What is bid'ah (innovation in religion)?

What the word means

In the Arabic language, bid'ah comes from al-bad' — bringing something into existence with no prior example. The scholars cite Allah's description of Himself as Badi' al-samawati wa'l-ard (the Originator of the heavens and the earth), meaning He created them without any preceding model, and the verse in which the Prophet ﷺ is told to say he was not bid'an among the messengers — that is, not the first to bring Allah's message to people.

So linguistically the word simply means something new. The ruling, however, does not attach to the word. Shaykh Ibn Baz makes this distinction explicitly: the term applies in Arabic to anything brought about without precedent, but the prohibition does not attach to it unless it is an innovation in the religion. In worldly dealings, whatever agrees with the Shari'ah is a valid contract and whatever contradicts it is an invalid one — and neither is called bid'ah in the religious sense, because neither is an act of worship.

The definition in the Shari'ah

Shaykh Ibn Baz defines it as every act of worship people introduce that has no basis in the Book, the Sunnah, or the practice of the four rightly-guided caliphs. Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan gives the same definition in al-Irshad: the innovation in religion is what has no root in the Shari'ah pointing to it. Ibn Taymiyyah, quoted in these works, puts it as:

"Innovation in religion is what Allah and His Messenger have not legislated — what He has not commanded, whether as an obligation or as a recommendation."— Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu' al-Fatawa

Ibn Rajab's definition, also cited, adds the decisive qualifier: it is what is newly introduced with no basis in the Shari'ah indicating it. What does have such a basis is not an innovation in the religious sense, even if people call it one in the linguistic sense.

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymin summarises the operative rule: if something is done not as an act of worship but as a matter of custom, and nothing forbids it, the default is permissibility. If a person intends by it to worship and draw near to Allah, it is not permitted unless it is established as legislated.

Two kinds of new things

The scholars divide newly introduced matters into two categories, and only one of them is the subject of the ruling.

• Innovation in customs: new inventions and worldly discoveries. This is permissible, because the default in customs is permissibility. Cars, microphones, modern industry and scientific discoveries fall here — they are matters of worldly interest, not religion.
• Innovation in religion: this is forbidden, because the default in worship is tawqif — stopping where the texts stop, doing only what has been legislated.

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymin applies this to things people sometimes mislabel. Compiling and arranging the Sunnah into chapters, or building schools for students, are not religious innovations, because the person doing them is not worshipping Allah by the act itself; he is using it as a means to a legislated end — preserving knowledge and helping students devote themselves to it.

The types of innovation in religion

Al-Fawzan sets out the categories in al-Irshad and al-Tawhid. Innovation in religion is of two kinds:

Innovation in belief and speech — the doctrines of the Jahmiyyah, the Mu'tazilah, the Rafidah and the other misguided sects.

Innovation in worship — worshipping Allah with something He did not legislate. This has four forms:

1. In the origin of the worship: introducing an act of worship with no basis at all — an unprescribed prayer, an unprescribed fast, or unprescribed festivals such as the birthday celebrations.
2. By addition to a legislated worship: for example adding a fifth rak'ah to Zuhr or 'Asr.
3. In the manner of performing a legislated worship: performing it in a way not prescribed — such as collective, melodious chanting of legislated remembrances, or forcing oneself in worship beyond the Prophet's ﷺ Sunnah.
4. By assigning a time to a legislated worship that the Shari'ah did not assign: such as singling out the middle night of Sha'ban for fasting and night prayer. The fasting and the prayer are legislated in themselves, but assigning them to a particular time requires evidence.

The ruling, and its varying severity

Every innovation in religion, of every type, is forbidden and misguidance. The scholars cite the Prophet's ﷺ words:

"Beware of newly introduced matters, for every newly introduced matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance."— Abu Dawud 4607 and al-Tirmidhi 2676, from al-'Irbad ibn Sariyah

And his ﷺ saying:

"Whoever introduces into this affair of ours what is not from it, it is rejected."— Sahih al-Bukhari 2697 and Sahih Muslim 1718

And in Muslim's wording:

"Whoever does a deed that is not in accordance with our affair, it is rejected."— Sahih Muslim 1718

Al-Fawzan notes that although all of it is forbidden, the severity differs by type. Some innovation is outright disbelief — circling graves to draw near to their occupants, offering sacrifices and vows to them, calling on them and seeking their help. Some is a means to shirk — building over graves, praying and supplicating at them. Some is doctrinal sinfulness, such as the innovations of the Khawarij, the Qadariyyah and the Murji'ah. And some is ordinary disobedience, such as the innovation of monasticism, fasting while standing in the sun, and castration to cut off desire.

The claim of a "good innovation"

Some people divide innovation into good and bad, arguing from 'Umar's رضي الله عنه words about the night prayer in Ramadan: "What a good innovation this is." The scholars answer this directly.

Al-Fawzan and Ibn 'Uthaymin both explain that 'Umar meant the linguistic sense, not the religious one. The night prayer was established by the Prophet ﷺ himself, who led his Companions in it for several nights and then stopped, fearing it would be made obligatory on them. When that fear was removed by his death, restoring the congregation was reviving a Sunnah, not introducing one. It was "new" only relative to the period when people had been praying separately.

The same answer applies to the compilation of the Qur'an into one book and the writing down of hadith. Both have a basis in the Shari'ah — the Prophet ﷺ ordered the Qur'an to be written, and he ordered some hadith written for certain Companions — so they are not innovations.

Ibn 'Uthaymin's summary of the whole matter is that anyone who claims a "good innovation" has erred in one of two ways: either the thing is not an innovation at all, as with compiling books and building schools — good, but not bid'ah; or it is an innovation and it is not good, as with celebrating the Prophet's birthday — where the prayer upon him ﷺ and praising him are acts of worship, but singling out that night for them is an innovation, because he ﷺ did not do it, nor did the rightly-guided caliphs, nor the Companions, nor the Successors.

Ibn Rajab's words, quoted by al-Fawzan, close the door firmly:

"His saying 'every innovation is misguidance' is among the comprehensive words that exclude nothing. It is a great principle of the religion... Whoever introduces something and attributes it to the religion without a basis in the religion to refer back to, it is misguidance, and the religion is free of it — whether in matters of belief, deeds, or words, outward or inward."— Ibn Rajab, Sharh al-Arba'in

Ibn Taymiyyah adds a warning about why this matters so much: the early scholars said innovation is dearer to Iblis than sin, because a person repents from sin but does not repent from an innovation — he sees it as something good.

Key takeaways

• Bid'ah is a religious matter, not a worldly one: it is worship introduced without legislation from Allah, and the default in worship is to stop where the texts stop.
• New inventions and worldly affairs are not bid'ah: the default in customs and daily life is permissibility, so technology, industry and new means are judged by their own rulings, not by this one.
• Every innovation in religion is forbidden and misguidance, whether it lies in belief, in the origin of a worship, in an addition to it, in the manner of performing it, or in assigning it a time the Shari'ah did not assign.
• The severity varies: some innovation reaches outright disbelief, some is a means to shirk, some is doctrinal deviation, and some is ordinary sin — but none of it is good.
• There is no "good innovation" in religion: what people call a good bid'ah is either not an innovation at all, or it is an innovation and not good.

Further reading

• Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, al-Irshad ila Sahih al-I'tiqad
• Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, al-Tawhid
• Ibn Rajab, Sharh al-Arba'in; al-Shatibi, al-I'tisam

And Allah knows best.