Detailed Description of Bid’ah in Islam

Bismillaah. All praise is to Allaah Lord and Cherisher of the worlds. I testify that none and nothing has the right to be worshiped except Allah alone and Muhammad is His Final Messenger.

Detailed Discussion of Bid’ah and Shirk

So the question arises, can we call people who do shirk and bid’ah Muslims?

This question involves two issues, bid’ah (innovation) and shirk (polytheism, association of others with Allaah).

A. Bid’ah.

This issue may be divided into three topics:

1. Definition of bid’ah 2. Categories of bid’ah 3. Rulings on one who commits bid’ah – does that make him a kaafir or not?

1. Definition of bid’ah.

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “According to sharee’ah, the definition is ‘Worshipping Allaah in ways that Allaah has not prescribed.’ If you wish you may say, ‘Worshipping Allaah in ways that are not those of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) or his rightly guided successors (al-khulafaa’ al-raashidoon).’”
The first definition is taken from the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

“Or have they partners with Allaah (false gods) who have instituted for them a religion which Allaah has not ordained?” [Qur'an al-Shooraa 42:21]

The second definition is taken from the hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), who said:

“I urge you to adhere to my way (Sunnah) and the way of the rightly-guided successors (al-khulafa’ al-raashidoon) who come after me. Hold fast to it and bite onto it with your eyeteeth [i.e., cling firmly to it], and beware of newly-invented matters.”

So everyone who worships Allaah in a manner that Allaah has not prescribed or in a manner that is not in accordance with the way of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) or his rightly-guided successors (al-khulafa’ al-raashidoon), is an innovator, whether that innovated worship has to do with the names and attributes of Allaah, or to do with His rulings and laws.

With regard to ordinary matters of habit and custom, these are not called bid’ah (innovation) in Islam, even though they may be described as such in linguistic terms. But they are not innovations in the religious sense, and these are not the things that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was warning us against.

And there is no such thing in Islam as bid’ah hasanah (good innovation).”

(Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, vol. 2, p. 291)

2. Categories of bid’ah

Bid’ah may be divided into two categories:

(i) bid’ah which constitutes kufr

(ii) bid’ah which does not constitute kufr

If you ask, what is the definition of bid’ah which constitutes kufr and that which does not constitute kufr?

The answer is:

Shaykh Haafiz al-Hukami (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “The kind of bid’ah which constitutes kufr is when one denies a matter on which there is scholarly consensus, which widely-known, and which no Muslim can have any excuse for not knowing, such as denying something that is obligatory, making something obligatory that is not obligatory, or making something haraam halaal, or making something halaal haraam; or believing some notion about Allaah, His Messenger and His Book when they are far above that, whether in terms of denial of affirmation – because that means disbelieving in the Qur’aan and in the message with which Allaah sent His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

Examples include the bid’ah of the Jahamiyyah, who denied the attributes of Allaah; or the notion that the Qur’aan was created; or the notion that some of the attributes of Allaah were created; or the bid’ah of the Qadariyyah who denied the knowledge and actions of Allaah; or the bid’ah of the Mujassimah who likened Allaah to His Creation… etc.

The second category, bid’ah which does not constitute kufr, is defined as that which does not imply rejection of the Qur’aan or of anything with which Allaah sent His Messengers.

Examples include the Marwaani bid’ahs (which were denounced by the greatest Sahaabah who did not approve of them, although they did not denounce them as kaafirs or refuse to give them bay’ah because of that), such as delaying some of the prayers until the end of the due times, doing the Eid khutbah before the Eid prayer, delivering the khutbah whilst sitting down on Fridays, etc.

(Ma’aarij al-Qubool, 2/503-504)

3- The ruling on one who commits bid’ah – is he regarded as a kaafir or not?

The answer is that it depends.

If the bid’ah constitutes kufr, then the person is one of the following two types:

(i) Either it is known that his intention is to destroy the foundations of Islam and make the Muslims doubt it. Such a person is definitely a kaafir; indeed, he is a stranger to Islam and is one of the enemies of the faith.

(ii) Or he is deceived and confused; he cannot be denounced as a kaafir until proof is established against him, fair and square.

If the bid’ah does not constitute kufr, then he should not be denounced as a kaafir. Rather, he remains a Muslim, but he has done a gravely evil action.

If you ask, how should we deal with those who commit bid’ah?

The answer is:

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “In both cases, we have to call these people – who claim to be Muslim but who commit acts of bid’ah which may constitute kufr or may be less than that – to the truth, by explaining the truth without being hostile or condemning what they are doing. But once we know that they are too arrogant to accept the truth – for Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning), ‘And insult not those whom they (disbelievers) worship besides Allaah, lest they insult Allaah wrongfully without knowledge.’ [al-An’aam 6:108] – if we find out that they are stubborn and arrogant, then we should point out their falsehood, because then pointing out their falsehood becomes an obligation upon us.

With regard to boycotting them, that depends upon the bid’ah. If it is a bid’ah which constitutes kufr, then it is obligatory to boycott the person who does it. If it is of a lesser degree than that, then it is essential to examine the situation further. If something may be achieved by boycotting the person, then we do it; if no purpose will be served by it, or if it will only make him more disobedient and arrogant, then we should avoid doing that, because whatever serves no purpose, it is better not to do it. And also in principle it is haraam to boycott a believer, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘It is not permissible for a man to forsake [not speak to] his brother for more than three [days].’”
(Adapted from Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, vol. 2, p. 293)

B. Shirk, its types and the definition of each

Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:

“Shirk is of two types, major shirk which puts a person beyond the pale of Islam, and lesser shirk.”

The first type, major shirk, is “Every type of shirk which the Lawgiver described as such and which puts a person beyond the pale of his religion” – such as devoting any kind of act of worship which should be for Allaah to someone other than Allaah, such as praying to anyone other than Allaah, fasting for anyone other than Allaah or offering a sacrifice to anyone other than Allaah. It is also a form of major shirk to offer supplication (du’aa’) to anyone other than Allaah, such as calling upon the occupant of a grave or calling upon one who is absent to help one in some way in which no one is able to help except Allaah.

The second type is minor shirk, which means every kind of speech or action that Islam describes as shirk, but it does not put a person beyond the pale of Islam – such as swearing an oath by something other than Allaah, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that whoever swears an oath by something other than Allaah is guilty of kufr or shirk.”

The one who swears an oath by something other than Allaah but does not believe that anyone other than Allaah has the same greatness as Allah, is a mushrik who is guilty of lesser shirk, regardless of whether the one by whom he swore is venerated by people or not. It is not permissible to swear by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), or by the President, or by the Ka’bah, or by Jibreel, because this is shirk, but it is minor shirk which does not put a person beyond the pale of Islam.

Another type of minor shirk is showing off, which means that a person does something so that people will see it, not for the sake of Allaah.

The ways in which showing off may cancel out acts of worship are either of the following:

The first is when it is applies to an act of worship from the outset, i.e., the person is not doing that action for any reason other than showing off. In this case, the action is invalid and is rejected, because of the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah which was attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), which says that Allaah said, “I am so self-sufficient that I am in no need of having an associate. Thus he who does an action for someone else’s sake as well as Mine will have that action renounced by Me to him whom he associated with Me.”
(Narrated by Muslim, Kitaab al-Zuhd, no. 2985)

The second is when the showing off happens later on during the act of worship, i.e., the action is originally for Allaah, then showing off creeps into it. This may be one of two cases:

The first is when the person resists it – this does not harm him.

For example, a man has prayed a rak’ah, then some people come along during his second rak’ah and it occurs to him to make the rukoo’ or sujood longer, or makes himself weep, and so on. If he resists that, it does not harm him, because he is striving against this idea. But if he goes along with that, then every action which stemmed from showing off is invalid, such as if he made his standing or prostration long, or he made himself weep – all of those actions will be cancelled out. But does this invalidation extend to the entire act of worship or not?

We say that either of the following must apply:

Either the end of his act of worship was connected to the beginning (with no pause); so if the end of it is invalidated then all of it is invalidated.

This is the case with the prayer – the last part of it cannot be invalidated without the first part also being invalidated, so the whole prayer is invalid.

Or if the beginning of the action is separate from the end of it, then the first part is valid but the latter part is not. Whatever came before the showing off is valid, and what came after it is not valid.

An example of that is a man who has a hundred riyals, and gives fifty of them in charity for the sake of Allaah with a sound intention, then he gives fifty in charity for the purpose of showing off. The first fifty are accepted, and the second fifty are not accepted, because the latter is separate from the former.”

Majmoo’ Fataawa wa Rasaa’il Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, and al-Qawl al-Mufeed Sharh Kitaab al-Tawheed, vol. 1, p. 114, 1st edition

“The point here is: that there are among those who accept the message of Muhammad generally externally, some who hold beliefs internally which invalidate their apparent acceptance of Islam, and as such are hypocrites. Such claim for themselves and for others like them that they are the allies (awliyaa’) of Allah in spite of their hidden, internal kufar or rejection of that which the Prophet (peace be upon him) brought to us – either out of rebelliousness or ignorance, just as many of the Jews and Christians believe that they are the allies of Allah. They may also believe that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him), but they say: “He was sent to other than the Jews and the Christians, and it is not obligatory upon us to follow him because we have already been sent Prophets before him. All of these are disbelievers (kuffar), even though they believe that their group are allies of Allah. The allies of Allah are only those who Allah has described as possessing His wilaya:

[Verily the allies of Allah will have no fear upon them, nor shall they grieve - those who believe and have taqwa of Allah.] Qur’an 10/62-63

Belief (imaan) of necessity entails belief in Allah, His angels, His books, His Prophets, and the Last Day. The believer believes in every Prophet whom Allah has sent, every book which Allah has revealed, as Allah said:

[Say: We believe in Allah and in that which has been sent to us and in that which was sent to Ibrahim and Isma'il and Is-haq and Ya'qub and the Tribes, and that which was given to Musa and 'Isa and that which was given to the Prophets (peace be upon them) from their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them, and we submit to Allah. And so, if they believe in that in which you believe, they have achieved guidance, but if they turn away, they are surely in rebellion. Allah will suffice you against them, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.] Qur’an 2/136-137

[The Prophet has believed in that which was sent to him from his Lord as have the believers. All of them believe in Allah, His angels, His books, and His Messengers. We do not differentiate between any one of His Messengers, and they say: "We hear, and we obey. Your forgiveness, our Lord, to You is the end of all things." Allah does not emburden any soul except with that which is within his ability. To it is (the good of) what it earned, and upon it is (the bad of) what it earned. Our Lord, do not hold us responsible if we forget, or make a mistake. Our Lord, and do not put on us burdens as were placed on those who came before us. Our Lord, and do not put on us that which we have no power over. And over look for us (our sins), and forgive us, and have mercy on us, You are our Guardian and Protector, so give us victory over the people who reject faith.] Qur’an 2/285-286

[A.L.M. This is the book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who are pious. Those who believe in the unseen, establish the prayer, and spend out of what we have provided for them. Those who believe in that which was sent down to you and that which was sent down to those before you, and have certainty of faith in the existence of the hereafter. Such are on true guidance from their Lord, and such are the successful.] Qur’an 2/1-5

Thus, a necessary component of faith (imaan) is to believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the seal of the Prophets, that there is no Prophet after him, and that Allah sent him to all of the two possessors of free will: humans and jinns. Anyone who has not believed in that which he brought is not a believer, much less a pious ally of (waliy) of Allah. Whoever believes in part of what he brought and rejects part is a kafir (disbeliever), and is not a believer. Allah said:
[Those who disbelieve in Allah and His Prophets and seek to differentiate between Allah and His Prophets, and they say: "We believe in some and we reject some" and they seek to strike a path between that. Such are the true disbelievers, and we have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment. As for those who believed in Allah and his Prophets, and sought not to differentiate between any of them, these Allah will give their reward, and Allah is forgiving, merciful.] Qur’an 4/150-152

Faith also includes: belief that the Prophet is the intermediary between Allah and His creation for the purpose of delivering His orders and forbiddances, His promises and threats, and the definition of the halal (allowed) and the haram (forbidden). The halal is that which Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him) have declared halal, and the haram is that which Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him) have made haram. The deen (way) is that which Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him) have ordained. Thus, whoever believes that any waliy has a way to Allah without following Muhammad (peace be upon him) is a kafir, and is an ally of the devil (shaitaan).

As for Allah’s creating of the creation, and his providing them with sustenance, and His answering their supplications, His guiding of their hearts, His aiding them over their enemies, and all other types of bringing about benefit, or driving away harm: all of this is from Allah alone. He does these things, and links them to whatever (observable) causes He wishes. The intermediation of Prophets does not enter into these matters.

Moreover, whatever level a person reaches in terms of asceticism, devotion, and knowledge, but without believing in the entire message brought by Muhammad (peace be upon him) can never make him a believer, nor an ally of Allah, as, for example the monks and ascetics among the scholars and worshippers of the Jews and the Christians. Also, those seeming to have knowledge and devotion among the associationists of Arabia, Turkey, or India, or others among the “sages” of India or Turkey who possess some knowledge, discipline and devotion in their religion, but are not believers in all of the message of Muhammad (peace be upon him), are all kafir (disbelievers) and enemies of Allah. This, even though many may believe them to be allies (awliyaa’) of Allah. Thus, the sages of the Persian Zoroastrians are all kafir, as well as the sages of Greece such as Aristotle and those like him. They were associationists, worshipping idols and the planets. Aristotle was before ‘Isa (Jesus) by three hundred years, and was a minister for Alexander son of Phillips the Macedonian, who is mentioned in the histories of Rome and Greece, as well as the histories of the Christians and the Jews. He is not, however, the same as the man named Dhu-l-Qarnain who Allah mentioned in His book, as some imagined. Some people mistakenly thought that Aristotle was a minister for Dhu-l-Qarnain, when they saw that (the one found in the Western histories) was named Alexander, and the names are similar, they thought that they were one in the same man. This mistaken view has been promulgated by Ibn Seena and some others with him.

This is not the case. Rather, the associationist Alexander – for whom Aristotle was a minister lived much later than the man mentioned in the Qur’an. He never built the wall, and did not travel to the land of Ya Juj and Ma’juj, and the history of the Alexander for which Aristotle served as minister has been recorded in the well-known histories of Rome.

Among the various types of associationists, those of the Arabs, India, Turkey, and Greece, and others are individuals who exert themselves very much in seeking knowledge, disciplining themselves and in devotions, but they do not follow the Prophets, nor do they believe in the messages brought by the Prophets, neither believing them in the information which they passed on from Allah ta’ala, nor obeying them in the orders they transmitted. Such people are not believers, and not allies of Allah. The devils (shayateen) attach themselves to such people, and come to them so that they amaze people with some mysterious acts. They, with the help of their shayateen can perform miraculous feats which is actually sorcery. They are nothing more than a type of sorcerer or fortune-teller upon which the shayateen descend, as Allah said:
[Should I tell you upon whom the shayateen descend? They descend upon every forging sinner. They cast to them the hearing (which they "snatched" from the heavenly assembly), and most of them are liars.] Qur’an 26/221-223

All of these are associated with revealing of secrets and miraculous feats, but are not followers of the prophets. They will always, of necessity lie, and their helpers among the shayateen will also lie to them. Also, there must appear in their actions something which is sinful and corrupt. It may be some form of associationism, oppression, obscenity, or excess or innovation in worship.

Because of these transgressions, the shayateen which have attached themselves to them come to them, so they have become the allies of the devil, and are not of the allies of Allah.”

The Criterian Between The Friends Of Allaah and The Friends of Satan
By: Ibn Taimyyah