Bimillaah-hir-Rahmaan-nir-Raheem
It is sad that every new Ramadhaan our own Ulema are doing more actions, which have, absolutely no Shaari basis.
Below a short list is presented.
1) Huge Itikhaafs full of merry making, extravagance, wastage of money and show;
2) In these Itikhaafs, Qiraat sessions, lectures, Naath singing gatherings which defeat the purpose of Itikhaaf itself;
3) Turning the Masjid into a Khanqah;
4) “Calling via Radio, T.V., Posters and social media to these activities of Itikhaaf. Each group making ‘better amenities’ offers than the next”;
5) Then holding Nafl Salaat in congregation;
6) Then conducting ‘loud Zikr’ in unison in the Masjid;
7) Then switching off the lights and making lengthy Duaa’s coupled with crying and wailing;
8) Then encouraging night congregational vigil in the odd nights in the Masjids;
9) Ladies going to other countries to sit near the Sheikh;
10) Having congregational loud Duaa before Iftaari;
11) Having a Qari read Juz a day whilst ‘Musallees’ follow;
12) Have ‘Qiyaamul Layl’ to complete another Quraan;
13) To lecture on auspicious nights;
14) To engage in lengthy Duaa’s thereafter;
15) To make lengthy Duaa’s after Eid Salaat;
16) Handshaking and embracing after Eid Salaat;
17) Encouraging females to attend Taraweeh Salaat;
18) Encouraging females to attend Eid Salaat;
19) Insist on visiting graveyards on Eid day;
20) To read Salaatul Tasbeeh in congregation;
21) Reading Durood in a specific method;
22) To read the Ayat of Durood in the Duaa ;
23) To start the Duaa by reading Durood first;
24) To use the Tasbeeh using the left hand;
25) To promote family Eid-gah.
26) Arranging a night of naats in the Masjid on the eve of Eid.
27) Having Yaseen Khatams ever so often in the Masaajid.
28) Qiraat at the Eidgah
29) Lengthy duaa after the Fardh salaat;
30) Supporting Baatil by keeping silent.
In order to justify the above one has to;
1) Re-define Shariat; 2) Make a new definition of Bidaat; 3) Follow the actions of pious elders. However, success and salvation only lies in adhering to the pure, positive and Divine Shariat. Kindly read carefully: 1) When any nation innovated a Bidah, then its equivalent Sunnat is lifted (removed) from them. Therefore, to adhere to even the smallest of Sunnats is far better than innovating a Bidah. [Ahmad Pg. 105, Mishkaat Pg. 31]
2) Citing from Muheet, Fatawa Aalimgiri states: “The recitation of Surah Kaafiroon until the end in congregational form is Makrooh because it is a Bidah. This act has neither been reported from the Sahabah (R.A.) nor the Tabi’een” [Pg. 217] Note the criterion that we have put in ‘dark’. Apply it.
3) It is stated in Raddul Muhtar on Page 642, Vol.1, “If a ruling (regarding a certain act) is suspended between it been a Sunnat or Bidah, then it is preferable to leave out a Sunnat than to perpetrate Bidah”
The listed acts are not even Sunnat.
4) Hadhrat Abdullaah Ibn Mas’ood (R.A.) states: “Follow in our footsteps, and do not innovate (new things). Indeed, you have been sufficed”. [At-ItTisaam Pg. 54 Vol. 1]
5) Hadhrat Huzaifah (R.A.) states: “Do not make any Ibadaat that the Sahabah (R.A.) of Rasulullaah (S.A.W.) did not do!” [At-ItTisaam Pg. 113, Vol. 1]
6) “To leave out those things which Nabi (S.A.W.) left out is a Sunnat just as to do an action which Nabi (S.A.W.) did is a Sunnat” [Al-Jannah, Pg. 143]
7) The famous Hanafi Imaam Ahmad bin Muhammad, who is one of the most senior of the Fuqahaa, states regarding his research of a particular Mas’alah. “It is Bidah because it has not been reported such from the Sahabah RA or the Taabieen” (Al-Waaqiaat)
8) Fatawa Bazaaziya states, citing from Fatawa Qaazi Khan: “It is Haraam to raise the voice in Thikr. It has been authentically reported from Ibn Mas’ood (R.A.) that he heard a group of people who were gathered in the Masjid reciting Kalimah Tayyibah and Durood Shareef in a loud voice. He approached them and said, ‘We have NOT seen this during the era of Nabi (S.A.W.). I do not regard you except as Bida’tees.’ He continuously repeated this until he expelled them from the Masjid” [Pg. 378 Vol. 6]
9) Imaam Ghazali (R.A.) says…, “If you do anything without the Lawgiver’s (S.A.W.) order and conformity to him, though such work be in the form of devotion, it is not devotion but an act of sin” [Maktub, Pg. 8]
10) Mufti Mahmood Ganghohi (R.A.) states the rule, “…the action of the Ma-shaaikh, which is NOT a Shaari proof. Its adherence is NOT necessary” [Vol. 15, Pg. 426 – Fatawa Mahmoodia] This is 10, all in all. Soon at the rate we are moving there will be no difference between the Ahle-Haqq and Ahle-Bidaat. We make Duaa that Allaah grants us to be from the Ahle Sunnat-wal-Jamaat as expounded by the original seniors of Deoband.
A.H. Elias (Mufti)
May Allaah grant Marhoom Mufti Elias Jannatul Firdous
2nd Shawwaal 1436 – 19th July 2015