And there are many similar passages in the Book in which Allah commands obedience to His Messenger and adherence to His Book, and forbids following anything outside them. All innovations are of this kind, for an innovation in the technical religious sense—that is, one condemned by the Sharia—is something Allah has not prescribed in religion: something that does not fall within the commands of Allah and His Messenger or obedience to them. Whatever does fall within this is part of the prescribed religion, not an innovation in the religious sense, even if it was carried out after the Prophet’s death, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on the basis of what was known of his commands. Examples include expelling the Jews and Christians after his death, compiling the Quran into a single volume, and gathering people behind one reciter for the Ramadan night prayers.

Although Umar ibn al-Khattāb, who ordered this, called it an innovation, he did so only in the linguistic sense: anything done without a prior precedent is called an innovation in ordinary language. It is not, however, something the Sharia calls an innovation and prohibits. Thus, it does not fall within the statement narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh from Jābir, who said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say in his sermons:

“The truest speech is the speech of Allah, the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, the worst matters are those newly introduced, and every innovation is misguidance.”

His statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “Every innovation is misguidance,” is true. Nothing that the evidence of the Sharia establishes as recommended is an innovation, as he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in the hadith narrated by the compilers of the Sunan and classed as authentic by al-Tirmidhī, from al-Irbād ibn Sāriyah, who narrated from