The H.?fiz. Ibn H.ajar said:
The root meaning of innovation is what is produced without precedent. It is applied in the law in opposition to the Sunna and is therefore blameworthy. Strictly speaking, if it is part of what is classified as commendable by the law then it is a good innovation (h.asana), while if it is part of what is classified as blameworthy by the law then it is blameworthy (mustaqbah.a), otherwise it falls in the category of what is permitted indifferently (mub?h.). It can be divided into the known five categories.
Agreement of the Schools over the Fivefold Classification
Agreement formed in the Four Schools around the fivefold classification of bid‘a as illustrated by the endorsement of the major later authorities in each School.
[1] Among the H.anaf?s: al-Kirm?n?, Ibn ‘?bid?n, al-Turkm?n?, al-‘Ayn?, and al-Tah?naw?.
[2] Among the M?lik?s: al-T.urt.?sh?, Ibn al-H.?jj, al-Qar?f?, and al-Zurq?n?, while al-Sh?t.ib? attempts a refutation and claims that the fivefold classification is “an invented matter without proof in the Law”!
[3] Consensus among the Sh?fi‘?s.
[4] Reluctant acceptance among later H.anbal?s, who altered al-Sh?fi‘? and Ibn ‘Abd al-Sal?m’s terminology to read “lexical innovation” (bid‘a lughawiyya) and “legal innovation” (bid‘a shar‘iyya), respectively – although inaccurately – matching al-Sh?fi‘?’s “approved” and “abominable. This manner of splitting hairs has become the shibboleth of Wahh?bism in every micro-debate on bid‘a although the correct way – as usual – is patently that of the Jumh?r.
Shaykh Muh.ammad Bakh?t al-Mut.?‘? concluded that “The legal bid‘a is the one that is misguidance and condemned; as for the bid‘a that the Ulema divided into obligatory and forbidden and so forth, such is the lexical bid‘a which is more inclusive than the legal because the legal is only part of it.”
Al-Shawk?n? concluded in Nayl al-Awt.?r that the foundational division of innovations into “good” and “bad” is the soundest and most correct position.
It is enough that a major Mujtahid Im?m of the Salaf said so on the basis of the Qur’?n and Sunna regardless of the argumentations of later centuries – whether from a would-be murajjih. like al-Shawk?n? or a would-be censor like al-Sh?t.ib? – in light of the concurrence of the Jumh?r around al-Sh?fi‘?’s explanation and the Divine and Prophetic injunctions to follow the path of the Believers and to stay with their greatest mass. “He is not an Im?m in ‘Ilm who follows aberrant (sh?dhdh) positions” (‘Abd al-Rah.m?n ibn Mahd?).
And All?h knows best.
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