We request from the Noble Scholar to clarify to us the position of the Salaf regarding the people of innovation. May Allah reward you with good!
The Sheikh replied by saying: “The Salaf (i.e. Pious Predecessors) did not consider everyone to be an innovator nor were they in the habit of freely using the term Bid’ah (i.e. innovation/innovator) upon everyone who succumbed to some acts that opposed the Sunnah. They would only describe someone with the term Bid’ah if they did an action that was not supported by legislative evidence, for the purpose of bringing them closer to Allah, Ibadah (i.e. acts of worship) that was not legislated by the Messenger of Allah, based upon his statement:
“Whoever does an act which is not consistent with this affair of ours (i.e. legislated by Allah and His Messenger) then it will be rejected.” (Bukhari)
And in another narration he said:
“Whoever introduces an act into our affair, which is not from it, will have it rejected.” (Bukhari and Muslim)
So Bid’ah (i.e. innovation) is to introduce something new into the religion that is not supported by any textual legislative evidence from the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (Sallahu alaihi wa salam). And if it is confirmed that an individual introduced a new practice in the religion and he refuses to retract it, then the Minhaj (I.e. Methodology) of the Salaf is that they would boycott him and distance themselves from him and refuse to sit in his company.
This was their methodology, but as I stated, only after it is concretely confirmed that he is an innovator, and after he has been advised to retract from his innovation, and at that point he should be boycotted so that his harm does not spread to the others who sit in his company or those who have a relationship with him and in order that the people caution themselves against the innovator and innovation.
As for those who go to such extreme by unrestrictedly using the term Bid’ah upon everyone who opposes someone in an opinion, as if to say that this one is a Mubtadi’ (i.e. innovator) and everyone calling each other innovators, when, in fact, he hasn’t innovated anything in the religion except that he opposed another individual or he opposed you or a group from amongst the many groups, then this individual is in no way a Mubtadi’ (i.e. innovator)!
Anyone who does something that is Haram (i.e. Islamically impermissible) or commits an act of disobedience he is called a sinner, but not every sinner is an innovator! And not everyone who makes a mistake is an innovator, because the innovator is the one who introduces something new into the religion which is not originally from it. This is the innovator! As for those who go to the extreme of using this word Bid’ah unrestrictedly upon everyone who opposes another, this is not correct, because it is possible that the correct view is with the one who is opposing! And this is not from the Minhaj (i.e. Methodology) of the Salaf!
Translated by Abu Azzubayr, Shadeed Muhammad on 5/19/2010 in the Capital of Saudi Arabia, Al Riyadh
This except was taken from PhD. Salih Ibn Fowzan Ibn Abdullah Al Fowzan’s “Lessons In Aqeedah and Da’wah” Vol.3 Pg. 406
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