بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
وَعَنْ عَائِشَةَ : أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ قَالَ: مَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلًا لَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ أَمْرُنَا فَهُوَ رَدُّ»
وَلأَحْمَدَ: مَنْ صَنَعَ أَمْرًا عَلَى غَيْرِ أَمْرِنَا فَهُوَ مَرْدُودٌ»
From ‘Ā’ishah: that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Whoever does a deed that is not according to our affair, it is rejected.”
In Ahmads version: “Whoever does a matter according to other than our matter, it is rejected.” (al-Bukhārī 3187, Muslim 178, and Ahmad 1389)
Imām al-Shawkānī said: “what is meant by affair here is one of the affairs, which is what the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions were upon.
This hadīth is among the foundations of the religion, because under it fall rulings that cannot be enumerated. Nothing is clearer or more explicit in invalidating what the jurists have done in dividing innovations (bid’ah) into categories, and restricting the rejection to some of them without any specifier from reason or transmitted (evidence).
So when you hear someone say: “This is a good innovation (bidʿah hasanah),” you should take a stance of prohibition, supporting [your position] with this universal (principle) and similar (statements) such as his (ﷺ) saying:
كل بدعة ضلالة
“Every innovation is misguidance,”
seeking evidence for the specification of that particular innovation which has become a matter of dispute after agreement that it is [originally] an innovation. If he brings you [such evidence], accept it, but if he fails, you will have silenced him with a stone and found rest from argumentation.” (Nayl al-Awtār 1/641)
Related posts:
Imām al-‘Uthaymīn on good and bad bid’ah: https://fawaaids.com/2025/07/26/holding-a-celebration-after-completing-the-quran-refuting-the-doubt-of-good-innovation-sh-uthaymin/
fawaaids.com 