What is Bida (Innovation)?
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Asalam alaikum
What i comment is that Adding some thing new in the "Qalma" (Shahada) i.e Shia added something new
their Qalma is "Ash-hadu
An la Illaha Illallah, Wa Ash-Hadu ana
Mohammed Rasool Allah, Wa anna Ali'un Waliyahu,
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, Mohammed is His Messenger and
Ali is his "wali", guardian/etc"
So i say, this addition is Bidah What do u say??
Then this br replied and said:
My dear sister
Salams,
You said: it is
BIDAH when you add something in Religion(ISLAM) that
was not in it. You also said: a bidah is BIDAH......
If this is your criteria that each and every thing introduced to religion is Biddah... than how would you explain some of the following
things that were introduced long after Peophet (SAWW)
passed away.
1-Adhan on loudspeaker, is that biddah?
2-Nikah on phone,
is that biddah?
3-Zam Zam water in Masjid e Nabawi in Madinah, is that biddah?
4-"Sawaian"
sweet dish on Eid day, is that biddah?
5-"As salato khairun min an naum" in morning Adhan, is that biddah?
6-Congressional
prayers (Tarawih) in Ramadhan,
is that biddah?
Were all these things practiced at the time of our beloved Prophet
(SAWW)???????? If not, than are they all Biddah ????????
Dear Br inIslam Buhran
I ask you am i wrong? isn't
that Qalma wrong isn't that Bidah,
as they have added new in the Qalma???
How to reply this br in Islam i am confused,? does that mean there is right? the part they added??
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
Answer:
What is Bid’a (Innovation)?
In the name of Allah, We praise
Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none
can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright.
We bear witness that there is no one (no idol,
no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai,
nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that
Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
It has been
reported in an authentic narration that the Prophet of Allah (saws) said: “Whoever introduces a ‘bida’
(innovation) in this deen brought by me (saws), it
will be rejected.”
A bida
or innovation is something which is added to the deen
of Islam as was revealed to, and practiced by the Messenger of Allah
(saws). It especially concerns the
rites and rituals of worship, or any deed which was not performed by the
Messenger of Allah (saws), but was added after his death. It also concerns any innovated deed which
one does and believes that by doing this innovated deed, he is eligible to earn
more reward from Allah Subhanah.
Ref: the Kalima:
There is absolutely no doubt
that the last sentence of ‘I declare that Ali is the Wali
of Allah’, was added to the kalima
and the adhaan after the death of the Messenger of
Allah (saws). In fact, even when Imam Ali (r.a.) was the Khalifa and Ameer ul Mumineen, this sentence was not pronounced in the kalima or the adhaan. No Islamic scholar of any school of thought
can claim that this sentence was pronounced in the kalima
or the adhaan which was declared during the time of
the Prophet (saws) and the Ameer ul
Mumineen.
The declaration of the kalima and the adhaan are part of
the deen of Islam, and Allah Himself has declared in the
Glorious Quran that He has completed and perfected
this deen in the aayah that
was revealed to the Messenger of Allah (saws). Thus, nothing can be added or subtracted
from the deen of Islam without the direct permission
of Allah and His Messenger (saws).
Whoever does so,
will be following a bida or
innovation, not the Quran
and the Sunnah of the Messenger (saws).
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 5 Surah Al Maidah verse 3:Today I (Allah)
have perfected your deen for you and completed my
Blessing on you and approved Islam as your way of life.
It has been
reported by Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib
(r.a.) that the Prophet of
Allah (saws) said: “If anyone introduces an innovation (in religion), he will
be responsible for it. If anyone
introduces an innovation or gives shelter to a man who introduces an innovation
(in religion), he is cursed by Allah, by His angels, and by all the people.”
It has been reported
by Jabir ibn Abdullah (r.a.) in another authentic
narration that the Prophet of Allah (saws) said in a sermon: “The best speech is that which is embodied in
the Book of Allah, the Al Quran; and the best
guidance is the guidance given by me, Mohamed (saws). The most evil affairs are the innovations,
and every innovation is an error.”
It is also a fact, and it is the
belief of every believer, that Imam Ali (r.a.)
is indeed the Wali (friend) of Allah. But to make this belief a declaration, and
pronounce this declaration as part of the kalima or
the adhaan is a clear and manifest innovation.
Bida is
something that is added and believed to be part of the deen of Islam, when that particular act or deed
was not performed by the Messenger of Allah (saws). Worship, and all the rites, rituals and
declaration of worship were clearly laid out by the Messenger of Allah (saws);
he himself performed them, and taught the believers how to perform them. No one, who was ever born on this planet
earth, worshipped Allah Subhanah in a better manner
than the person of the Messenger of Allah (saws). And it is our duty as believers, to follow
exactly what the Messenger of Allah (saws) did in his worship, and leave alone
whatever he did not include in the rites of worship. To add something to any rite of worship from
our own self, over and above what was the practice of the Messenger of Allah
(saws) is to imply that the worship of the Messenger of Allah (saws) was
incomplete and he did not teach the believers the correct way to worship the
Lord of the Worlds!!!!
Every act of worship was
performed and approved by the Messenger of Allah (saws), and absolutely nothing
can be added to it. But all the things,
which did not form part of the deen, were left to the
intelligence, discovery and invention of mankind. We can probably list thousands of things
which we do today, which were not practiced by the Messenger of Allah (saws) in
his life time, simply because those things were not yet discovered, or
invented, or were not the norm! But
each of them were not part of the deen
of Islam…. Nor was doing them considered
a virtue, or abstaining from them considered a sin!
Example:
1. The mosques, houses, etc. built at the time of
the Prophet were of mud, clay, and palm trees and leaves. Today, we pray in mosques made of bricks and
mortar. This cannot be called an
innovation because no believer believes that praying in a mosque of bricks and
mortar earns a bigger reward than mosques built of mud and palm trees!
2. People at the time of the Prophet (saws) used
to relieve themselves outdoors as it was not a norm to build toilets in the
houses. But no believer believes that
our relieving in the toilets of our houses earns a bigger reward or is a sin!
3. People used to travel on camels or horseback
in the time of the Prophet (saws). But
no believer believes that one earns a bigger or lesser reward on traveling in
cars, planes, etc.
There are literally thousands of
things which are different in the way we live our lives today, as compared to
the times of the Prophet (saws)…. But they do not form part of the deen! Anything that is added to the deen of
Islam, its rites, its rituals, its worship, etc. will be considered a
‘bida’ and must be immediately rejected by the
believers!
Now to address the specific
questions of the brother:
1-Adhan on
loudspeaker, is that biddah?
The loudspeaker cannot be
considered a bida, simply because this technology did
not exist in the time of the Prophet (saws)!
But there is no believer who believes that announcing the adhaan on the loudspeaker will earn him a better reward
than without, or that the adhaan is incomplete if not
announced on the loudspeaker. The adhaan is part of the deen, not
the loudspeaker! Thus if one changes the
adhaan, it will be an innovation!
2-Nikah on phone, is
that biddah?
Again, same
conditions as the loudspeaker applies, as the phones were not invented
during the time of the Prophet (saws).
The nikaah is part of the deen
of Islam, not the telephone! Thus if
anyone changes the rite or ritual of nikaah itself,
that would be an innovation.
3-Zam Zam water in Masjid e Nabawi in Madinah, is that biddah?
The zam-zam
water can be transported and consumed anywhere… and if there are ways to
transport this water to every corner of the world, there is absolutely no harm
in drinking it anywhere. The drinking of
the zam-zam water is part of the deen;
not the place where one drinks it!
If someone takes water from any
other well or spring in the world, and treats it like zam-zam,
then it would be a bida! Or, if someone believes that drinking zam-zam water is better in
4-"Sawaian"
sweet dish on Eid day, is that biddah?
The making or eating of ‘sawaian’ is part of the Indo-Pak culture and is not part of
the deen of Islam.
No believer believes that eating ‘sawaian’ on
the Day of Eid earns him an extra reward from Allah Subhanah! Yes, if
someone believes that eating ‘sawaian’ earns him
extra reward, or not eating it on the Day of Eid is a
sin, then it can be called a bida! Eid is part of
Islam, not the eating of ‘sawaian’!
But if someone starts
celebrating every 25th December as the Day of Eid,
that would be considered a bida!
5-"As salato khairun min an naum" in morning Adhan, is that biddah?
There is an authentic narration
related from Hadrat Bilaal
that this sentence of ‘The Prayer is better than sleep’ was added and
pronounced during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (saws). If this narration is taken, then obviously,
it is following the Sunnah of the Prophet (saws), and
not an innovation.
There is also a narration which
states that this sentence was added during the lifetime of Hadrat
Umar (r.a.). Even if this is believed, it cannot be
considered a bida, as the Messenger of Allah (saws)
commanded that it is incumbent upon the believers to follow his (saws) Sunnah,
and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Khalifas; and they
are Abu Baqr, Umar, Uthmaan, Ali, and Hasan ibn Ali.
Sunan of Abu-Dawood
Hadith 4590 Narrated
by Irbad ibn Sariyah
The Messenger of
Allah (saws) said: “You must follow my Sunnah and that of the Rightly-Guided Khalifas.”
Besides, even if we accept the
narration that Hadrat Umar
(r.a.) introduced this
phrase in the adhaan, there were literally thousands
of the noble companions of the Prophet (saws) alive at that time and none of
them objected to it. Among them were Uthmaan, Ali, Ammar bin Yasir, Salman al Farsi, etc. And also, when Hadrat
Imam Ali ibn Abi Taalib (r.a.) became the Ameer ul Mumineen,
he did not change the adhaan that was pronounced for
the fajr prayer, and the phrase of ‘As Salaato Khairun minan naum’
was declared even in his time.
6-Congressional
prayers (Tarawih) in Ramadhan,
is that biddah?
The Taraweeh
prayers in Ramadan cannot be considered a biddah,
simply because the Messenger of Allah (saws) himself led the Taraweeh prayers in his own lifetime in congregation for
three nights and only stopped praying them in congregation because he feared
that they would be made obligatory on the believers. After the death of the Prophet (saws), Hadrat Umar (r.a.) saw the believers praying separately, and since
there was no fear of anything becoming obligatory as the Revelations were
completed during the lifetime of the Prophet (saws), he re-introduced the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (saws).
Also, there were thousands of
the noble companions of the Prophet (saws) alive at this time and no one
objected to this Sunnah being re-introduced; and the
likes of Umar, Uthmaan,
Ali, Ammar, etc.
joined and prayed the Taraweeh
prayers in congregation again. And when
Hadrat Imam Ali (r.a.) was appointed the Ameer
ul Mumineen, he did not
stop the congregational praying of Taraweeh prayers
in Ramadan, but rather he himself prayed the Taraweeh
in congregation.
Yes, what is indeed bidah, is
the adhoc number of ‘washeqs’
that some sects in Islam pray on the appointed nights, and the ‘gaal lotawanu’ which the sect has
introduced after the ‘washeq’ of the 23rd night of Ramadan. There is absolutely no evidence that these
rites of worship were ever done by the Messenger of Allah (saws)! Never did the Messenger of Allah (saws),
his noble companions, or his chaste and noble ‘ahle-bayt’
ever do the rite of sajdah whereby they rested their
face on the right/left cheek, rather than the forehead! This is a manifest bidah
and innovation in the deen of Islam, whereby
something that was never done by the Messenger of Allah (saws) and/or his noble
companions, is introduced into the deen of Islam
after his death!
Whatever written of Truth and
benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error
is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He
is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Wister