Q281 :We are told that voluntary worship wins us
great rewards from Allah. On the other hand, we are repeatedly warned
against innovations that lead us to hell. Any voluntary worship is not
obligatory and therefore, shall I say, an undefined worship. How does
one differentiate between innovation and voluntary worship?
A281 : We often talk about innovations in highly
unfavorable terms. We say that we cannot accept them in our religion
and we must not practice them, no matter who encourages us to do so and
how keenly they are advocated. Heated arguments often take place
between those who insist that innovations have no room in our religion
and those who say that there is no harm in doing something additional
which does not contravene the teachings of Islam. The new thing, they
argue, has no aim other than to worship Allah and earn His pleasure.
This may be so, but it is pertinent to ask: how do you earn Allah’s
pleasure? Indeed, how can you endear yourself to anyone: a parent, a
teacher, a supervisor at work, a ruler, etc. Do you think any of these
will be very pleased with you if you pay no attention to what they
request of you or order you? Or will you be more likely to please them
if you do exactly as they have told you? Someone may suggest that it
is not improbable to visualize a situation where your keenness to
please someone takes you well beyond what he has requested. Your father
may ask you to do something in a particular fashion, but you exert
yourself to do something extra, only to bring happiness to his heart.
He will be ever so pleased with you; so they argue. The fact is that
you are just as likely to incur his displeasure. May be he knows
something which you do not know, and your extra effort will prove to be
counterproductive. If this is true in human dealings, it is more so in
our relationship with Allah. In human relations, we are just as likely
to know the result of a particular action as the other party who
requests something of us or orders us to do it in a particular fashion.
When we are dealing with Allah, our knowledge is limited to our world
and surroundings. Allah’s knowledge is infinite. Therefore, when He
tells us, through His Messenger, something, we stick to it and add
nothing unless we are told by Allah’s messenger that an addition is in
order. We must not forget an essential fact about our religion of
Islam. It is a religion which provides a netplete way of life for us to
follow in order to achieve our own happiness. The cornerstone of this
way of life is that embodied in the declaration by making which we
benete Muslims: “I bear witness that there is no deity save Allah, and
I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger.” The first part of
this declaration relates to submission to Allah’s will. When we make
this declaration, we consciously make a binding pledge that we
surrender ourselves to Allah and we abide by His orders. The second
part of the declaration defines how we should go about putting this
into practice. We declare that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is Allah’s
messenger. This means that only through him we learn how to submit to
Allah and do his bidding. We accept from no one else any teachings or
instruction on how to behave in this life, how to submit to Allah and
worship Him, or how to go about any business of ours. Therefore,
anything that relates to faith and the religion of Islam which is not
netmunicated to us through Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
unacceptable, simply because to accept it would tantamount to a
negation of the Prophet’s role as Allah’s messenger. The Prophet puts
this principle in the clearest of terms. He says: “He who innovates
something in this matter of ours that is not of it, will have it
rejected.” (Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim). The way the Prophet has
phrased this most important principle is highly significant. To start
with, he does not refer to “Islamic worship” or to “concepts of
traditions or practices”. He refers to “this matter of ours” which is a
very general term that incorporates all these and much more. Hence, the
area in which no innovation is admissible is wide indeed. It netprises
everything that Islam involves, and Islam we should remember, is a
netplete way of life. The innovation the Prophet denounces must be the
one which does not belong to Islam: it is “not of it”. Hence, we should
determine whether any practice or belief or idea we may entertain
belongs to Islam as conveyed to us by Allah’s messenger or not. If it
belongs to it, then it is perfectly right. If it does not, then we
should reject it without hesitation. Since there is only one way to
know what belongs to Islam, we must have recourse to it. That way is to
identify what has been conveyed to us by the Prophet and to follow it.
The Prophet says that any innovation is sure to be rejected. The
rejection is from Islam itself in the sense that Islam resembles a
living organism or a body which rejects any foreign element that is
introduced into it. It is, more importantly, rejected by Allah who does
not allow anyone to add to the faith He has revealed to His messenger.
By adding anything, one is placing oneself on the same level with
Allah. This cannot be accepted from anyone. When we offer any worship
which is not obligatory but voluntary, as has been shown to us by His
messenger, we are only doing what we have been bid to do. Thus we are
not indulging in any kind of innovation. Should we not ask ourselves:
What is the purpose of innovation or addition? If it is to please Allah
and to be religious, then an innovation does not fall within this
category of actions. What we have to remember here is that the Prophet
was the most sincere of all servants of Allah. His worship was the most
perfect any human being can do. Hence if something was not done or
practiced by him at any time, it does not belong to Islamic worship or
Islamic faith. Someone may suggest here that we may do something which
the Prophet has not done, but still falls within Islamic worship. What
view is taken of such an action. To give an example, is it permissible
to offer a certain prayer, of the same type and form as ordinary
prayer, but which the Prophet did not practice? The answer is simple:
If the Prophet has said that it can be practiced, then we can go ahead
and do it. If it has not [been practiced], then we are inventing
something new. This is not open to a Muslim to do. The reason is that
if we leave the door open for such actions, it will never be closed
and Islamic worship may swell to larger and larger proportions. To
illustrate, let us take the case of fasting in Ramadan. We are required
to begin our fast when we have made certain that the new moon of the
month of Ramadan has been born and sighted. If some people cannot
determine whether the moon could be sighted, because the sky was a
little cloudy, should they fast the following day just in case the moon
has been born? The answer is definitely no. The Prophet has forbidden
us fasting on the day of doubt. We have to start our fasting in the
certainty that the month has started. This can only be ascertained if
the moon has been actually sighted or the previous month has been
netpleted. Hence, the Prophet says: “Fast when you have sighted the
moon and end your fast when you have sighted the new moon. Should the
sky be too cloudy to sight the new moon, netplete the month of Sha’ban
to 30 days.” We must strictly follow this order. If we were to fast a
day in advance “just in case”, we may take the count of the month of
Ramadan to 31 days, which is impossible. Moreover, it is easy to
visualize a situation where, by the passage of time, fasting 31 days
benetes the norm and an addition of another day, “just in case”, may be
preferred. There is a clear rule which is of great help in such
matters. If the new innovation is part of Islamic worship, but it is
simply just a little extra and it has certain rules and regulations and
specific times to offer it, then it is an innovation to which the
description “erroneous” – which the Prophet has used to describe all
innovations – applies. There are numerous examples to be taken from the
Sufi circle of such innovations. All these must be rejected because the
Prophet has not endorsed them.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )