بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

INNOVATIONS OF GUIDANCE ARE REWARDABLE

Praise be to Allah. We humbly ask Allah to raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, , his Al and Companions, and to protect his nation from that which he fears for it. We ask Allah to enable us to learn that which benefits us, to increase our knowlege, and to grant us the sincere intentions. We humbly ask Allah to facilitate for us the routes of goodness and to protect us from the routes that lead to Hellfire. Thereafter:

Imam Muslim related from the route of Jarir Ibn ^Abdillah, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

"من سَنَّ فى الإسلامِ سُنةً حسنةً فله أجرها وأجرُ من عمل بها إلى يوم القيامة
لا ينقُصُ من أجورهم شىءٌ، ومن سَنَّ فى الإسلامِ سُنةً سيئةً فعليهِ وِزرُها وَوِزْرُ مَنْ عمل بها
إلى يوم القيامةِ لا يَنْقُصُ من أوزارهم شىءٌ"

This means: <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice it until the Day of Judgement, without lessening the rewards of those who practice it. The one who innovates the innovation of misguidance carries this sin and the sins of those who practice it until the day of Judgement, without lessening the sins of those who practice it.>>

This hadith, which is confirmed and of the sahih classification, is a foundation for proving the validity of the good innovations in Islam. The good innovation is called the `liked innovation (bid^ah hasanah).' The saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the hadith refers to the good innovation as opposed to the bad innovation signifying that it includes those innovations that comply with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, . Every innovation innovated by the people of knowledge that complies with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, is a good innovation, as indicated by the aforementioned hadith of the Prophet r: <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice it until the Day of Judgement, without lessening the rewards of those who practice it>>.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, mentioned this hadith in relation to a specific incident which occured when a group of very poor people came to him. They were so poor that they could not afford an article of clothing for both the upper and lower part of their bodies. Out of their poverty, each covered his body by wearing a sheet of material with an opening cut in it for the head. Although these people were not inhabitants of al-Madinah, they had come there out of their love and desire to meet the Prophet. When the Prophet, peace be upon him, saw their state of poverty, sadness was expressed on his face. The Prophet, peace be upon him, urged the Muslims to contribute and pay in charity what would be enough to lift the sadness and the need of those needy people. One man stood up, came forward, and put something between the hands of the Prophet, peace be upon him, as a contribution to those people. Another came forward with a contribution, then a third, and a fourth. One brought food and another clothing, until a large quantity gathered between the hands of the Prophet, peace be upon him, . At that time, the face of the Prophet, peace be upon him, expressed happiness, and he said: <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice it until the Day of Judgement, without lessening the rewards of those who practice it>>.

Although the Prophet, peace be upon him, stated this hadith at that specific incident, the meaning is general and covers the general cases. It is not permissible to claim that this hadith applies only to charity because the Prophet ü used a general term in it. He did not specify the reward to `the one who innovates a good innovation.' The Prophet, peace be upon him, used a general term in this hadith, even though it was revealed for a specific incident. It is the rule among the scholars that if an ayah or hadith was revealed for a specific incident or a specific reason yet a general term was used in that ayah or hadith, then the criterion would be in the general meaning of the term and not by the specificity of the incident.

Any Muslim who knows of an innovation innovated by the pious Muslim scholars which complies with the Qur'an and the Hadith, let him step forward and apply it. All such innovations which comply with the Qur'an and the Hadith are covered and included by the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, : <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice it until the Day of Judgement, without lessening the rewards of those who practice it.>> Hence this hadith is a foundation to confirm the validity of the good innovation in Islam. Moreover, the practice of the Companions and what we have witnessed from the pious Muslims stands as more proof of the validity of the good innovations.

Some people falsely claim that anything that was innovated after the Prophet, peace be upon him, is an innovation of misguidance. Their statement contradicts the saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him, previously mentioned; and it contradicts the practice of the Companions and their followers. One example of a good innovation is that which was done by Yahya Ibn Ya^mar, namely, adding the dots above and below some of the Arabic letters in the Qur'an. Those who scribed the Revelation that came down on the Prophet, peace be upon him, wrote the ayahs of the Qur'an without the dots that are present today in the Arabic letters. For example, the letter ba' (ب) was written without a dot underneath; the letter ta' (ت) was written without two dots on top; and the letter tha' (ث) was written without three dots above.

The entire Qur'an was written without these dots over or under the letters. Adding the dots took place more than 20 years after the death of the
Prophet, peace be upon him, .

When the Companions wrote down the Qur'an, they did so without writing the dots. This was for a certain wisdom. The Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet with different ways of recitation. In some of the recitations, the word would be recited with the letter ta' (تـ) and in other recitations, it would be recited with the letter ya' (يـ). The ta' (تـ) and the ya' (يـ) are written in the same shape, however, they differ in the placement of the dots on them. Writing the word without the dots allows for either the ta' (تـ) or the ya' (يـ) to be read. As such, one Book compiling the letters and the words (without the dots) becomes sufficient for more than one recitation.

Yahya Ibn Ya^mar was the first to innovate the convention of using dots on the Arabic letters. He was among the pious and trustworthy followers of the Companions. His action of applying the dots on the letters is included in the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, referring to the one who innovates a good innovation in Islam. When the Companions witnessed this innovation, they did not disagree with him; they did not blame him and say, "You have done something that the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not do." They did not tell him, "The Prophet, peace be upon him, was not explicit about doing such a thing, how dare you do it?"

When the benefit of this innovation became apparent at the time of Yahya Ibn Ya^mar, the Companions did not object to it. At that time, many of the non-Arabs had embraced Islam and their reading the Qur'an without making errors constituted a hardship for them. To reduce the difficulty, Yahya applied the dots to the Qur'an. The Companions found that to be a good action on his part. This innovation of Yahya Ibn Ya^mar is included and covered by the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, (related by Imam Muslim): <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward...>>

There are some who falsely claim: "Everything that was not done at the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and done later on is an innovation of misguidance." If one followed this faulty reasoning, one would have to remove all of the dots from all of the texts of the Qur'an that are available today, before one could start raising other points falsely. Had the claim of such a person been true, it would have been an obligation to remove the dots on all of the texts that are available today. Yet, the Companions did not do that, and they did not order it to be done. All those who came after them, from the scholars and the lay people- until the present day- have read the Qur'anic texts with dots.

Those who denied the good innovation- namely, the Wahhabis- originated in the location of Najd in Saudi Arabia. The Prophet, peace be upon him, dispraised Najd, as related by al-Bukhariyy: His saying:

"منها الفتن والزلازل"

means: <<The tribulations and the seditions emerge from that location.>>

There are other examples of innovations which are unanimously agreed upon among all the scholars of Hadith. The scholars of Hadith innovated something not done by the Prophet or by the Companions. The practice that the scholars of Hadith did together was to have a session for the people to attend and listen, where they would relate the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, with a continuous chain of narration back to the Prophet, peace be upon him, . This particuar session had specific rules that the scholars of Hadith knew. They said that it was liked for the session to commence with saying "Bismillah," then "al-Hamdulillah," then "as-Salatu ^alan-Nabiyy", and then someone with good recitation would recite from the Qur'an. The one who conveyed to the people from the scholar of Hadith addressed him by asking, "Whom do you want to mention? May Allah endow mercy on you." At that point, the scholar of Hadith would start narrating his chain, i.e., for example: X narrated to us from Y from Z, and so on, all the way back to the Prophet, peace be upon him, . Such a session used to include thousands of people. In some sessions more than 30,000 people gathered. The scholar of Hadith would not be able to make everyone in such a large session hear his voice so there were `conveyers,' people who would convey that which they heard to those around them.

This methodology neither prevailed at the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, , nor at the time of the Sahabah (Companions); Abu Bakr did not do that, nor ^Umar, nor ^Uthman, nor ^Abdullah Ibn Abbas, nor Abu Sa^id al-Khudriyy, nor ^Abdullah Ibn Mas^ud, nor Abu Hurayrah, nor ^Abdullah Ibn ^Umar, nor other than those mentioned among the Companions. Despite this, all the scholars of Hadith unanimously agreed their practice was a good innovation, and they mentioned that in their books. Abu ^Amr Ibn as-Salah mentioned this in his book, Al-Muqaddimah (The Introduction to the Knowledge of Hadith), as well as Hafidh as-Suyutiyy in his book, Tadrib ar-Rawi. Others mentioned this as well.

Those who falsely claim that every innovated matter related to the matters of the Religion is an innovation of misguidance claim they are followers of the scholars of Hadith. Yet, the scholars of Hadith unanimously agreed on the aforementioned order of the Hadith session, and as such, considered it a good innovation. This clearly signifies that the scholars of Islam are on one path and those false claimers are in a totally different direction.

Those perverters, the Wahhabis, commit many innovations that are ugly and disliked. Some of their leaders, after writing the name of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in their books, write the letter sad (ص) alone to signify, in their minds,, peace be upon him, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam. Yet, it is documented in the books of the scholars of Hadith that this is a disliked practice.

Furthermore, some of those Wahhabis claim that it is haram for the mu'adhdhin([1]) to say as-Salatu ^alan-Nabiyy in a loud voice after finishing the adhan. One of them, in the past, mentioned that this practice is so haram that it is similar to the one who fornicates with his own mother. This is an indication of the illness in his heart; otherwise such words would not come out of him. Saying as-Salatu ^alan-Nabiyy is a good practice, whether said before or after the adhan, with a loud or soft voice, because the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

"مَن ذكرنِى فَلْيُصَلّ علَّى"

This means: <<He who mentions me, let him say as-Salah([2]) for me.>> In the adhan, the mu'adhdhin mentions the name of the Prophet r. When he utters the Two Testifications, he mentions the name of the Prophet, peace be upon him, . Hence, it is sunnah for him to say as-Salah for the Prophet, peace be upon him, . In doing so, he is complying with the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, . The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not say, "Let him say as-Salah for me in a whisper or softly." Nor did the Prophet, peace be upon him, say, "Let him say as-Salah for me in a loud voice." The Prophet ü said in a general term: <<Let him say as-Salah for me.>> This includes saying it aloud and in a whisper, such that he who says as-Salah for the Prophet ü with a loud voice or a soft voice, is included in the hadith, i.e., he is complying with the hadith. Where is the entitlement for the Wahhabis to render this forbidden, by saying that this action was not done at the time of the Prophet r? The Prophet, peace be upon him, was explicit in his hadith related by Imam Muslim, i.e., <<The one who innovates a good innovations a good innovation in Islam has its reward.>> Moreover, the Prophet, peace be upon him, ordered the one who mentions him to say as-Salatu ^alan-Nabiyy. Hence, they are not entitled to render saying as-Salatu ^alan- Nabiyy in a loud voice as haram (forbidden).

If those people think that this is a valid rule, then anything which was not done at the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, would be an innovation of misguidance. Proceeding with this faulty reasoning would render haram the celebration of the birth of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the mu'adhdhin's saying as-Salah for the Prophet, peace be upon him, after the adhan, and would require those perverters to remove those dots from all the copies of the books of Qur'an (Mushafs). However, their rule has no foundation in the Religion. Hence, they are left with false claims. Those people themselves fell in the trap of committing unliked or disliked innovations- including writing the sad (ص) or sal^am (صلعم) after the name of the Prophet, peace be upon him, , among other things which are classified as disliked practices. Those people are committing these things and then try to deny the Muslims the right and the reward of innovating innovations that are good in Islam.

In summary, all which is innovated and is in compliance with the Qur'an, Hadith, and Ijma^ of the nation is classified as a good innovation. Imam ash-Shafi^iyy said that the innovation is of two kinds: one is an innovation of guidance, and the other is an innovation of misguidance. He said what complies with the Qur'an, Hadith, Ijma^, and sayings of the Companions is an innovation of guidance, and that which contradicts the Qur'an, Hadith, Ijma^, and sayings of the Companions is an innovation of misguidance.

He who knows that matter will understand the meaning of the innovation that the Prophet, peace be upon him, mentions in another hadith:

"وكلُّ بدعةٍ ضلالةٌ"

which some people might translate it by saying: "Every innovation is misguidance." The Prophet, peace be upon him, was referring to those innovations that contradict the Qur'an, contradict the Hadith, contradict the Ijma^, and contradict the sayings of the Companions. The true meaning of the hadith is: <<Most of the innovations are innovations of misguidance.>> This is the correct meaning of this hadith, because the Prophet, peace be upon him, himself said in a sahih hadith: <<He who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward.>>

Both hadiths mentioned are of the sahih classification. One was related by at-Tirmidhiyy, and the second was related by Muslim. It is not permissible to eliminate one of these two hadiths. Rather, the correct methodology is to reconcile the meaning of one hadith with the other. By reconciling the meanings of these two hadiths, one would know the proper definition of the innovation of guidance and the innovation of misguidance that has been stated.

Adhere and hold on tightly to the definition of the good innovation and the innovation of misguidance from Imam ash-Shafi^iyy. It is known that Imam ash-Shafi^iyy is one of the great leaders of this honorable nation. This definition was followed by the scholars before Imam ash-Shafi^iyy and those who came after him. Many scholars mentioned this specific definition, including: Imam al-Bayhaqiyy, Imam an-Nawawiyy, ^Izzuddin Ibn ^Abdis-Salam, and Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-^Asqalaniyy.

Supporting that classification of Imam ash-Shafi^iyy are two hadiths of the Prophet, peace be upon him, . The first is a hadith that was related by al-Bukhariyy and Muslim:

"مَن أحدثَ فى أمرنا هذا ما ليس منه فهو ردٌّ"

This means: <<If anyone innovates in our Religion a matter which does not belong to it, then it is rejected.>> This means that the innovation must conform to the Religion of Islam, or else it must be rejected. The second hadith:

"من عَمِلَ عملا ليس عليه أمرُنا فهو رَدٌّ"

means: <<If anyone practices something which contradicts our Religion, then it is rejected.>> In meaning, both of the hadiths are the same, yet the second hadith has a specific terminology that is used, and an understanding pertaining to that terminology. This terminology pertains to dispraising what is innovated in the Religion, specifically what contradicts the Religion. This clearly denotes that the things innovated which comply with the Religion are not dispraised, because the Prophet, peace be upon him, specifically said: <<The one who innovates something that does not conform to the rules of our Religion>>. Hence, the innovation which complies with the Qur'an, Hadith, Ijma^, and sayings of the Companions belongs to the innovations of guidance. One should not be scared upon hearing the false claim, i.e., "Everything which the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not do is an innovation of misguidance," because, again, when the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

كُلُّ بدعةٍ ضلالةٌ

he referred to every innovation that does not comply with the religious rules; such innovation is misguidance. This is so because the other hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, confirms that any innovation which is innovated in compliance with the Qur'an, Hadith, Ijma^, and sayings of the Companions is praiseworthy and rewardable.

Praise be to Allah; and Allah knows best.