Beware of Bida’a

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers,
Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions, and on many, many others.
My brothers and sisters, one of the most important hadiths, teachings of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is the hadith which you hear in almost every Jum’ah khutbah,
which is,
إِنَّ أَزْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَقَيْرُ الْحَدِيثِ هَذِي مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَىٰ لِهِ وَسَيُّ سَلَّمُ
وَشَرُّ الْأُمُورِ مُهْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُهْدَثَةٍ بِدَاعَ وَكُلَّ بِدَاعَةٍ وَلَالَ وَكُلَّ ضَلَاظَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said that the most truthful speech is the speech of Allah,
which is the Kitab of Allah, the Holy Qur’an.
And the best guidance is the guidance of his Messenger Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him,
and upon his family and companions.
And then he said all corruption and all evil comes from innovations,
comes from new things which are introduced into the religion.
And he said, كُلَّ مُهْدَثَةٍ بِدَاعَ
He said all of these things which are introduced, all of these are bida’at, all of these are innovations.
كُلَّ بِدَاعَةٍ ضَلَاظَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
All innovation is misguidance.
وَكُلَّ ضَلَاظَةٍ فِي النَّارِ
And all misguidance is in the hellfire.
The reason I’m saying this is because we have to first of all remind ourselves from time to time.
It is very important.
Allah said the reminder is beneficial for the believers.
So we need to remind ourselves.
innovations especially in our deen, they come from the knowledge of Allah.
For deen, they come in one or two places.
One is in weddings, in nikah.
We have a simple beautiful system, but people don’t like simple beautiful systems.
They want to create their own embellishments on those systems.
The other place is connected with death.
Connected with death.
Now our system in Islam is that when a person dies, this person is, the body is bathed.
And I won’t go into all the details as well.
You know what they are and we will do a seminar on that, InshaAllah.
So body is bathed.
It is wrapped in a shroud in the kafay.
Then we pray Salatul Janaza on it,
which is the dua of forgiveness.
We seek forgiveness for the person who passed away.
And then we take him to the cemetery and we place them in the grave.
We put some kind of, you know, a piece of wood or something like this
to prevent the soil from falling directly on the face.
But then we, without a box, without a coffin, without anything,
just the cloth, we bury that person.
Nowadays they are calling it a green burial.
Go look it up.
Go look it up, green burial in Google.
You will see what they are saying.
So somebody sent me this thing.
See what a beautiful thing.
The body, the body goes back to the earth.
I said we have been doing this for the last 1400 years.
So don’t tell me about it.
This is the Islamic method.
So when you go there to the graveyard, you do that.
You cover up the grave and you go home.
But what we do is on the,
on the body itself, before Salatul Janaza itself,
people put flowers.
They put sheets of flowers.
Right?
And then when they carry the body to the grave,
they are chanting something or the other.
SubhanAllahi walhamdulillahi wala ila ila ila Allah
wa Allah wa al-Ghwar.
SubhanAllahi walhamdulillahi wala ila ila ila ila ila
as this kind of song.
And then when they put the body in the grave,
then they will recite Quran.
They will recite ayat from Suratul Baqarah.
They will recite ayat from Suratul Hashar
and so on and so forth.
And they will recite Quran and they will stand on this side
and recite Quran and on the other side and recite Quran.
And it doesn’t end with that.
Then what do they do?
Then on, and I’m talking to you about the customs of our place,
which is the subcontinent.
I think these are there more or less in some variations in many places.
On the third day, the person dies on day, on this day,
one day in between, third day.
Third day, we have a custom which is called Ziyarat.
In the Ziyarat custom, we have people all gathered together in the masjid.
And they all read one, one Juz of the Quran.
They give them little siparas.
They all read, they sit in a circle.
They all read one Juz of Quran.
And then the Imam has to make collective dua for the person who passed away.
We already made dua for the person who passed away with Salah ad-Dujana Zayah.
What was that then?
Then we got to make one more.
And everybody sits together in this Ziyarat.
Now in the Arabic word, in the Arabic language, Ziyarat,
Ziyarat is an Arabic word which is also used in Urdu.
Ziyarat means to meet somebody.
So I sometimes tell people that I said, you know, it’s a good thing that your Ziyarat doesn’t work.
Because when you are doing the Ziyarat,
if the person for whom you are doing it comes and to meet you,
sitting there to meet them, they come back and they meet you,
then we’ll have to do many more Ziyarat.
So third day, one custom followed by a meal.
Then on the 40th day, they call it Chehelo.
And they do another function.
They all get together, recite Quran and eat some Biryani.
Then on the anniversary of the death, they call it Barsi.
They do another function.
Right?
I always tell my brothers and sisters, you want to eat Biryani, eat Biryani.
No problem.
Eat it.
Eat it every day.
Eat it three times a day.
Right?
Go and get bypass surgery.
But doesn’t matter.
Eat it.
It’s halal.
Why do you need to put a religious tag on that?
Because what you are doing, I’ll tell you why this is very seriously wrong.
That’s why I began with the Hadith.
What people are doing is, you are doing something which you believe is going to please Allah
and you are doing it with the intention of getting Sabaab from Allah .
Iman and Ihtisaban.
You are doing it with Iman and you are doing it with this expectation of reward from Allah.
Yes?
If the answer is no, then why do it?
See, answer is yes.
You are doing it for reward.
Now, that is the definition of Ibadah.
What is Ibadah?
What is worship?
Worship is to do something, to do an action, believing that this will please Allah and
expecting a reward from Allah.
Any action.
If I do an action, like I’m sitting here now and talking to you.
Why am I doing that?
Because I have faith that this pleases Allah, InshaAllah, and I expect, I ask Allah to reward
me.
So, this thing which I’m doing here, me sitting here and you sitting there and I’m talking
to you and listening to me, this is an act of Ibadah.
This is an act of worship.
And we ask Allah on the Day of Judgement to reward us for this, InshaAllah.
Right?
Now, the problem with worship is it has to satisfy three conditions.
Please understand this.
I’m teaching you a very important Masala of Fiqh.
Three conditions.
First condition is the act of worship which you are doing should be something which Rasulallah
either did himself or he did it himself.
Or he authorized it.
He told people do it.
First condition.
If it is something which he neither did nor did he tell someone to do it, then this action
by itself is haram.
It is haram.
It is haram.
It is haram.
If you make it as an act of worship, if you believe it to be worship and if you insist
on doing it, then you have left Islam.
So, first condition must be according to the Sunnah.
And when you say must be according to the Sunnah.
Anyone comes to me, I tell him bring me the book.
Don’t tell me this so and so does it and my Sheikh, your Sheikh is not a Dalil-e-Indian.
Bring me the Hadith of Rasulallah where he got people to sit together on the third day
after somebody died and they all sat in a circle and they all recited one juice of the
Quran and then Rasulallah made dua collectively.
Did he do that?
If he did that, most welcome, please do it.
If he did not do that and you are doing it, then you are innovating.
You are creating a bid’ah and deal.
Number one.
Number two, every act of Ibadah has two things it must satisfy.
One is the structure.
Two is the content.
Just now we prayed which Salah?
Salatul Maghrib.
What is the structure of Salatul Maghrib?
It starts with Takbir Tahriba, which is common for everyone.
We start, we stand and we start the Salah.
We say Allahu Akbar, we raise our hands and then we go and we say our recital, we go to
Ruku, Sujud.
There is a structure or two this Salah, right?
And we pray three rakahs and not four or two.
Second part is the content.
What happens in the Salah?
First we recite Sana, then we recite Surahul Fatiha, then we recite Samadhan Surah and
then if you are praying in Jama’at, the Imams.
If the Imam recites, you don’t recite loudly behind the Imam, right?
So there is a content.
There is a structure and there is a content.
Now the Ibadah is an Ibadah.
I am praying Salatul Maghrib.
I am saying I am praying Salatul Maghrib.
But if I change the structure or if I change the content, then the Salah is Fasil.
It is invalid.
Nobody will do it but I am explaining to you.
Supposing I do, I forget and I pray, I say I am leading the Salah.
And I instead of sitting in Tasha Hud in the second rakah, I stand up.
Right?
So what must I do now?
I have to solve.
I have to correct that mistake.
It is a mistake.
What is the mistake?
The mistake is in the structure.
In the structure I should have sat.
I did not sit.
I stood up.
In the structure I should have stood up.
I did not stand up.
I sat down.
Similar thing can happen.
In the third rakah, instead of standing, say in the fourth, in Salatul Isha, in the fourth,
in the fourth rakah Salah, third rakah I should have stood up.
I forgot.
I sat down in the third rakah.
People from behind will say Subhanallah.
I stand up.
I make up the rakah and then what do I do?
I do Saho.
Right?
So I make up.
There is a mistake.
What is the mistake?
The mistake is in the structure.
Similarly, if there is a mistake in the content, for example, while reciting, if I recite something,
and I recite it wrong, and if I recite it wrong in a way where it even changes the meaning
of what I am saying here, somebody will prompt me, I have to correct my recitation.
Yes?
So in an act of Ibadah, three conditions must be according to the Sunnah, must be, must
have the structure given by Rasool Allah because he said,
Sallu kamara ayy tumuni usalli.
Kamara ayy tumuni.
As you have seen me.
Pray.
That applies to every Ibadah.
Sallu kamara ayy tumuni usalli applies to every Ibadah.
So must be something he did, must be done according to how he did that structurally and must be
done how he did that in terms of content.
If that is changed, then this action is not acceptable.
This action is not an Ibadah anymore.
It is a Bidaa.
Right?
So please understand this.
Please explain it to your families and friends.
And please tell them that if you want something good for whoever passed away, the best is the
way of the Rasool alayhi salatu was salam.
Nobody else’s way is better than the way of the Rasool salallahu alayhi salam.
If somebody is doing something and saying, no, no, this is a good thing.
It will help them.
So on, so on.
No, no, sorry, sorry, sorry.
We follow the Rasool alayhi salatu was salam.
Please understand, my brothers and sisters, this Deen, this Islam came to us and has come
to us.
And today it is the same as it was on day one for one reason only, because there were
people throughout our history who stood firm and they said this religion will not be changed.
I don’t care if I have to lose my job.
I don’t care if I have to lose my head.
But I will not permit the religion to be changed.
There are people who were jailed, people who were killed, people who lost their jobs.
Big imams.
Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was jailed.
He was beaten.
He was flogged.
All kinds of things happened because he said, no, I will not change and I will not give an opinion which goes against the Kitab of Allah and the Sunnah of Rasool alayhi salam.
That is the tradition we follow.
So please understand this.
Don’t go and bend to this one and that one.
There is no being nice when being nice means to go against what the Prophet salallahu alayhi salam ordered us to do.
We are very nice.
We should be very nice.
But all our niceness has to be within the framework of the religion.
We don’t change the religion for anybody.
Because we have a religion.
Because we have a religion which Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala himself, he said,
Al yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum wa atmamtu alaykum ni’mati wa raditulakum wal islama deena.
This is the declaration by Allah.
Allah said, this day I have perfected.
What?
Akmaltu lakum deenakum.
I have perfected and completed your deen.
Wa atmamtu alaykum ni’mati wa raditulakum.
And I have completed and perfected my blessing on you.
Wa raditulakum wal islama deena.
And I am pleased for you to have Islam as your religion.
So we have a declaration by God Almighty himself, by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala himself,
to say that this deen is complete and perfect.
Means what?
Means it does not need any additions and subtractions by me and you.
There are no holes that are left there for us to fill and fill.
There is nothing missing that I need to fit in.
There is nothing extra that I need to prune.
No.
This is perfect, complete.
And that’s why I’m telling you because these are things in our deen which people bring all over the place.
So don’t tell people very clearly, this is the deen, this is what the Prophet did.
They say, no, why don’t you do that?
Because the Rasul did not do that.
And if someone wants you to start something new and so on and so forth, tell them, bring me the evidence, the deen.
What is the deen?
The Kitab of Allah or the Sunnah of Rasul .
There is no third deen.
For Ibadat, there is no third deen.
Has to be the Book of Allah or has to be a Hadith of Rasul .
There is no third deen.
Ijma, khiyas, nothing with regard to Ibadat.
Ibadat is part.
It is the foundation of Aqidah.
We don’t play games with that.
Right.
So we ask Allah to help us to do that, which is pleasing to Him.
And we ask Allah to help us to understand that whoever passes away, the best thing we can do for them is to follow the Sunnah of Rasul .
And we do similar things with weddings and so on.
We’ll talk about that on another day, InshaAllah.
But this is very important for us to know.
We ask Allah to help us to do that which pleases Him and to save us from that which does not please Him.
And may Allah protect us from that which does not please Him.
May Allah protect us from that which does not please Him.