Innovation Bid'ah part 2:

 The sahaba's opinion concerning Bid'ah.

Amr ibn yahyah narrated his father told him, "we used to sit at Abdullah ibn masood's house before fajr prayer. If he exited we would follow him to the mosjid . Abu Musa Al Ash'ari then came to us and asked us did Abu Abdul Rahman ( Abdullah ibn masood) come out yet? We said No, so he sat with us till he emerged. We all stood up when he exited. He ( Abu MUSA ) said: O Abu Abdul Rahman, I just saw something which I did not recognize , and I did not see , all thanks to Allah , but good' He ( ibn masood) said: ' what is it"? He ( Abu MUSA) said if you live you will see it. I saw in the masjid people sitting in circles waiting for the prayer. In each circle there is a leader , and they have stones in their hands. He ( the leader) would say :" say takbir ( Allahu Akbar ) 100 times . he ( the leader) would then say , say tahlil ( LA illah  illa  Allah) 100 times ; so they say tahil  100 times  . he the leader would then say :" say tasbih( subhana Allah) 100 times so they say tasbihi 100 times.

Ibn Masood said :" did you not order them to count their evil deeds , and guarantee them that none of their good deeds will be lost? Then he and us left till we reached one of the circles . then the Ibn Masood stood next to the circle and said:" what are you doing ? They said O Abu Abdul Rahman, ( these are) stones that we count our takbir, tahil, tasbih, and tahmid, ( Alhamdulillah) Ibn Masood said : "count your evil deeds for I guarantee that none of your good deeds will be lost . what is the matter with you, O nation of Muhammad ? How soon you come to your destruction ! The companions of Muhammad are still many . these are his clothes still not worn out and his cookware did not break yet.By whom my soul is in His Hands, you are either following a religion better than Muhammad's or followers of a way of evil. They said by Allah O Abu Abdul Rahman , we sought only what is good " Ibn Masood said "many people seek good , but they do not reach it. The messenger told us some people who read the Qur'an will not have the Quran leave their throats ( to their hearts), by Allah I do not know if most of you are from them' then he left them .

Amr ibn salamah said "We saw most of those people fighting against us , in the battle of nahrawan with the khawarij" ( Tirmidhi) .

Once a man sneezed in the presence of Ibn Umar and said "praise be to Allah and peace be upon the messenger" Ibn Umar chastised the man and said "the prophet has only taught us to say Alhamdulillah" ( Tirmidhi) .

Importance of knowledge to avoid falling into Bid'ah:

Knowing what is in the Quran and sunnah helps us from falling into Bid'ah . Muhammad ( sallah Allahu alaihi wasalam ) warned us about what will happen when we do not have knowledge .He said: Allah does not erase knowledge by erasing the knowledge from slaves . Rather He erases knowledge through the death of scholars. When He leaves the earth without scholars , people will take the ignorant as leaders. They will be asked and give religious rulings without knowledge . then they will be led and will leave others astray "( Ahmad).

Allah warns us about blindly following somebody.

"When it is said to them , follow what Allah has sent down they say no we shall follow what we found our fathers following. What even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance"( baqarah 2:170).

So whenever we do an act pertaining to Islam, we should know why we are doing that act .

We should know the proofs from the Quran and the sunnah to save ourselves and to better educate people.

We might find people opposing us if we turn away from customary acts and other deeds such as mawlid, suffy, isra wal miraj, hijrah, asalatu on sundays and other innovations which people have incorporated with Islam. But we know Muhammad said the following " Islam started as something strange , and it would go back to being strange , so good tidings for the strangers" ( Muslim) and in another narration "so give glad tidings to the strangers, those who put right what the people have corrupted of my sunnah"( Tirmidhi)

Part 3 is coming soon Insha Allah.

Written By: Student of knowledge As'salato.