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Religious Innovation And Whether it Can Be Divided Into Five Categories | Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn The Questioner: What is religious innovation (bidʿah) and what are its categories? And is dividing it into five different categories as the Shaykh al-ʿIzz ʿAbdul-Salām did correct? And what did Ibn ʿAbdul-Salām intend by his division of religious innovation (bidʿah)? Please enlighten us regarding this and may Allāh reward you. Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn: “All praise is due to Allāh the Lord of creation, and I send the prayers of peace and invoke the blessings of Allāh upon our Prophet Muḥammad as well as his family and companions altogether. Bidʿah in the Arabic language is fiʿlah [upon the Arabic morphological scale] from badʿ and it means to create something without a previously existing precedent. And from this comes the statement of Allāh the Exalted: ‘The Originator (Badīʿ) of the heavens and the earth…’ [Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:117] Meaning: the initiator of them because Allāh the Glorified and Exalted created them both without a previously exiting precedent. This is what bidʿah means in the Arabic language. As for the meaning of bidʿah in Islāmic law, then it is every doctrine, or statement or action through which an individual worships Allāh the Mighty and Majestic, but it is not from what has come from the legislation of Allāh the Glorified and Exalted. And the religious innovation (bidʿah) with all of its categories, rather I say that the religious innovation (bidʿah) has no more than one category which has been clarified by the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) in his statement: ‘And beware of newly invented matters, since every religious innovation (bidʿah) is misguidance.’ So every religious innovation (bidʿah) in Islāmic law is misguidance and does not divide into anything more than that. And this religious innovation (bidʿah) which constitutes misguidance, regardless of whether it occurs in doctrine, statement or action; it is all rejected from whoever promotes it and it is not to be accepted from him due to the statement of the Prophet (ﷺ) which has been authentically reported from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah: ‘Whoever does an action which is not in accordance with our affair will have it rejected.’ So the religious innovation (bidʿah) is not divided into five categories or anything more than that or less. Instead, it is but a single category according to the wording of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ who is the most knowledgeable of the creation regarding what he says. And the most sincere of the creation regarding his advice, and the most eloquent of the creation regarding what he says. And the speech of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) is free of complication; nothing about it is complicated. It is clear and straightforward. And the division of bidʿah according to the people of knowledge like al-ʿIzz ʿAbdul-Salām and other than him, they divided the term bidʿah in a linguistic sense in which we are able to say about something that it contains bidʿa but in reality it is not considered from Islāmic law because it enters into other generalities and as such is only considered a bidʿah in a linguistic sense but it is not a bidʿah as it relates to Islāmic legislation. [continue reading at http://wp.me/p65xlB-1bf]
