Guidelines to recognise bid'ah

By Mufti  Afzal Hoosen Elias
Edited by Friends of Deoband

Hereunder this servant of Allah states a few guidelines to recognise bid’ah:

1. Not to add e.g. call to prayer (adhaan) after burial or salami before adhaan etc.
2. Not to subtract e.g. 8 rak’ahs of tarawih instead of 20 rak’ahs etc.
3. Not to misplace: e.g. to read the tasbeeh of ruku‘ in sajdah etc.
4. Not to call: e.g. that which we term as taaddi, any Mandoob act is good in itself but to call towards it will render it a bid’ah e.g. Qur’an Tilaawah, congregational Zikr, etc.
5. Not to specify or put conditions: e.g. when Shari’ah has left something open ended we have no right to place conditions, clauses, specifications or restrictions on it, e.g.
   • the graveyard may be visited at any time; but to specify a specific day or night for this would be bid’ah
   • zikr is laudable, now to state that it has to be in unison is bid’ah
   • isaale thawaab for the deceased is established but to specify date, time and/or place is bid’ah
6. Not to compel others: – which we term as iltezaam, for one to decide and recite daily 1 juz (part) of Qur’an is excellent but one cannot make this mubah (permissible) action compulsory on someone else, no sooner one does this it turns to bid’ah.
7. Not to overrate an activity e.g. to take bay’ah (pledge of spiritual purification) to a shaykh is sunnah ghair muakkadah i.e. mustahab and good, preferable, but to state that it is fardh, waajib or sunnah is over-stepping the jurisprudic perimeters; thus bid’ah.
8. One must know that the exceptions (tafaroodat) of the scholars or Ahl al-Tasawwuf should not be classified as the main stream of Islam and one should not adhere to these otherwise a very strange form of Shari’ah will emerge. Thus certain practices of the Ahl al-Tasawwuf should be put into this category to avoid confusion amongst the masses.
9. At a particular time a pious personality did an action. Now people grip upon this as proof of justification, whereas it is the standard basic accepted rule in Shari’ah that the speech, action, statement, inspiration (ilhaam) or dream of a pious person is not proof in Shari’ah. Thus the laws of Shari’ah and valid jurisprudence must be given preference over the actions of pious personalities.
10. Some pious personalities, during the latter part of their lives performed some actions due to an ecstatic condition (haal). This will not be regarded as Shari’ah, and should be regarded as an exception to the rule.
11. The idea and concept that the Masjid becomes a Khanqah as and when one feels like is a completely fallacious theory having no legs to stand on.
12. Bid’ah changes from place to place, sunnah does not.
13. Din is not customs, rituals and civilisations norms.
14. Din is complete; if we add then we are indirectly stating that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not deliver it completely.
15. To specify when the Shari’ah has not done so e.g. it has been established to adorn a turban in Shari’ah; to insist it has to be brown, green, black, white or chocolate in colour is an innovation.

Index: Series on bid’ah