Al-Bidaa Dawabituha wa Atharuha al-Sayyi fi al-Umma
- Author died
- 1446 AH
- Editions
- al-Jāmi‘ah al-Islāmiyyah
Al-Bidaa Dawabituha wa Atharuha al-Sayyi fi al-Umma (Religious Innovation: Its Defining Criteria and Its Harmful Impact on the Ummah) is a theological treatise by the Saudi scholar Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Faqihi (d. 1446 AH / 2024 CE) examining the nature, legal boundaries, and sectarian consequences of religious innovation (bid'a) in Islam .
Origin and Composition
The work originated as a public lecture delivered at the Grand Lecture Hall of the Islamic University of Madinah on the evening of Wednesday, 26 Shawwal 1412 AH . The presentation was organized at the request of the Cultural Activities Department within the university's Deanship of Student Affairs as part of its cultural season for that academic year . Following requests from supervisors of the student activities and attendees to make the material accessible to a wider audience, al-Faqihi revised and published the text as a concise booklet directed toward students of knowledge committed to the methodology of the righteous predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih) in interpreting scriptural texts .
Structure and Content
The author arranged the treatise into two main parts, designed to address essential classical and contemporary issues and brief enough to be read in a single sitting .
The text establishes its core theological premise on scriptural commands to maintain communal unity and avoid division, emphasizing adherence to divine revelation over ancestral customs and personal desires . Al-Faqihi argues that introducing newly invented matters into religious belief, speech, practice, or methodology fundamentally contradicts the Quranic declaration of the perfection and completion of Islam in الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْأِسْلامَ دِينًا ("This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion") . To demonstrate that innovation implies an illicit claim of deficiency in the Sharia, the author cites Ibn al-Majishun's transmission from Malik ibn Anas, who stated that whoever introduces an innovation into Islam deeming it good has effectively claimed that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ betrayed his message .
Drawing extensively upon Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's al-I'tisam, the treatise outlines the theological severity of innovation, explaining that an innovator acts as an opponent and rival to the Lawgiver by devising alternative paths of worship and following personal whim . The text analyzes Quranic warnings against pursuing ambiguous verses ( فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ ) and straying into splintered paths ( وَلا تَتَّبِعُوا السُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ ), corroborating them with reports from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, Aisha, and Mujahid ibn Jabr . It further cites foundational prophetic traditions condemning innovations, including the hadith of al-Irbad ibn Sariyah warning that كُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ ("every innovation is misguidance") and the narration of Aisha establishing that any ungrounded religious invention is rejected .
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