after me. Hold fast to it and cling to it with your very teeth. Beware of newly introduced matters in religion, for every newly introduced matter is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance.’” Another version adds: “And all misguidance leads to the Fire.”

He said to me, “Religious innovation is like illicit sexual intercourse,” and related a hadith condemning illicit sexual intercourse. I replied, “This hadith is falsely attributed to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace. Illicit sexual intercourse is a sin, whereas religious innovation is worse than sin. As Sufyān al-Thawrī said, ‘Religious innovation is dearer to Iblīs than sin, for people repent of sin but do not repent of religious innovation.’”

Some of them had said, “We bring people to repentance.” I asked, “What do you make them repent of?”

They replied, “Highway robbery, theft, and the like.”

I said, “Their condition before you brought them to repentance was better than their condition afterward. They were sinners who believed that what they were doing was forbidden, hoped for Allah’s mercy, and repented to Him or intended to repent. But by bringing them to repentance, you have made them misguided polytheists who have departed from the law of Islam, loving what Allah hates and hating what Allah loves.” I explained that these religious innovations which they and others practise are worse than sins.

Addressing the emir and those present, I said, “As for sins, consider what al-Bukhārī narrated in his Sahīh from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb:

“A man called Himār used to drink wine and would make the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, laugh. Whenever he was brought before the Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, he would have him flogged with the prescribed punishment. Once, a man cursed him, saying: