The Different Rulings Concerning Leading Innovators and Their Followers – Shaykh Zayd ibn Muḥammad al-Madkhalī

Question: Is there a difference between ruling an individual to be from the people of desires and innovation and ruling a person to be an innovator? Does ruling a person as not being Salafī or as being ḥizbī necessitate that he is a person of innovation? We seek some clarity regarding this issue.

Shaykh Zayd ibn Muḥammad al-Madkhalī: It is to be known, firstly, that the people of the Sunnah and the people of righteousness do not make takfīr (declaring a person to be outside the fold of Islām), do not make tafsīq (declaring a person to be a sinner), and do not make tabdīʿ (declaring a person to be an innovator), except regarding those who are rightly deserving of it, with evidence from the Book of Allāh ﷻ, the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, and the understanding of the Salaf of this Islamic community.

Secondly, it is to be known that the people of desires and misguidance include both those who are followed and those who follow.

Those who are followed are the ones who establish principles of innovation in its various forms and who call people to their innovations and misguidance. They shall carry their own burden and the burden of those whom they misguide without knowledge, as is clearly stated in the Book of Allāh ﷻ and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ.

As for those who follow the leaders of the people of innovation, they are, in most cases, of two types.

The First Type – They possess knowledge, but their intentions became corrupted. They were led by Satan and false desires and inclined towards evil. Thus, they followed the people of misguidance and opposed the callers to guidance with which Allāh ﷻ sent His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ.

The Second Type – They are those who do not possess a great portion of knowledge. The people of innovation took hold of them, sought to include them in their party, and persuaded them that what they were calling to was clear truth. They incited them upon the path of misguidance, made matters unclear for them, and submerged them in error.

As for the leaders who are followed, who establish principles of innovation and call people to their innovations and misguidance, they are to be described by the innovation which they have introduced and propagated. There is no honour for them. As for those who follow the people of desires, as mentioned, they are generally of two types. They are to be called to the Sunnah, to holding firmly to it, and to rejecting the innovation by which they have been deluded. If they accept the call to the truth with knowledge and action, and reject what the people of desires and innovations call them to, then this is preferable and praiseworthy. However, if they reject the advice of sincere advisors, choose misguidance over guidance, and innovations over the Sunnah, then they are rightly deserving of being labelled as innovators. There is no honour for them after the truth has been established upon them with its evidences, and after falsehood has been clarified with regard to the newly invented matters that oppose the truth. These matters were described by the Prophet ﷺ as misguidance, and their people have been threatened with the Fire. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Upon you is my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs after me. Hold firmly to it and bite onto it with your molar teeth. Beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.”

References

al-Madkhalī, Zayd ibn Muḥammad. al-Ajwibat al-Athariyyah. Riyadh: Dār Ḍiyāʾ al-Salaf, 2013, p. 17.