WHAT IS BID'AH?

By

Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori

Succinctly put, bid'ah is an act of ibaadah with which someone seek to move close to Allah or seek His pleasure, but without basis in the Qur'an, Sunnah and the Practice of the best three generations of Muslims. By the provision of Q5:3, Allah declared the completion of prophetic message and end to divine revelation. By this, anyone who practices other than what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم prescribed in the name of ibaadah is practicing bid'ah. 

The implication of bid'ah is that anyone who practices it is indirectly rejecting Q5:3 and also indicting the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم of not completing his message. This singular action or belief is a form of misguidance and every misguidance is hell fire as reported in the popular hadith of Jabir Ibn 'Abdillah رضي الله عنه. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم  used to warn against bid'ah in almost all his da'wah because he knew its implication on the deen of the Muslims of the later generations. Aisha رضي الله عنها, the wife of the Rosul صلى الله عليه وسلم and our mother رضي الله عنها also reported a hadith that "whoever does an act upon which there is no an order from us, it would be rejected". [Bukhari]

May Allah guide us aright.