Second: The rise of innovations in the life of the Muslims and the causes that led to it
Under this heading lie two issues:
- The time when innovations first appeared
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah ⦗1⦘ said: “Know that most of the innovations connected to knowledge and acts of worship arose in the Ummah toward the end of the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, exactly as the Prophet ﷺ foretold when he said, ‘Whoever among you lives long after me will witness much discord; so hold fast to my sunnah and the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me.’ ⦗2⦘
The very first innovations to surface were the denial of the divine decree (qadar), the doctrine of irjāʾ, Shiʿism, and the Khārijites. These appeared in the second century while some Companions were still alive, and those Companions repudiated their proponents. Next came the Muʿtazilite innovation, along with the reports of civil strife among the Muslims; opinions diverged, people inclined toward their own desires and innovations, and later emerged the innovations of certain strands of Sufism and of constructing edifices over graves—after the generations that were given pre-eminence. Thus, the later the era, the more numerous and varied the innovations became.”
- The places where innovations arose
The Muslim lands differ regarding the appearance of innovations.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: “The great metropolitan centers in which the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ resided—centers from which knowledge and faith issued—are five in number: the two Sanctuaries, the two Iraqs, and Greater Syria,