prohibited once it is clearly recognized as an innovation. Within the realm of innovations there is nothing—as some people imagine—that is merely at the level of being disliked (makrūh). How could that be when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

"Every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire," meaning its practitioner will be there.

This was demonstrated most thoroughly by Imām al-Shāṭibī (may Allah have mercy on him) in his monumental work Al-Iʿtiṣām. Hence the affair of innovation is extremely serious; most people remain heedless of it, and only a small group of the scholars truly understand it. As proof enough of the peril of innovation, consider the Prophet’s statement:

"Allah has barred repentance from every follower of an innovation until he abandons his innovation."

It was related by al-Ṭabarānī, al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in Al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah, and others with an authentic chain, and al-Mundhirī judged it sound.1

I shall conclude these remarks with a counsel I present to the readers from one of the eminent early scholars of Islam, Shaykh Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Barbahārī, a disciple of Imām Aḥmad (may Allah have mercy on them), who died in 329 AH. He said:

"Beware of the small newly-invented matters, for minor innovations keep recurring until they become major. Every innovation that was introduced into this community began as something slight that resembled the truth; those who entered into it were deceived, then could no longer escape from it. It grew and became a creed to which people adhere. Therefore, may Allah have mercy on you, examine everyone whose words you hear in your own time especially. Do not be hasty, and do not enter into anything of it until you ask and investigate: Did any of the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ speak about it, or any of the scholars? If you find a trace from them, hold fast to it and do not go beyond it for anything, nor prefer anything else over it, lest you fall into the Fire.

And know—may Allah have mercy on you—that a person’s Islam is not complete until he is a follower and a believer."