The Concept and Classification of Bid’ah in Islam.
DARUL IFTA EGYPT
ما هي البدعة الحسنة
اطلعنا على البريد الوارد بتاريخ: 21/ 11/ 2011م المقيد برقم 508 لسنة 2011م المتضمن: ما البدعة الحسنة؟ وهل هناك بدعة
حسنة في الدين؟
الـجـــواب : أمانة الفتوى
IS THERE A GOOD INNOVATION (BIDAH) IN RELIGION?
Answer:
First we have to clarify the meaning of bid’ah:
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“He who introduces something that is not in agreement with our matter (religion), will have it rejected”
[Bukhari).
The Prophet’s words illustrate that acts initiated in Islam that do not conflict with the established principles of Sacred law are accepted.
This was exactly what ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) did when he introduced the second Adhan [Eng. call to prayer]
before Friday Prayers. And this is how the imams and scholars of the
followed schools of jurisprudence understood the concept of bid’ah.
If we do not follow this opinion, life will be hard on people and they will have to abandon many matters concerning their livelihood.
If we do not follow this opinion, life will be hard on people and they will have to abandon many matters concerning their livelihood.
Categories of Bid’ah
Scholars classify bid’ah into five categories:
Permissible, Recommended, Prohibited, Offensive and Obligatory i.e. it takes the five rulings of obligation.
However, some scholars deviated from this opinion and claimed that every bid’ah is an evil. In this manner they contradict the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
“Whoever initiates a good Sunnah in Islam, earns the reward of it and of all who perform it after him until the Day of Judgment and whoever initiates a bad Sunnah in Islam,
will bear its sin and of all who perform it after him until the Day of
Judgment”. This is the established opinion of the Muslims from the
predecessors and successors without any denial that can be taken into
account.
AND ALLAH KNOWS BEST
DARUL IFTA EGYPT
BIDAH CLASSIFICATION
Dear
scholars, As-Salamu `alaykum. Imam An-Nawawi as well as other scholars
has listed five types of Bid`ah (Innovation) amongst which Fard and
Wajib are included. Then, why do some ignorant people say that all
innovations are misguidance?
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear
questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you
place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause
and render our work for His Sake.
As regards your question, we’d like to state that Muslim scholars have cited two different definitions of Bid`ah (innovation). The first one is linguistic, whereas the second is technical.
Those
who try to understand the concept of Bid`ah in its linguistic sense
maintain that the root of the word includes that which is new and
unprecedented. Hence, they define Bid`ah as everything that has been
introduced following the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings be
upon him) and the golden eras of his Companions (may Allah be pleased
with them all).
The aforementioned linguistic definition encompasses what is good and what is bad, acts of worship (`Ibadah) and others that are otherwise.
Those
who follow this definition argue that the word Bid`ah as well as the
acts related to it are praised in certain religious contexts while
condemned in others. This may explain why some scholars have dubbed
certain innovative acts as being religiously recommended while classifying others as being religiously condemned.
Imam Shafi`i stated that innovative acts are of two kinds:
The
first one includes those things that do not go in harmony with the
Qur’an, Sunnah, traceable tradition (Athar) and the consensus (Ijma`)of
Muslims.
The second kind includes those innovations that bring about that which is good and this kind is not condemned.
The previous classification of Bid`ah is also maintained by Imam An-Nawawi.
However, Imam Al-`Izz ibn `Abdus-Salam classified Bid`ah into five categories:
1- Obligatory innovation, such as combining and classifying Arabic sciences and teaching them.
2- Religiously recommended
innovation, such as building schools.
3- Religiously forbidden innovation, such as reciting the Qur’an in a way that changes the meaning of its words from their contexts.
4-Religiously condemned innovation, such as decorating mosques.
5-Religiously permitted innovation, such as serving different dishes on one dining table.
On
the other hand, those who adopt the technical definition of Bid’ah
state that innovation includes things that apparently resemble Shari`ah,
but genuinely they don’t. On the basis of this definition, all
innovations are strongly condemned, and hence they can not include the
five categories mentioned by Imam Al-`Izz ibn `Abdus-Salaam above. This
may explain the Prophetic saying,
“Every innovative act is an aberration.”
Also, Imam Malik stated that he who innovates something in Islam while deeming it to be a good innovation has alleged that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was unfaithful in disseminating his message as Allah Almighty says:
“This day are those who disbelieve in despair of (ever harming) your religion; so fear them not, fear Me! This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you, and have chosen for you Al-Islam as religion. Whosoever is forced by hunger, not by will, to sin: (for him) Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”
(Al-Ma’idah: 3)
Hence, the innovations that are unlawful in Islam include the following:
1- Being innovated, in the sense that the innovation does not take place during the early Islamic period.
2- The innovation is considered unlawful when it contradicts one of the primary sources of Islam, such as the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
As
a result, things that are new and unprecedented, but go in line with
the spirit of Islam, and do not contradict its basics are not considered
innovations.
It is recorded that some of the
Prophet’s Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) would say the
Talbiyah (during Hajj) in a formula different from that said by the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). For example, Anas (may Allah
be pleased with him) would say,
“Labbayka Haqqan Haqqa Labbayka Ta`abbudan Wa sedqa.”
‘Truly I am at your service O Allah; I am at your service in true worship of You.’
Also, `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have gathered people to perform Taraweeh (Ramadan night prayer) in congregation. It is noteworthy here that the same act did not exist during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
May Allah guide you to the straight path, and direct you to that which please Him, Amen.
The concept and classification of Bid’ah in Islam.
Question # 22355054
Date Posted: 04/02/2004
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
The word Bid`ah (innovation) has two aspects to it, one being the linguistic definition, and the other, it’s meaning from a Shariah perspective.
Linguistically Bid`ah means introducing something new, regardless of whether it is connected to religious affairs or other worldly matters, and regardless of whether one practices it considering it to be part of Deen or otherwise.
In the Shariah terminology, Bid`ah means to introduce something in religion that was not done in the time of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), the rightly guided Khulafa (Allah be pleased with them all) and the early generations with the intention of gaining more reward.
And despite being a need for it in the time of the Messenger of Allah and his Companions, it was not implemented verbally, practically, explicitly or implicitly.
(Taken from Imam al-Barkawi’s al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya, Imam Shatibi’s al-I’tisam and Imam al-Lakhnawi’s Iqamat al-Hujjah).
From the above definition of Bid’a, it becomes clear that new practices that are not considered to be part of Deen, rather they concern our worldly affairs, such as modern technology, cars, planes, etc… cannot be considered as Bid’ah , for the fact that they are not introduced with the intention of worship and gaining more reward.
Innovations with regards to worldly matters do not fall into the category of reprehensible and sinful innovation, thus they are totally permissible as long as they don’t contradict any other ruling of Shariah.
Similarly, acts and practices that were carried out (verbally, practically, explicitly or implicitly) in the time of the blessed Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give peace), his Companions (Allah be pleased with them all) and the early generation can also not be called an innovation.
Also, an act for which there was no apparent need in the time of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), his companions and the early generations, but later in order to attain a religious objective there rose a need to implement it, then this will also not fall within the definition of Bid’ah.
Examples of which are: building religious institutions, recording the research of Islamic schools of legal thought, writing books on beneficial subjects, establishing sciences in order to understand the Qur’an and Sunnah, using of modern weapons for Jihad, etc…
With the above definition of Bid’a, it also becomes clear that to innovate something in religion that had the same need in the early times, but was not carried out will be considered a Bid’a, thus unlawful.
Another aspect to remember with regards to Bid`ah is that there are certain acts of worship which the Shariah has declared to be recommended (mandub) or highly encouraged (sunnah), but without specifying a particular procedure or method for it. Rewards have been promised for various types of worship, but the actual method of implementation has not been prescribed. This method of worship has been left to the convenience of the individual.
In such acts of worship, it is necessary to leave the general permission given by the Shariah. If a particular method is fixed or considered to be superior to other methods, then this will be impermissible and classed as Bid’ah .
(This has been explained in a previous answer with examples. See the archives on this website.
Classification of Bid`ah
“Beware of matters newly begun, for every matter newly begun is innovation and every innovation is misguidance.”
(Recorded by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad 4/126-127, Imam Abu Dawud, Imam Tirmidhi & Imam Ibn Majah in their respective Sunan collections with an authentic chain of narrators).
Due to the above Hadith, scholars say that from a perspective of the Shariah definition of Bid’ah , every type of Bid`ah is reprehensible and sinful.
When an act is determined to fall into the above mentioned Shariah definition of Bid’ah , then it can never be termed as good or lawful. All innovations are reprehensible and misguidance, thus unlawful.
Imam Malik (Allah be pleased with him) said:
“Whosoever innovates an innovation believing it to be good (hasana) has indeed claimed that the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) breached the trust of Prophethood, because Allah Almighty says:
“This day I have perfected your religion for you”. Anything that was not part of religion on that day, can not be a part of religion today.”
(Al-I’tisam, 1/48).
However, Bid`ah can be divided into various categories when considering the linguistic definition. As mentioned earlier, linguistically, Bid`ah means to introduce something , thus any thing that is introduced will (from a linguistic point of view) be termed as Bid’ah .
These innovations may be obligatory, recommended and unlawful. When scholars categorize innovations, this is the aspect they are referring to.
Therefore, innovations such as the study of the disciplines of Arabic that are necessary to understand the Qur’an and sunnah (grammar, syntax, etc), Hadith classification to distinguish between genuine and spurious prophetic traditions, modern technology like electricity, car, plain, light, building of Islamic schools, etc… despite being considered a Bid`ah linguistically, will not be considered a Bid`ah with regards to the Shariah definition, thus they are lawful.
Imam al-Lakhnawi explains this by quoting from al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya of Imam al-Barkawi:
“If it is said that how can we reconcile between the Messenger of Allah’s statement “Every innovation is misguidance” and the Fuqaha’s classification of Bid`ah into the lawful, recommended and the obligatory ?
We will say: Bid`ah has a linguistic meaning that is general, which is to introduce, regardless of whether it is considered worship or is related to personal habits. It (Bid’ah) also has a Shariah definition that is more specific, which is to add or remove in religion in a way that it was not done in the time of the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace) and his Companions, verbally, practically, explicitly or implicitly.
Therefore, (the Shar’i Bid’a) does not include habits (worldly matters), rather it is restricted to certain beliefs and practices”
(Iqamat al-Hujjah, P. 21-22).
Therefore, the classification of Bid`ah in various categories is from a linguistic point of view that does not include the Shar’i definition of Bid’ah .
It is from this, Sayyiduna Umar al-Khattab (Allah be pleased with him) said regarding the performance of Tarawih prayer in congregation
“This is a good innovation.”
Also, practices that do not fall into the Shariah definition of Bid`ah such as building of religious schools will still be considered a Bid`ah linguistically, but not all linguistic innovations are reprehensible.
Finally, it should also be remembered that practices carried out in the time of the rightly guided Khalifas, other Companions and their followers (Allah be plesed with all) can not be considered a Bid’ah .
The great Hanafi jurist and Hadith scholar, Imam Abd al-Hay al-Lakhnawi dedicated a whole chapter in support of this in his famous treatise titled
‘Iqamat al-hujjah ala an al-ikthar fi al-ta’abbud laysa bid’a’.
He states:
“Practices that were carried out with the approval of the Companions (Allah be pleased with them all) but were not done in the time of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), such as the introducing of the First Adhan for Jumu’ah prayer,
Twenty Rak’ats of Tarawih prayer, etc…can not be considered a Shar’i Bid’ah.
There are many evidences for this, just to mention a few :
1) The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said:
“Hold fast on to my ways and the ways of the rightly guided Caliphs.”
(Abu Dawud, Ahmad, Tirmidhi and others with an authentic chain of narrators).
2) The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said:
“follow in the footsteps of the two after me, Abu Bakr and Umar.”
(Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah with a sound chain of narrators).
(See for more details: Iqamat al-Hujjah by Imam Al-Lakhnawi with notes by Shaykh Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, P.25-58).
And Allah Knows Best
Muhammad ibn Adam
Darul Iftaa
Leicester , UK
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