Peace All
Simple criteria for the understandings of bidd’ah have to be understood these days … Especially when we feel it there is so much of it around … If we are going to be able to make decisions we need to know what those boundaries are.
Shaykh Zarruq Al-Shadhili Al-Maliki was both a great Sufi and a great Faqih in the Maliki fiqh … He is from the 9th century Hijri (15th century of Christ.)
Some people believe that bidd’a is a matter of “additions to worship that have not been done by RasoolAllah (SAW) or his companions (RA) as presented in Hadith”
This is actually a very unhelpful definition … And itself is not present in Hadith so itself as a definition is throwing itself out as a bidd’ah statement.
There are actually many things that may not be present in Hadith and not bidd’ah, and there are several bidd’aat which are meritorious and not reprehensible.
The definition is presented as so:
A bidd’ah sareehah … Three points:
- Is if we say something is of religious benefit when in fact it is not and include it
- Is if we say something is not of religious benefit when in fact it is and do not include it
- To give a shariah ruling to something that does not belong to it
So yes there are people who are calling others mubtad’i when they add things, but in reverse there are others who call them mubtad’i for removing meritorious acts as not part of
Islam …
This is is where Khilaf helps us … If there is ikhtilaf in a matter between scholars then neither can call each other a mubtad’i …
Another class of bidd’ah which is bidd’ah idafiyah … Is that there are things that are new but do hold merit which can be seen either because they aid the process of what is already good or because they prevent a bad from what is already bad.
Also if someone does something out of ignorance or necessity it is not bidd’ah … Because the intent needs to be there to qualify. Ignorance however is a blameworthy state but has a different ruling. The definition above allows all exegesis and developments in understanding Islam to be nestled neatly within Islam … As they would be new matters but the oft given definition does not allow for new understandings and rulings to be extracted at all.