“Every innovation is misguidance.”

Likewise, ʿUmar’s labeling the practice an “innovation” was purely linguistic, for the word bidʿah in ordinary Arabic is broader than its technical meaning in the Sacred Law. His use of the term, therefore, does not mean that it was a religious innovation. Moreover, when ʿUmar said, “What an excellent innovation,” he did so only as a rejoinder, speaking on the level of those who had called it an innovation. To insist that he—may Allah be pleased with him—meant it was a “good innovation,” or that innovations can be inherently good, is nothing but arbitrariness and a slander against ʿUmar and against the religion.