Is there such a thing as Major and Minor Bid'ah?
Posted Dec 07, 2009 by Aboo Thaabit with 5 Comments
In his book al-’Itisaam Imaam ash-Shaatiby writes concerning Bid’ah
[This is based upon] That in the Sharee’ah the prohibited things and sin in general are divided into what is considered major and minor. In the same way this is applied to bid’ah, there is a major and minor aspect to it.
So what are the conditions for a bid’ah to be considered minor?
1. That he is not persistent upon it [i.e he does not do it all the time]
2. That he does not call towards it.
3. That he does not do it in a gathering of people.
4. That he does not think of it as minor or tries to belittle the fact that it is a bid’ah
So if these conditions are applied then it is hoped for that the bid’ah will be a minor one, but if these conditions are not met then what is dreaded is that it might become a major bid’ah [however both are extremely dangerous to the religion]
And Allah knows best.
Assalamu alaykum
this is quite interesting as ive been wondering about what is considered a bidah and what isnt.
So in other words, bidah has varying levels?
when is one considered as a deviant? is it when they commit an act of bidah or is it a little more complex then that?
Wa Alaikum Assalam
Every person who commits a bid’a has deviated from the Sunnah. Yet what people read in books about how the Salaf condem ahlu-bid’a and people who commit bid’a, this in truth refers to people who have knowledge and actively call towards their bid’a and it does not refer to the ignorant lay-man who cannot distinguish a verse from the Qur’aan from normal arabic. Such a person should not be dealt with in the same way [i.e leaving him and cutting of ties with him etc] and alot of people in the west unfortunatly make this big mistake.
When a person introduces something to the religion thinking that this will bring him closer to Allah, but infact the Messenger of Allah [who had the most knowledge about Islaam] nor his companions used to practise this then that is considered a bid’a.
As soon as a person has been clearly informed with clear proof that what they are doing is a bid’a yet they do not cease that is when we consider the person a clear deviant and stay away from such a person. Since this person has lied about Allah and His Messenger.
assalaam alikum akhifi’allah
i want to knw more about this ahlul bidh’a..
brother cn u help me to knw much about ahlul bodh’a,
jaxakallah khairan.
sistr in islam
wa alaikum assalam
Basically to make things simple and short, Bid’a is translated into english as innovation, meaning to bring something new into Islaam. Something that the Prophet did not order or bring. The way to tell that something is an innovation in Islaam is that it will lack evidence from the Qur’aan or Sunnah and it is often based upon what people just say.
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