay. Or the person is trying to say it's mustahab. Or the person is highly recommended.
Or the person is trying to say mubah. It's permissible. Okay.
Okay, it's permissible. Those three are legislation. So if you say it's halal, which is mubah.
Yeah. Or if you say it is mustahab, highly recommended. Or if you say that it's wajib.
Those three, one thing they have in common that you can't separate the wajib from the other two is that they are a legislation. Allah is the one who makes something mubah and makes it halal. Allah is the one who makes something highly recommended.
And it's Allah who makes it obligatory. Okay. No one would say the act they're trying to do is makruh or haram.
So the other two, they don't fall under what we're talking about here. The person won't say what I'm doing is makruh, it's disliked. No, he's going to say it's either mubah or mustahab or wajib.
So my question to you is, who is the person who can make something mubah? Which is halal, in essence. Or say it's highly recommended. Or say that it's obligatory.
Allah is the only one who can do that. Look at the ayah. Allah says in Surah An-Nahl.
Allah says in the ayah, وَعَلَى اللَّهِ قَصْدُ السَّبِيلِ وَمِنْهَا جَائِرُ Allah is the one who shows the true path. This ayah, وَعَلَى اللَّهِ قَصْدُ السَّبِيلِ Two individuals commented on it. The first one that I want to mention for now.
The first one is Mujahid ibn Jabreel. Mujahid is the man that Sufiyan al-Thawri said, إِذَا جَاءَكَ تَفْسِيرٌ مُجَاهِدٍ فَحَسْبُكَ بِهِ If the tafsir of Mujahid comes to you, then don't look for anyone else's definition. Mujahid, when he came to that ayah in Surah An -Nahl, he said, وَعَلَى اللَّهِ قَصْدُ السَّبِيلِ means it is upon Allah to legislate.
It is upon Allah to sanction something. So look, this person says it's mubah. I'm saying Allah is the one who does that.
Allah is the one who does it. Allah says, إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا لَا الْهُدَىٰ It's upon us to show the path. It's us that says this is the right path, this is the wrong path.
So if someone says this is mubah, I'm going to say you can't legislate. شَرَعَ لَكُمْ مِنَ الْدِينِ مَا وَصَّى بِهِ نُوحًا وَالَّذِي أَوْحَيْنَ إِلَيْكَ كَمَا وَصَيْنَ بِإِبْرَائِيمَ وَمُوسَى وَعِيسَى أَنْ أَقِهِمُوا الْدِينَ وَلَا تَتَفَرَّقُوا فِيهِ If you say this is mubah, if you say this is mustahab, highly recommended, mubah means it's permissible, highly recommended, or you say it's obligatory, all three of them are a legislation, you know, who basically said it before you. So you're saying that even if someone says that I'm doing something new that has not been part of the religion, has no base in the religion, but it's part of something that is recommended, it's not obligatory, it's still putting something into the religion because something recommended is still part of the religion, just like something obligatory is part of the religion.
And we all have to really understand is that there's no path to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that will take us to Jannah, that will distance us from the hellfire, except that it was clarified to us. The Prophet ﷺ he said إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ نَبِيٌ قَبْلِ There was no prophet before me, there is no prophet that came before me إِلَّا كَانَ حَقًّا عَلَيْهِ أَن يَدُلَّ أُمَّتَهُ عَلَى خَيْرِ مَا يَعْلَمُهُ لَهُمْ There's no prophet that came before me, except that it was obligatory for him to convey and tell his people any good that he knows that's going to benefit them. Al-Imam Muslim narrated this hadith عَبْدِ اللَّهِ مِنْ عَمْرِمْ لَعَاصِ So my point here is if you say it's highly recommended or if you say it's halal or even if you say it's wajib that's a path to good.
So the Messenger ﷺ has to explain it to us he has to tell us there's all prophets that came their job the reason why they came to us in the first place was to tell us what is good from what is bad so you're doing an innovation the question here is you're claiming it's a good thing صح you're not going to be claiming it's a bad thing صح I'm claiming it's a good thing so if it's a good thing then Nabiullah Muhammad it was his job to convey that to us it was his job that was why he was sent down not if it was something that wasn't needed during his time but it's needed in our time that's another discussion we're definitely another okay we're going to come back to it yeah that's a very good point that's that's not our discussion right for now okay fine okay also the Prophet ﷺ has said in another hadith and Imam Shafi' mentioned this in his Kitab al-Risala he says مَا بَقِيَ شَيْءٌ يُقَرِّبُ يُقَرِّبُكُمْ إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ وَيُبَعِدُكُمْ مِنَ الْنَّارِ إِلَّا وَكَدْ بُيِّنَ لَكُمْ that there is nothing that will bring you closer to Jannah and there is nothing that will distance you from the Hellfire except that it was clarified to you everything's clarified Allah clarified everything for us سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى I mean look at Abi Dar he said تَرَكَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ سَعْمَارٌ لَقَدْ تُوُفِّيَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ وَمَا طَعِنِ يُقَلِّبُ جَلَاحَيْهَا إِلَّا ذَكَرَ لَنَمِنْهُ عِلْمًا that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he died and there was no bird in the sky that flapped its wings except that he told us something about it I mean he's trying to emphasize on the point that we were left upon clarity okay fine do you want to add anything more on the definition before we move on to the second point which is what is the default position of worship so yeah definitely I just believe that the definition of is a definition which is very good it's very very good definition I mean there are other discussions and other definitions that are out there that are very good as well like Abdul Humayyah Al-Muallimi in his Kitab Hakikatul Bida'ah he mentions the definition of Bida'ah and he gives a good discussion regarding it but I do want to say something every action that we do whatever action it is there are two conditions that are needed for the action to be accepted okay go on the first one is sincerity has to be done for Allah's sake two acts of worship yeah any act of worship that we're doing has to be done for Allah's sake sincerity okay and the second condition is it has to be in accordance to the sunnah of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa lidhalika the poet he said that the condition of any act being accepted is for any individual is that two things are present sincerity that is done for Allah's sake subhanahu wa ta'ala and the second is that it's done in accordance to the way that the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did it but I don't take my religion from a poet can you give me any evidence from the Qur'an Allah said anyone who hopes to meet his lord then do a righteous actions yeah okay that's the first thing wa la yushrik so do righteous actions meaning in accordance to the sunnah and don't associate partners with Allah in the act that you're doing which is shirk the second one is clear but you can't do righteous actions outside the sunnah every righteous action the prophet did it you agree to that every righteous action the prophet did it okay so the asal and the default position for ibadah is that you're not allowed to do anything unless you have evidence for it meaning you're prevented and you're prohibited from it the one who's calling an innovation he doesn't have to prove it he doesn't have to prove his arguments he doesn't have to prove his position the one who has to prove his position and the burden of proof is upon is the one who says that this is a worship it will get us closer to Allah and it will distance us from the hellfire and the evidence for your statement is um this is a qa'idah which is that the default position for ibadah is it's prohibited and we studied in our sharaf of the kitab where he says which is the last part which is it's not sanctioned or legislated or permitted anything that wasn't stated in our religion you can't do it so then according to this strict definition you're saying the companions innovated um what do you mean by how the companions i've got a hadith here in bukhari and muslim when the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam was praying in front of the companions and they came out from ruku and the companion says the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam says and the companion said do you agree that that statement is an act to worship yes he had no basis for this this was something that was said for the first time again you would have to prove to me that was said in the first time okay no problem let's take another hadith the hadith all of those just before we move on to that one first of all you would have to prove to me that he didn't get this from the prophet number one but that's a side point that's not my main main response the second response i want to give to you is we're talking about after religion has been completed the religion was still going on 23 years that the deen was carrying on i'm talking about after the ayah اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأتممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الإسلام دينا today i have completed your religion upon you when that verse came down which is the the ninth the 10th year of the hijriya where the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam told his companions this is it religion today is complete after that ayah no hukum came down okay it wasn't the last ayah it wasn't the last verse that came down but it was the last verse and after it no verse of any ahkam came down any jurisprudence rulings and the third third answer that i want to give in response to that is the messenger sanctioned it after he did it after he did it yes so when somebody does an innovation today we'll say to you who sanctioned it for you now who approved your act who said to you what you're doing now is fine it's allowed because this companion even if we say for the sake of argument that he was he did it without the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam telling him or without him getting it from the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam if we say that then he got allowed to do it we now know it's a sunnah to do it because of what the prophet said there were times that the sahabas did something and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam proved that this is wrong they can't do this and he corrected them so we accept it because of what the prophet said alayhi sallallahu alaihi wasallam and that's what made it a sunnah not the companion's mere act for every act of worship the default position is that it's not permissible unless you have a proof yeah after the religion is complete oh after the religion is complete oh without a doubt the companions took a different methodology to us no they didn't i said to you that the sahabi was at the time when legislation was descending the quran was coming down the sunnah was coming down we had the messenger who can correct them and say this is right this is wrong you can't do that you can't do this sallallahu alaihi wasallam okay the sahabas were on different levels they were fuqaha jurists there were some sahabas who were not as knowledgeable as the great senior scholars sahabas they were coming not very often to the prophet they would do things that the other companions wouldn't do so this is important to take in mind my argument here right now is using that for this is qiyasun ma'al faniq why? because the religion is complete and ayah came down saying this is it this is what allah is pleased with this is it allah is pleased with what came down on that day when the ayah came down al yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum wa atmamtu alaykum ni'mati wa radhitu lakum alislama deena al imam malik came and he commented on that had the ayah you know what he said? what? he said man ibtada'a fil islami bid'a'a yaraha hasana faqad za'ama anna muhammadan khaana al risala li'anna allaha ta'ala yaqulu al yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum wa atmamtu alaykum ni'mati wa radhitu lakum alislama deena fama lam yakun yawmai bin deena al imam malik said anyone who introduces something into the religion man ibtada'a fil islami bid'a'a he introduces an innovation into the religion yaraha hasana he sees it to be good faqad za'ama this person has claimed anna muhammadan li'anna allaha ta'ala yaqulu li'anna allaha ta'ala yaqulu khaana al risala he has deceived us in the message why? allah said i completed the religion no one can dare and come and say the religion is not complete So the second thing that's only left for you is to say the Qur'an was complete but I have this good, it was part of the religion, Muhammad didn't choose to convey it to us, alayhi salatu wa salam. Okay, so every act of worship that he didn't tell us about or he didn't tell us to do, it's misguidance essentially, or it's not a path to good. Yeah, without a doubt.
Okay, so the Companions compiling the Qur'an, that's an act of worship, do you agree with that? Okay, any act that the Messenger could do, he could do that act. He could compile the Qur'an. The need was there and he didn't do it.
So now this is part of your definition, you're adding stuff into your definition. No, that's the definition of al-Imam Shatibi, we're going into more, that's what he goes under. He goes under that, it's more detailed, I could have gone into it too long, the statement of Shatibi, but I left it to simplify it.
Anything that the Messenger could have done, he could have done it, meaning he can't do microphone because it wasn't there at the time, so he couldn't do it. Plus this is worldly issues. Something he could have done, he could, and he chose not to do it and the need was there.
Okay, so he could have compiled the Qur'an. Okay, he chose not to. There wasn't a need there you're saying? There was not a need there.
Okay, Jamil, let's go back to the Prophet's birthday. He could have celebrated his birthday. He could have, yes.
He chose not to. There was no need at that time. We need it.
He's around. He's around the people because he's around the people at that time, they're living with No, no, no, the people are celebrating the Prophet, what are they doing? They want to remember him. Was the need of remembering not present at the time of the Prophet? Not this particular case.
No, no, they don't say it because they want to remember the Prophet. They say it because they love the Prophet. Okay, fine.
But they also want to remember him. Which, let's all bring it together. Love is there, right? Yes.
So, loving the Prophet, was it needed at the time of the Prophet? Yes, it was. So, that same sebab is still today. But not as much as we need it because we're not seeing the Messenger ﷺ. So you're saying that the Sahabas, they needed to remember the Prophet.
Just because somebody's with you and present doesn't mean you don't need to remember them. Okay, it doesn't eliminate that. Also, love.
Love was always needed. Why didn't they do it? Do you get it? I want to mention another example, a very powerful example, which is the issue of Asl-ul-Ibadah. Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said something very powerful.
Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said, He said, فَبِلْإِسْتِقْرَاءِ الشَّرِيْعَةِ By following up the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and Ibn Taymiyyah is a master in that. He said, with induction, meaning getting the verses, looking in each of the ayat, looking at the hadiths, okay? He said, we will know. فَبِالْإِسْتِقْرَاءِ الشَّرِيْعَةِ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّ الْعِبَادَاتِ The Ibadat which Allah made obligatory.
So Allah forced it upon us, or Allah made it, or Allah loved it subhanahu wa ta'ala. لا يثبت الأمر بها إلا بشرع. It cannot be established except by legislation.
This is by induction of the Qur'an, looking at every verse. We know that any Ibadah which is obligatory, or it's recommended, in which Allah loves, you can't affirm it unless there's a shari'i text for it. And this is exactly how the pious predecessors understood it.
I'll give you an example, there's many examples I can give you, but I'll give you one I stood over in the Kitab al-Faqih wal-Mutafaqih by Khatib al-Baghdadi. And Abu Nu'aym mentions it in his Hiliyat al-Auliyah wa Tabaqat al-Asfiyah. That Al-Imam Malik at his time, a man came to him and he said to him, Sufyan ibn Uyaynah said that a man came to Malik ibn Anas, Al-Imam Malik, Imam of Dar al-Hijrah.
And he said, I want to go and do Umrah. I want to go to the Ka'bah, Umrah or Hajj, I don't remember which of it it was. But he said, I want to go and do, go to the Ka'bah.
So he said, I'm going to do it from the house of Allah Azawajal, I'm going to do it from Medina. Meaning a distance before it, in the Ka'bah, next to the Prophet's grave, I'm going to start from there, that's the Miqat, and then basically I'm going to wear my Ihram from there, and then I'm going to go to Dar al-Hulaifah, and then I'm going to go to Mecca. So I'm going to put myself with extra effort in this act.
Al-Imam Malik said to him, la taf'al, don't do that. He looked at Al-Imam Malik and he said, am yalun aziduha, I'm just going to add little miles. What's that going to be, is that a real problem? Al-Imam Malik said to him, no, but what is a problem is taf'al shay'an, that you do something that you believe is noble and it's righteous and good that the Messenger didn't do.
And then he recited the ayah to him, fa liyahzali allatheena yukhalifoon a'an amrihi an tusibahum fitnah, aw yusibahum a'adhabun alin. Another example, another story, al-Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, rahimahullah ta'ala, his tabi'i, they call him Sayyid al-Tabi'in, based on his knowledge, and others they say it's Al-Qarnayi. Both of them are in different prospects.
Al-Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, as Al-Imam al-Bayhaqi mentioned in his Kitab Sunan al-Kubra, that al-Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib rahimahullah ta'ala, a man prayed after Fajr, and he prayed so many rak'ah, just kept praying and praying and praying and he was doing long ruku' and everything. And al-Imam, this great Imam Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said to him, don't pray. The man then said to him, yu'adhiboonillahu, Allah is going to punish me in Salat, to pray? We're doing a righteous act of worship.
I'm praying. And Allah said in another ayah, araytalladhi yanhaa abadan idha sallah, the person was prohibiting a slave from praying. Look what he said to him, laa, no, bal yu'adhibuka, Allah is going to punish you in what, khilaf al-sunnah, that you oppose the sunnah.
So why is Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib and Malik ibn Anasin, why are they saying to this man that no, don't do this? It's because al-asr fil-ibadatil man'u, the default position in ibadat is that you can't do it. You can't do this. Walaysa mashroo'an mina al-umuri ghayran ladhi fee shar'ina madhkuri.
If it's not mentioned in our sharia, if it's not stated in our religion, you're not allowed to do this. How far do we push this concept? For example, some people say even dividing tawkhid into three categories is an innovation. And if we go back to those three principles that we discussed, that the messenger could have done it, he could have done it, right? He didn't do it, and there was a need for it.
And there was a need for this, wasn't there? It's very important that you understand, no one is getting closer to Allah by the taqseem of tawkhid. People are getting closer to Allah by the concept of tawkhid. You see my point? This taqseem, this categorization, it's minbab al-tasheel, it's just getting easy for you.
Just like nawaqid al-wudu, mubtilat al-salah, it's really just to get things easy for you to understand. To say this is a shart, and a shart means ma yalzamu min wujudi al-wujudu wa la yalzamu And to say this is a rukun, and this is what a rukun means, and this is a wajib, and this is what a wajib means. It's a way of breaking down knowledge to make it easy for the student.
That's just a way to make things easy for you. But no one is getting closer to Allah by these particular taqseemat. The people are getting closer to Allah by the concept, the concept.
No one is getting closer to Allah by it. What if you have a legitimate act of worship, an act of worship that everybody agrees is, like you said, is a good thing, like praying salah? Or for example, making du'a. You're making du'a after every single prayer, so you've specified a time for it.
What would you say about that? So now we're going into the issue of taqsees al-ibadah, to specify ibadah at a particular time and a particular place or a particular situation that the Messenger didn't do it in, alayhi salatu wasalam. This is an innovation. It's an innovation.
You see, we don't just follow the Prophet ﷺ in the actual legislation, we also follow him in the way he did it. I'll give you an example. The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, إِنَّ اللَّهَ حَيِيٌّ كَرِيمٌ Allah is shy and Allah is generous.
إِذَا رَفَعَ إِلَيْنَ عَبْدٌ يَدَاهِ لَمْ يَرُطُوا مَا صِفْرَاهُ No slave raises his hands up in the air and he asks Allah for something except that Allah gives it to him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So du'a, generally, you raise your hand, that's what the hadith shows. What about if I was going to the toilet and I said, اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْخُبَثِ وَالْخَبَائِثِ Allahumma inni a'udhu bika min al-khubathi wal-khabaith and then I went into the toilet and when I came out I said, غُفْرَانَكَ يَرَبَّ You would say to me, no, you can't do this, what are you doing? The reason is because the Prophet that said it in this hadith is the Prophet who didn't do it in this situation.
I see. Okay. Even if you have a proof for it, what you determine to be a proof for it.
For example, Allah says in the Qur'an, remember your Lord with complete devotion, making du'a after every prayer is remembering your Lord with complete devotion, is it not? That's the Prophet who brought this verse to you, read it onto you, you took it from him, didn't practice it here. You need to follow him in that. He knows it better than you, the ayah.
His job was to teach you how to apply that verse and he chose not to apply it there. So we follow him in it, alayhi salatu alayhi salatu wa salam. Okay.
And I have to say, wallahi, وَكُلُّ خَيْنِ فِي اتِّبَاعِ مَنْ سَلَفٍ وَكُلُّ شَرٍّ فِي افْتِدَاعِ مَنْ خَلَفٍ That all good is in following the Salaf and all evil is in that which the later people came with. Because we know based on the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, كلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَ Every innovation is misguidance. You're saying from كلُّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَ, you mean that كلُّ here means everything? Yes, it's every innovation.
Even though Allah says in the Quran, تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ بِأَمْرِ رَبِّهَا كلّ, the same word that you're using is used here. Everything according to you was destroyed by his command. Even the throne of Allah was destroyed then, so it means everything? So the ayah that you're reading in Surah Al-Hiqaf, Allah is saying تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ بِأَمْرِ رَبِّهَا This ayah, the word كل is still general.
What do you mean by general? It means everything? Everything. In general it means everything. Because if you look at the last part of the verse, Allah says تُدَمِّرُ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ بِأَمْرِ رَبِّهَا With the command of its Lord.
So everything Allah commanded to destroy, it destroyed all of that. So the generalisation is still there as Ibn Jarir mentioned it. Ibn Jarir is the one who pointed this out.
Fine, but if you're saying كلُّ means everything, then we discussed earlier that the worldly innovations are not innovations. But the messenger said كلُّ بِدْعَةٍ every innovation is misguidance. So this is misguidance.
According to your definition of كلُّ. The كل here means everything within the religion, it doesn't mean everything outside the religion. You bought it now, you specified it, why? Because we're not talking about, you see, when you're doing this act right now, are you doing it for religious reasons? Yes.
That's what we're talking about, we're not talking about anything worldly. But the messenger said كلُّ, everything, and you said everything means everything in general. Oh yeah, it means everything within the religion.
Why have you added within the religion? Because مَنْ أَحَدَّتَ فِيه You have to bring the hadiths together. Anyone who innovates something within our religion, within our affairs, it's not about the worldly issues. No one's have, like we have other evidence for that.
The Prophet ﷺ said أَنتُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِأُمُورِ دُنْيَاكُمْ You know your worldly affairs better than anyone. I mean, do it. You see, it's the deen that's being spoken about here.
This is the religion that we're talking about here. If that's the case, again, I believe that the companions didn't understand it like this. For example, Umar ibn al-Khattab, when he gathered the companions for Salat al-Taraweeh, he said this is a bid'ah hasanah, a good bid'ah.
This is part of bid'ah, it's part of innovation, but he declared it a good one and not misguidance. Okay, the scholars have many responses to this. I'm going to take, inshallah ta'ala, four points.
Number one is the response of Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah said that al-Imam Umar r.a, he is talking about a linguistic, the lexical definition of the word bid'ah. That suits you, yeah, it suits you to assume he was talking about that.
I mean, he's a great imam, Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah, I mean, of that calibre, of that status. But one can agree or disagree with him. Shatibi, Mus'haq al-Shatibi said that his usage of the word bid'ah here is majaz.
It's metaphorical, it's actually not literal. The third one is the one I prefer. Okay, go on.
Which is from mimbab al-mujanasati wal-mushakala. Which means? Which basically means, first of all, in eloquence, what you learn is that a person will use a word for the sake of the context. Allah uses it in the Quran.
What did Allah say? Allah says, A person, he did something evil to you. He killed a family member of yours. Okay, and that family member is now dead.
Allah says, That evil he did is an evil in response, which is to kill him. But your killing is not evil in response, it's actually good. I see, right, it's justice.
Allah used the word evil because of mimbab al-mujanasati. Because the word evil was used here, it went with evil. Okay.
Mujanasati wal-mushakala. The Arabs used this. Umar used it in that context.
How? How? Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhu, The Arabs, first they say mushakala wal-mujanasati. It comes haqiqatan and it comes taqdeeran. Haqiqatan and taqdeeran means literal and a hidden sentence.
Umar could mean both. Someone actually said to him, But Umar, this is a bid'ah. And then he said to him, Then this is a good bid'ah.
He went with the word bid'ah that was mentioned and he said it's a good bid'ah. Just like al-Imam al-Shafi'i, somebody came up to him when they saw his love for Ali ibn Abi Talib and the Prophet's family. And they called him al-Rafidhi.
And they said, If loving the Prophet's family makes me a Rafidhi, Then everyone knows I'm a Rafidhi. You get my point? The second one is, No one said it to Umar, But it came to his mind that someone could think this, And he said this is a good bid'ah. The fourth explanation I want to give for Umar's quote is, Another chain of narration that came regarding what he said.
Al-Imam ibn Sa'ad mentioned his tabaqat. Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar considered this to be acceptable. Umar said, If this is an innovation, then it's a good innovation.
You know what proves that Umar could not have meant it? What did we just say bid'ah is? It's something that wasn't done before you, right? Yes. But it was done. The taraweeh that you're talking about, It was done before him.
Nabil Ali Muhammad did it. He led it for a couple of days. It was legislated in our religion.
Umar could not have meant that. The issue I have with this kind of approach to innovation, Is that you're making the religion very exclusive. And you're making it seem, And we've done previous episodes as well, And all of them seem like you're saying that, We're upon the truth and nobody else is upon the truth.
No, definitely I'm not saying that. I could be right, I could be wrong, In my personal evaluation of things. I can.
I'm not here, again, To speak for myself and my positions. But I'm bringing an issue, Which I haven't yet brought, That doesn't have consensus. Everything I'm saying so far, That I've discussed on these podcasts, Are generally that which I've brought dalil for.
From the Kitab of Allah, From the Sunnah of the Messenger, And I transmitted ijma' Like for example, You said the word, Does it mean every innovation is misguidance? Let me give you two sahabas who understood it like that. Abdullah ibn Saud and Abdullah ibn Umar. كل بدعة ضلالة وإن يراها الناس حسنة Every innovation is misguidance, Even if the people see it good.
That statement is Abdullah ibn Umar. And the other statement is, اتبعوا ولا تبتدعوا فقد كفيتم كل بدعة ضلالة Follow, you have been sufficed. You don't need to legislate.
There's no need for you to sanction things. Allah has sufficed that role from you. You don't have to do that.
فقد كفيتم This burden has been uplifted from you. Just follow. Just be a slave, follow.
And then look what he said after that. He said, and every innovation is misguidance. So the sahabas like Abdullah ibn Umar and Abdullah ibn Saud, they've understood it like that.
That all innovation is misguidance. Look at Abdullah ibn Saud when he came to the people who were using the pebbles that you mentioned before at the beginning. Abdullah ibn Saud, what did he say to them? Nabil ibn Muhammad's clothing hasn't worn out yet.
His pots and his pans haven't broken yet. Here you are doing an innovation. What was it that they were doing? What they were doing was, they were doing tasbeeh with beads.
And one would say, هللوا مئة كبروا مئة Say la ilaha illallah a hundred times. And they'll be silent for a bit. And then when they finished a hundred, كبروا, say allahu akbar a hundred times.
And they'll say it together. Abdullah ibn Umar said to them, this is an innovation. And they told him, والله ما أردنا إلا الخير We didn't intend except good.
And then he said, وكم من مريدي للخير لم يصب How many people intended good but never got it? No doubt there are some things like innovation, but to take a legitimate difference of opinion between the scholars and to say this is an innovation, that seems like extremism. For example, we return back to the Prophet's birthday, صلى الله عليه وسلم. Didn't great scholars like Ibn Hajar and Suyuti say that this is permissible? Both of those Imams that you mentioned, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani And many more.
And Jalaluddin al-Sulti. First of all, Ibn Hajar, we have to put it out there, in his own works, Ibn Hajar, nowhere has he ever said that he believes the permissibility of celebrating the Prophet's birthday. Ibn Hajar, he himself, he never said it in any of his works.
In his own works. But it was transmitted that he believed its permissibility by Jalaluddin al-Sulti. Not that we don't trust Suyuti, we trust him.
We trust his transmission. But it would have been more stronger in our minds if we were to see it in his own works. Would you have accepted it from him if it was in his own works? Not legislation wise.
Remember, Scholars, they need evidence. Their statements need evidence. They are not used as evidence.
That's a golden principle that we need to hold on to. Ibn Hajar is not a dalil. Nor is Suyuti.
Nor is Ibn Taymiyyah. Nor is Muhammad Abdul Wahab. Nor is Ibn Baz.
Nor is Al-Albani. Nor is Ibn Uthaymin. None of these people are proofs in and within themselves.
They all need to bring evidence on their own arguments. So now we have Ibn Hajar being said that he believed it. Suyuti mentioning it.
And Jalaluddin al-Sulti. Both of whom are supposedly Ibn Hajar and Suyuti who believe based on those who say Ibn Hajar, they say that he believes it. And Suyuti, both of them said that it's an innovation.
So they admitted that it's an innovation. And then they said it's a good innovation. The question here, we have the messenger, the best man who spoke.
The most eloquent of people. He said, And Ibn Hajar himself said, this hadith is a very comprehensive evidence and it shows generalization It shows generality in all of its essence. Rather, I'll say something to you.
The word kul in the Arabic language, they say it's It is the strongest form of generalization when it comes in the context of affirmation. It's a powerful. And then look, kullu bid'atin is not the only generalization.
There's another generalization. The word man is a shard. It's a condition.
And we have amalan which is a nakira. What does this mean? So the word man, anyone who does an action that's not from our actions. That's not from our affairs.
It's rejected in his face. Here it says anyone who does any action, mawlid or other than it, it's rejected. So there's another evidence here, which is man shard.
It shows generalization. It's like the word If you hide something or if you make it apparent, look what is being used here. If you make something apparent, shay'an is indefinite, which is a nakira.
In is a shard, it's a conditional. It shows generalization. It's anything you try to bring out.
So what I mean by that is the word kull shows generalization. When Allah says We created everything with a qadr. Are you going to say that this kull is not generalization? So when Suyuti says this is a good innovation, or al-Izm al-Abdi Salam says the bid'a bid'atani, the innovations are two types.
We're going to say first of all, we need to set the priorities straight. Allah says Follow Allah and His Messenger and do not follow anyone besides them. We have to ask ourselves.
Suyuti is an imam. We respect his knowledge and his understanding. Ibn Hajar is an imam.
We respect and we admire his knowledge. But if they go against Allah and His Messenger unintentionally, I am not going to go against Allah and His Messenger intentionally. So none of the Salaf or the companions celebrated the Prophet's birthday? Never heard of.
Never done. Look. It came 400 years after the Prophet ﷺ and the people who brought it were criminals.
The Fatimeen historically who were the ones who brought the celebration of the Prophet ﷺ were criminals. And you can go and look at Kitab al-Bidai wa al-Nihaya and Khutbat by al-Maghrizi and other books that state the reality of these people. Go and look at it.
You know what's funny? The celebration of the Prophet ﷺ's birthday, we're the ones who say it started in the 4th century. We're the ones who say that to them. The little Fatimeen were the ones who started it on the 4th century.
They're coming back and saying no because they know the reality of the Fatimeen that they were Rafidah, Shia. So they know that. They're scared.
So do you know what they said? They said Malik al-Muzaffar started it who came 7 centuries after the Prophet ﷺ. So they push it even further. So 7 centuries, 700 years after Nabila Muhammad ﷺ is the Dean, this is when it became permissible. Okay, Sadat Uthman.
We've talked a lot about Bid'ah and obviously we know that the opposite is the Sunnah. And we know that the Sunnah is made up of the Prophet ﷺ's speech, his actions, and his approvals. So why are you then adding a 4th thing into there and saying that we also have to follow him and follow him in what he left? The Prophet's actions are what he left.
It falls under that one. Actions and leaving are the same thing. How? If I'm an action, that's me doing something.
That's not me leaving it. Allah said in the Qur'an, لُعِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِن بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ عَلَىٰ رِسَالِ دَاوُودَ وَعِيسَ بْنِ مَرِيَمَ ذَلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ كَانُوا لَا يَتَنَاهُونَ عَن مُنكَرٍ We're not talking about leaving prohibiting evil. We're talking about leaving doing good.
I'm just trying to use from that verse that leaving off is an action. وَلِذَلِكَ صَاحِبُ الْمَرَاقِي فَكَفُّنَا بِالنَّهِي مَطْلُوبُ النَّبِي وَالْكَفُّ فِعْلٌ فِي الصَّحِيحِ الْمَذْهَبِي فَكَفُّنَا بِالنَّهِي مَطْلُوبُ النَّبِي وَالْكَفُّ فِعْلٌ فِي الصَّحِحِ الْمَذْهَبِي That staying away from something, it's an act. It's a form of act.
So that needs to be understood. Plus, we follow the Prophet ﷺ in what he did as much as we follow him in the things that he left ﷺ. We follow them in both. Because it's an action.
Whatever he did, we follow him in it ﷺ and we follow him in whatever he left. I'll give you an evidence for that. Imam Muslim narrated in his صحيح from the hadith of Jabir ibn Samurah.
Jabir ibn Samurah, he said, صَلَّيْتُ مَعَ النَّبِي ﷺ I prayed with the Messenger ﷺ. صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِ I prayed with him ﷺ. صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِ صَلَّيْتُ مَعَ النَّبِي ﷺ صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ غَيْرَ مَرَّةٍ وَلَا مَرَّتَيْنِ I prayed with him more than once. More than once. Okay.
غَيْرَ مَرَّةٍ وَلَا مَرَّتَيْنِ There was no adhan and there was no iqama. Okay. Ponder here.
Jabir ibn Samurah is trying to say, I prayed with the Messenger ﷺ. صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ I prayed with him. And he never done no adhan and no iqama. What is he using as an evidence to say that you can't do adhan and iqama The fact that the Messenger ﷺ didn't do it.
We don't do that today. There's no place where the Messenger ﷺ said don't do adhan and iqama. We're using the Prophet's turuq, that which he left ﷺ. He's leaving off this act is what we're using.
Could it not also be said that actually the action that he's doing here is praying without doing adhan and iqama. That's the action. It's not necessarily that he left something.
But that's the same. صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ is like Jum'ah. Whatever Jum'ah needed, so does Eid needed.
Why do you do adhan for Jum'ah? To call the people, right? The need was there. The need was there. But he didn't do it ﷺ. The hunger for calling the people was there.
He chose not to do it. We follow him in it. The way that we do, we'll do adhan in Jum'ah because he did it.
And we will leave off the adhan and the iqama in صَلَاةُ الْعِيدِينِ because he left it ﷺ. I'll give you another issue. Bukhari has in his sahih, a chapter where he called it بَابُ بَنْ يَسْتَلِمُ الرُّقْنَيْنِ الْيَمَانِيَيْنِ Something like that. A chapter.
Which is that the Ka'bah has four sides. Two sides face Yemen and two corners of it faces Yemen and the other two faces towards Sham. We are permitted to touch the two sides which are facing Yemen.
One of the corners is the Yemeni corner and the other one we can touch those sides because the Messenger ﷺ did it. But the two sides that are facing Sham, we are not allowed to touch it. Now this is the Ka'bah.
The two sides you can and these two sides you can't. Abdullah ibn Abbas, Bukhari narrated in his sahih that he saw Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the great companion Muawiyah, touching four sides of the Ka'bah. Touching four sides of the Ka'bah.
And so Muawiyah, when he touched the four sides of the Ka'bah, ibn Abbas saw him. Ibn Abbas came up to him and he said to him, why are you touching the four sides of the Ka'bah? Don't touch it. Leave it.
Keep it in mind and remember that ibn Abbas is using that the Prophet ﷺ didn't touch it. That's his argument. The Prophet ﷺ didn't touch the other two sides, the Shamayani, the two sides that are facing towards Sham.
The Messenger ﷺ didn't touch it. So he's using it as a proof. Yes.
So Muawiyah responded by saying to him, in the house of Allah, there is not a place we boycott. Okay. I now want to use that same argument for the celebration of the Prophet's birthday.
The Ka'bah is something we love. Yes, no doubt. We love it.
We honour the Ka'bah. We admire the Ka'bah. We love the Ka'bah.
We love the Messenger ﷺ even more. We haven't left the celebrating of the Prophet ﷺ because we hate it. Just like ibn Abbas didn't tell Muawiyah to leave of touching the other two sides of the Ka'bah because he hates the Ka'bah or he wants to boycott the Ka'bah.
He left it because he didn't see the Prophet ﷺ do this. We will say the same. We didn't see no one celebrate the Prophet's birthday from the companions.
We didn't see him say, celebrate my birthday. And we never left this act except that we want to follow him and what he did and what we stayed away from. And that's the statement of al-Imam al-Shafi'i ibn Hajar mentions it in Fatah al-Bari right after that story of Muawiyah and ibn Abbas that al-Imam al-Shafi'i he said ما تركناه We did not leave of touching the Ka'bah حجرًا للبيت because we wanted to boycott the house of Allah.
وَلَكِنَّا نَتَّبِعُ السُّنَّةَ فِعْلًا وَتَرْكَهَا But we will follow the sunnah by doing what we saw the Prophet do and we will follow the Prophet in that which he left, alayhi salatu wasalam. But there's people out there who genuinely celebrate the Prophet's birthday because they love him صلى الله عليه وسلم They want to get closer to him. They want to get closer to Allah through those celebrations.
Some of them, it's the only time that they go to the masjid perhaps and they get involved in these kind of acts and now you're saying all of these guys are wrong? So you're just saying that they're sincere and they genuinely want to get closer to Allah. That's just one pillar. If we accept that there's sincerity there, there's one pillar that they've got.
The other pillar is missing which is, إصابة الحق It has to be in accordance to the sunnah of the Messenger, alayhi salatu wasalam, not to mention. I don't believe there's sincerity even there in the first place. Why? Because when they go to those places, a lot of those places where the Prophet's birthday is celebrated, they read the Burda of Bursiri.
What's that? Where they celebrate and they chant and sing about Bursiri's praise of the Prophet, alayhi salatu wasalam. And in there is that which goes against sincerity. What if they feel like that's getting them closer to Allah? Shirk? Because that's what Bursiri says.
He says, وَمِنْ عُلُومِكَ عِلْمُ اللَّوْحِ وَالْقَلَمِ وَإِنَّ مِنْ جُودِكَ الدُّنْيَا وَضَرَّةَ وَمِنْ عُلُومِكَ عِلْمُ اللَّوْحِ وَالْقَلَمِ Like, he says, Your generosity, from your generosity is this world. You gave it to us. And from your knowledge, is the knowledge of what's written on the Lawhul Mahfud.
So the first pillar, hatha ikhlas, is not even there. It's actually missing. Okay, but you'll appreciate not all of these celebrations are like that.
There's some people who just go, do dhikr, remember him. Maybe they're praying, voluntary acts of worship, stuff like that. A chair is put there and the Prophet, alayhi salatu wasalam, is sitting there, and that's what they say, and they hug it.
You see, I'm saying both pillars are genuinely missing. And if for the sake of argument, من باب التنزل, just to let the discussion go forward, if I say that ikhlas has been met, then ittiba' is missing. At the very least, one of the conditions is missing, you're saying.
So both have to be present simultaneously. Both of them have to be met. لِيَبَلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا What did Fadhal Mu'ayyad say? أَخْلَصُهُ وَأَصْوَبُهُ It has to be done with sincerity, and it has to be done in accordance to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. I'm saying, أَلْطُرُقُ كُلُّهَا مَسْتُودَةً Every path to Allah is blocked.
إِلَّا طَرِقَ مَنِ اِقْتَافَ أَثَرَ مُحَمَّدٍ Except the one who takes the path that Nabillah Muhammad took. That's the only road we know that will lead us to Allah. Just like now, if you want to go to Dubai, from Sharjah, there is a road that you need to take.
You can't just make up your own road and say, you know what? I'm going to try to find my own way to go to Dubai. No. There is a road that is set, that was made, that was paved.
Take that road. Every road to Allah is blocked. T-junction.
It's closed off. The only path, the only road that is open to Allah عز و جل is what? The one that Nabillah Muhammad took. Because look, what does it mean when we say وَاشَدُنَ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ What does it mean? It means طَاعَتُ فِي مَا أَمَرْ You obey him in what he commanded you.
وَتَصْدِيقُهُ فِي مَا أَخْبَرْ And you believe him in the news that he told you. وَاجْتِنَابُ مَا نَهَى عَنْهُ وَزَجَرْ You stay away from what he prohibited you from. وَأَلَّا يُعْبَدَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بِمَا شَرْعَ And you don't worship Allah except in the way that he mentioned it to you.
صلى الله عليه وسلم Four things. Okay, fine. Give me some advice then.
Say for example, I'm in a position where I understand what you're saying about innovations and the danger of innovations but I'm in an area where my family perhaps might be falling into some of these innovations. My local masjid, the imam of the local masjid is falling into some of these innovations. What kind of advice would you give me then? My first advice to you is never belittle innovation.
Never belittle it. Because innovation starts very small and wallahi it grows until there is no boundaries for it. Remember the story of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud when he saw those people doing dhikr in congregation with the pebbles.
The narrator mentioned those were the people that ibn Mas'ud said to them. He said to them, and you guys are going to open a path of destruction. You guys are heading on a path of destruction.
These people, all they were doing was making dhikr in congregation using pebbles. They weren't harming anyone. They were the ones who fought against Ali ibn Abi Talib in the battle of Nihrawan.
They were with the Khawarij. It can't be as bad as doing major sins like committing zina and drinking alcohol and stuff like that. Innovation.
It's worse than that. How and why? From two angles it's worse than that. Go on.
Number one, the one who is doing innovation is attributing this to the legislation of Allah and far greater than the one who is doing the sin. Second is, the one who is doing the innovation will not genuinely repent because he believes he is upon a path of good. Whereas the sinner, he will never attribute this to the religion.
He will never say, this is what Allah said and this is what the Messenger said and he will not look for dalil for it. He will say to you, make dua for me, man. I know I'm on the wrong path.
I'm finding my ways. Just keep me in your dua. And he genuinely knows what is upon his misguidance and wrong.
Like in the innovator, Allah told us, قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِئُكُم بِالْأَخْسَرِينَ عَمَالَ أَلَّذِينَ ظَلَّ سَعَيُّونَ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ سُنْعًا The person genuinely believes he's doing good. He genuinely believes he's getting closer to Allah. He thinks, this is, I'm holding on to a path that's going to take me to Jannah, distance me from the Hellfire.
And the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, Sorry, just the ayah of the Quran. What is the translation of the ayah? The ayah means, shall I not tell you the ones who are lost and they are gone astray and they are corrupt and they are destroyed. It's the ones who are doing wrong but they think they're doing good.
Okay. You know, the Prophet ﷺ told us in a hadith, إِنَّ اللَّهَ حَجَبَتْ تَوْبَةً Allah veiled repentance from the innovators. The Prophet ﷺ said that to us.
Why? Does it mean that repentance is not open for the innovator? No, it is open for him. But he just won't go that direction. He won't knock on the door of innovation.
Sorry, the door of repentance. Because he believes he's upon a path of guidance. He believes he's doing good.
There's no reason for him. So bringing back to the point I was mentioning was, the ones that were doing the beads and they were counting with the rocks and the pebbles and they were doing the congregational jama'i dhikr they ended up taking sword and fighting against the Prophet ﷺ's cousin. A man who was promised Jannah and life.
Why? Because once you open that door of innovation is good and bad. There's no limits. You start adding things into the religion.
There's nothing to stop you here now. And bid'ah is going to grow until there is no way to get out of it. Okay, return back to your advice.
So the first piece of advice is never belittle. Never belittle. The second advice that I want to give to those people is what makes innovation grow is al-jahlu bid-din.
Ignorance of the religion. The person should nurture themselves upon knowledge. Learn your religion.
Learn your deen. Have understanding. Shaytaan comes to the people based on ignorance.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَقْبِضُ الْعِلْمَ اَنْ تِزَعًا يَنْتَزِعُ مِنْ سُدُورِ الرِّجَالِ وَلَكِنْ يَقْبِضُ الْعِلْمَ بِقَبْضِ الْعُلَمَاءِ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا لَمْ يُبْقِ عَالِمًا اتَّخَذَ النَّاسُ رُؤُسًا جُهَالًا فَسُئِلُوا بِفَحَفْتَهُ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ فَضَلُوا وَأَضَلُوا The reason why ignorance comes to us is by the people of knowledge are going. No one is taking that knowledge from the people of knowledge. And then what is left is the ignorant ones.
Questions are asked. They answer those questions. And then they give the wrong verdict.
And then innovation is being implemented. Learn your deen. And understand the deen of Allah.
So the third point which is الغلو في الأفاظل Going overboard with righteous people. The person is righteous. There is no denying about it.
This person is a good person. A man of khair. But you are going overboard on him.
He could do mistakes. He is not infallible. وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ أَرِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا Five righteous men they were.
They were worshipped. The five righteous men, Abdullah ibn Abbas said, the people went overboard with them and worshipped them finally. So don't go overboard with people.
Whether those people are scholars, whether they are father figure, whether they are your actual father, your mother, your cousin, your uncle, don't. The messenger, may be like Muhammad, we need to follow him. No doubt following him, but we are talking about going overboard.
Oh, going overboard in praising him and going overboard in saying نعم صحيح it is not permissible. They believe that if you praise the Prophet ﷺ too much, you have never praised him enough. No, no, no, no, no.
He said, لا تطروني كما طرت النصارى عيسى ابن مريم Don't go overboard with me like the Christians, sorry, like the Christians went overboard with عيسى ابن مريم. Okay. I also want to say that personally, what I found was a person should stay and avoid reading into these شبهات.
These doubts that are brought, we only try to mention them because we know that it's out there and it's been mentioned by many, many people. But generally, but generally, a person should avoid and stay away from reading these doubts and looking into these doubts and trying to understand these doubts because the reality is a person should avoid these شبهات but they should learn about the dangers of innovation and they should also learn about what the scholars have said about innovation. But these contemporary doubts that are being brought by like Abdallah Al-Oumary who tried to write many books on the issue of Sunnah al-Turkiyah.
He wrote a kitab on it. He wrote another kitab on the issue of bid'ah and the mufhum of bid'ah. Another man, Abdalilah Al-Arfaj, Abu Hatim Al-Awni.
These individuals are misguided, corrupted individuals. حقيقة And one should avoid their works and not busy themselves in reading these things. When you have real noble imams, the pious predecessors, their aqwal and what they've said.
And I honestly would say personally that the person should give out time to reading the kitab Al-I'tisamba Al-Imam Al-Shaltibi Al-Mushaq Al-Shaltibi is a very good book. His kitab is very good. Even though they say it was said that he didn't complete the book.
And also Abd Al-Rayah Al-Muallim his kitab Haqiqat Al-Bid'ah which I will be teaching soon inshallah ta'ala. He talks about the reality of bid'ah. Okay.
Okay. Just before we wrap up, one other question that comes to mind is what if I have family members that are upon these kind of innovations how do I treat them? Number one, make dua for them. No doubt anyone family member who falls short in the deen whether it not whether they may be into sins you make dua for them that Allah guides them.
If you do Dujan Al-Laila at night time you stand up and you beg Allah Azza wa Jalla whether that be innovation as well you ask Allah for them or whether they're in disbelief and they're not Muslims you make dua for your parents. You make dua for your cousins and your sisters and your brothers who are whether kufr might be the problem or bid'ah might be the problem or al-isyan general disobedience of Allah Azza wa Jalla you need to make dua for your family member. This is the way Allah Azza wa Jalla inshallah can bring them back to guidance.
The second thing is definitely advice but you can only advise when you yourself have something to advise them with. faqidu shay'in la yu'ti one who doesn't have can't give. So you need to equip yourself with knowledge and understanding.
Many people they go out and they want to discuss these issues based on you know little knowledge. They want to go and they get demolished. And the religion you can only debate for this deen and you can bring arguments for this deen when you have textual evidence.
The poet said faddeenu innama atta bin naqli laysa bin awhami wahadthi al-aqli that this religion came to us through textual Quran and sunnah and that which the pious predecessors were upon. Text. Chain.
You'll check it. It's all in front of you. laysa bin awhami wahadthi al-aqli It didn't come to us and it wasn't transmitted to us based on intensive reasoning and deep thinking and you know delusion and none.
No, no, no. It didn't come to us like that. It came to us through textual evidence.
So if you want to guide your family members if you want to talk to them if you want to preach to them you first of all need to equip yourself you have to understand what is and what isn't. Ustadh Uthman it's been a pleasure having you on the show once again. JazakAllah khair JazakAllah khair and for your time.
Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh subhanaka wa bihamdik ashadu an la ilaha ila anta astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk I hope you enjoyed and benefited from that discussion. Please do share it with your friends and family members if you feel like they might benefit too and don't forget to hit that subscribe button below so you're notified of any new episodes. Check out www.thehotseatpodcast.com that's thehotseatpodcast.com on there you'll find a little bit more information about the podcast and you'll also have the chance to vote for which topic you'd like to see discussed on the show.
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