its very grandeur. Hence one realizes that engaging in such innovations flatly contradicts the beliefs that are incumbent upon every Muslim, challenges the messengers in what they brought from Allah, and plants hypocrisy in the heart—even if it be a light hypocrisy.

A parallel case is that of people who once revered Abū Jahl or ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy because of their leadership, wealth, lineage, favors, or power. When the Messenger ﷺ disparaged them, exposed their deficiencies, or ordered that they be humiliated or slain, anyone whose faith was not wholly purified found his heart torn between obeying the Messenger—an obedience rooted in sound belief—and following the inclinations produced by those false assumptions.

Whoever ponders this will know with certainty that innovations are packed with poisons that weaken faith; hence it has been said: “Innovations are derived from disbelief.”

The principle I have outlined applies to every practice the Lawgiver has prohibited among those devotional acts that enjoy no standing in the Sharīʿah—should anyone imagine they possess one—such as praying at graves, slaughtering at idols, and the like. Even if the doer does not actually believe the act is meritorious, the act itself may become a locus for that presumption. Just as establishing a legitimate virtue is an objective, so too is eradicating an illegitimate one.

If it is objected: “These seasonal celebrations, for example, were observed by people of knowledge and virtue—the most truthful saints and others below them—and they yield tangible benefits a believer feels inwardly and outwardly: a purified and softened heart, the lifting of the burdens of sin, answered supplications, and so on. Added to this are the general proofs extolling prayer and fasting, such as the Almighty’s words,

‘Have you seen the one who forbids a servant when he prays?’ (Q 96:9–10),”