statement: “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should honor his guest.” If part of honoring one’s guest is to slaughter an animal in celebration of his arrival, then that is something actually prescribed.
At other times a beast may be slaughtered “for someone other than Allah” only in the sense that the person simply wants to eat meat; he kills an animal with the intention of eating. That, too, is not shirk; it is an ordinary, everyday act of taking food. Shirk arises only when the slaughter is performed as an act of worship, seeking nearness and veneration—just as some people do for their kings, presidents, or scholars: the dignitary appears, and they slaughter an animal facing him out of reverence and exaltation. This is major shirk, expelling a person from the fold of Islam. In addition to being shirk, Allah has forbidden Paradise to such a person; his abode is the Fire, and the wrongdoers will have no helpers. The doer is also accursed, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “May Allah curse anyone who sacrifices to anything other than Allah.”
The same applies to his ﷺ words: “Whoever introduces an innovation in it or shelters an innovator—upon him be the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people.” “In it” means in Madinah. The word “innovation” (ḥadath) here covers two matters.
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Bidʿah (religious innovation). Whoever invents a bidʿah in Madinah has introduced an innovation there, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “Every newly-invented matter is a bidʿah, and every bidʿah is misguidance.” Thus, anyone who brings into Allah’s religion in Madinah something He did not legislate incurs the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people—that is, he deserves the curse of everyone who curses, and Allah is our refuge. Madinah is the city of the Sunnah, the city of prophethood; how, then, can a person introduce therein anything that opposes the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ?
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Fitnah (sedition). This is to kindle turmoil among the Muslims in Madinah, whether it leads to bloodshed or to lesser forms of enmity, hatred, and division. Whoever causes such turmoil likewise incurs the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people.
As for the one who