In the Sacred Law, the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—did in fact instruct certain Companions to write down specific hadith when they asked him for permission. His general reservation about writing during his lifetime was only out of fear that non-Qur’anic material might be confused with the Qur’an. Once he passed away, that concern no longer applied, for the Qur’an had already been completed and precisely preserved. The Muslims then proceeded to commit the hadith to writing in order to protect them from loss. May Allah reward them richly on behalf of Islam and the Muslims, for they safeguarded their Lord’s Book and their Prophet’s Sunnah from disappearance and from the meddling of would-be tamperers.
Chapter Two
The Emergence of Innovations in Muslim Life and the Factors That Led to Them
- The Emergence of Innovations in Muslim Life
This topic comprises two issues.
The First Issue: The time at which innovations appeared.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—said (1):
“Know that most innovations connected with knowledge and acts of worship only arose within the ummah in…"