After the virtuous generations, and as time moves further away from them, innovations only increase and multiply.

Second Issue: Where innovations first appear

The Islamic lands differ in the kinds of innovations that arise within them. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said:

The great centers in which the Companions of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—settled, and from which knowledge and faith spread, are five: the Two Sanctuaries, the two Iraqi metropolises, and al-Sham. From these cities the Qur’an, hadith, jurisprudence, worship, and the other affairs of Islam were disseminated; and out of these same cities—Medina alone excepted—emerged foundational innovations. From Kufa there issued Shi‘ism and irjaʾ (the postponement doctrine), which later spread elsewhere; from Basra came the Qadari creed and iʿtizal (Muʿtazilism), along with deviant forms of asceticism, after which they too spread beyond it. In al-Sham there were nasb (Nasibism, hostility toward ʿAli) and qadar, whereas Jahmism surfaced only in the region of Khurasan, and it is the worst of innovations. The rise of innovations was in proportion to one’s distance from the Prophetic abode. When schism erupted after the assassination of ʿUthman, the Haruri (Kharijite) innovation appeared. As for the Prophetic City, it was