Bidah: The definition

As salam alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu

Today I want to talk about a topic that isn't always easy to talk about. The topic I am going to talk about is bidah. Hopefully the goal is that by the end of this post, in sha Allah -you and I will become more aware of bidah and become more aware of where we get out knowledge from.

What is Bidah?

The root of the word bid’ah in Arabic means initiating something without any precedent. For example, Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “The Originator of the heavens and the earth…” [al-Baqarah 2:117]

 In the terminology of sharee’ah, bid’ah means something that has been introduced into the religion of Allaah that has no general or specific basis to support it.

 For example, the innovated adhkaar (dhikr) such as saying the name of Allaah on its own (“Allaah…Allaah… Allaah”) or the pronoun (“Hu… Hu… Hu…”, meaning “He… He… He…”). This is a new thing that has been innovated in the religion, intended as worship of Allaah, but there is no evidence for this, either specific or general… so it is bid’ah.    https://islamqa.info/en

So in simple terms, acts of worships that have no basis in the religion.

Some examples of the bidah I have come across is;

Saying the name of Allah X amount of time or praising the prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) X amount of time in which there is no basis or evidence for it.

 I recently heard after Hajj, a person should send salutations to the prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) 650 times between Maghrib and Isha for fourty days. I am yet to find basis for this in the deen of Allah. The person who mentioned this was supposedly a knowledgeable person. This is someone that people get knowledge from and look up to. 

Least to say I was disappointed. However, I realized we as the regular Muslim individuals have a responsibility as well. We have the responsibility to seek knowledge and to scrutinize the sources where we get our knowledge from.  We have a responsibility to not just follow but to try to understand the deen.

 If something sounds odd or you are uncertain.....search... and search from reliable sources.

www.islamqa.info/en  and  http://www.assimalhakeem.net/ are sources I currently know. You don’t only search but you can send your questions as well.

Salam alaykum

*Did not proof read.

Sorry it was rushed.