They go on to argue that certain practices were introduced without objection from the early generations, such as compiling the Qur’an in a single volume and recording and collecting the ḥadith. The answer is that all of these matters rest on clear foundations in the Sacred Law and therefore are not true innovations. As for ʿUmar’s comment, “What a good innovation this is,” he meant innovation in its linguistic sense, not in the technical, legal sense. Anything that already has a precedent in the Sharīʿah—if someone happens to call it an innovation—is only an innovation linguistically, not religiously. A legal innovation, by definition, is whatever lacks any basis to which it can be referred.

Compiling the Qur’an in one book does have such a basis, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered that the Qur’an be written down. It had been recorded on separate parchments, so the Companions gathered it into a single muṣḥaf to safeguard it. Likewise, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) led his Companions in the Ramadan night prayer for several nights and then refrained, fearing it might become obligatory. The Companions continued to pray it in scattered groups during his lifetime and after his death until ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) gathered them behind one imam, just as they had once stood behind the Prophet himself. This is therefore not a religious innovation. Writing down the ḥadith, too, rests on an established precedent.