and a Sunnah—absolutely not! How could it be otherwise when some of these opinions contradict the Sunnah in practice, as will be pointed out later, Allah Most High willing?

Fourth: customs and superstitions for which the revealed law provides no basis and which reason does not support. Some ignorant people may nevertheless practice them and adopt them as a prescribed way of their own. Nor have they lacked support—at least in some of this—from those who claim knowledge and dress the part.

It should also be known that these innovations are not all equally dangerous; rather, they vary in degree. Some constitute explicit polytheism and disbelief, as you will see, while others fall short of that. It must be understood, however, that even the slightest innovation a person introduces into the religion is forbidden once it has been established to be an innovation. Contrary to what some imagine, no innovation is merely in the category of the disliked. How could it be, when the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire”—meaning the person who commits it.

Imam al-Shātibī—may Allah have mercy upon him—established this most thoroughly in his monumental work, al-I‘tisām (Holding Fast).

The matter of innovation is therefore extremely grave, yet most people remain heedless of it, and only a group among the scholars recognize this. Sufficient proof of its gravity is the statement of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him: “Allah has withheld repentance from every practitioner of innovation until he abandons his innovation.” It was related by al-Tabarānī, Diyā al-Maqdisī in Selected Hadiths, and others through an authentic chain of transmission. Al-Mundhirī graded it sound. (1)

I shall conclude these remarks with counsel that I offer to the readers from a great imam among the early Muslim scholars: Shaykh Hasan ibn Ali al-Barbahārī (d. 329 AH), one of the associates of Imam Ahmad—may Allah have mercy upon him.