will witness a great deal of discord. Therefore, adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs after me. Hold to it firmly—bite onto it with your molars—and beware of newly introduced matters, for every novelty is an innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the Fire.” (1) Thus, having commanded the Sunnah, he immediately forbade innovation.

An innovation (bidʿah) is anything introduced into the religion that is not part of it. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever performs an action that is not in accord with our affair, it is rejected.” (2) Hence, every form of worship or devotional act by which a servant seeks nearness to Allah, but for which there is no proof in the Quran or the Sunnah, is an innovation. Even if its practitioner intends closeness to Allah, it only drives him further away; he earns no reward for it—rather, he is punished. The Sunnah, by contrast, is whatever rests upon evidence from the Book or the Sunnah.

Innovations are extremely numerous; people continually invent them. No innovation is to be approved or acted upon, whatever its form and whoever introduced it. Among such innovations are the celebrations held for the Prophet’s birthday; this is an innovation without any proof from the Book