Innovations in Hajj, ʿUmrah, and Visitation

I have therefore decided to append to this book a short supplement in which I enumerate the innovations connected with Hajj, with visiting the Illuminated City (Madinah), and with Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)¹. Many people are unaware of them and consequently fall into them, so I wished to offer further counsel by clarifying these matters and warning against them. Allah accepts a deed only when two conditions are fulfilled:

First: that it be performed solely for His sake.

Second: that it be sound, and it is not sound unless it accords with the Sunnah and does not contravene it. It is well established among the scholars who investigate such issues that any supposed act of devotion which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ neither prescribed in word nor drew near to Allah through in deed is contrary to his Sunnah, for the Sunnah is of two categories: a Sunnah of practice and a Sunnah of omission. Whatever acts of worship he deliberately refrained from, it is Sunnah for us to refrain from as well. Do you not see, for example, that giving the adhan for the two ʿEid prayers or at the burial of the deceased—despite being an act of remembrance and glorification of Allah—may not be used as a means of drawing near to Him? That is solely because it belongs to the Sunnah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left unperformed.

His Companions grasped this point, and many general warnings against innovations have been transmitted from them. Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (Allah be pleased with him) said:
“Every act of worship that the Companions of Allah’s Messenger ﷺ did not practice—do not practice it.”

Ibn Masʿūd (Allah be pleased with him) said:
“Follow and do not innovate; you have been sufficiently guided. Hold fast to the ancient way.”

Glad tidings, then, to the one whom Allah enables to worship Him with sincerity, to follow the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ, and to keep it free of innovation. Let such a person rejoice in Allah’s acceptance of his obedience and in His admitting him