“…Whoever initiates in Islam a good practice will have its reward and the reward of all who act upon it, without any reduction in their own rewards; and whoever initiates in Islam an evil practice will bear its burden and the burden of all who act upon it, without any reduction in their burdens.”

In the Prophet’s words, “Whoever initiates in Islam a good practice,” the word sunnah here means to begin acting upon an already-legislated practice—not to invent something new. For whoever introduces into Islam something that does not belong to it, it is rejected and cannot be deemed good. The intended meaning is that the person becomes the first to implement it, like the man who came with the heavy purse. This shows that when someone is granted success to set in motion a sunnah in Islam—whether by starting it himself or by reviving it after it has been forgotten—he is rewarded accordingly.

Sunan (practices) in Islam fall into three categories:

1. A bad sunnah: this is innovation (bidʿah). It is evil even if its originator thinks it good, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “Every innovation is misguidance.”

2. A good sunnah, which is of two kinds:
   a. A practice that is already prescribed but has fallen into disuse, then someone comes along and renews it—such as performing the Ramadan night prayer behind one imam. The Prophet ﷺ initially prescribed for his community to pray behind an imam in Ramadan, then refrained, fearing it might be made obligatory. The matter remained so at the end of his life, throughout the caliphate of Abu Bakr, and at the beginning of ʿUmar’s. Later ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, decided to gather the people behind a single imam and did so, thereby establishing a good sunnah in Islam because he revived