of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him.
His Companions understood this principle, so numerous general warnings against innovations have been reported from them, as detailed elsewhere. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yamān—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “Do not perform as worship anything that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—did not perform as worship.” Ibn Masūd—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “Follow and do not innovate, for what you have been given is sufficient. Hold fast to the original way.”
Blessed, then, is the one whom Allah enables to worship Him sincerely and follow the Sunnah of His Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—without tainting his worship with innovation.
Let him rejoice that Allah—Glorious and Exalted is He—will accept his obedience and admit him into His Paradise. May Allah make us among those who listen to what is said and follow the best of it.
Know that the innovations referred to above stem from the following sources:
First: weak hadiths that may neither be cited as evidence nor attributed to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him. In our view, such reports may not be acted upon, as al-Albānī—may Allah preserve him—explained in the introduction to his book, “The Manner of the Prophet’s Prayer—peace and blessings be upon him.” This is also the position of a group of scholars, including Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya and others.
Second: fabricated or baseless hadiths whose true status was unknown to some jurists. They consequently based rulings upon them that lie at the very heart of innovation and newly invented matters!
Third: juristic opinions and preferences advanced by some jurists, especially later ones, without any valid religious evidence to support them. Instead, they presented these opinions as established facts until they came to be followed as Sunnahs!
It is evident to anyone with insight into his religion that such opinions may not be followed, for there is no religious law except what Allah, Most High, has ordained. At most, one who considers something preferable—if he is a qualified jurist exercising independent reasoning—may himself be permitted to act upon what he considers preferable without Allah taking him to task for it. But for people to adopt that as religious law