Imam Muslim related from the route of Jarir Ibn ^Abdullah, that the Prophet said:
This means: <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who would practice with it until the Day of Judgement__without lessening the rewards of those who practice with it. The one who innovates the innovation of misguidance, would take the sin for it and the sin of those who practice with it until the Day of Judgement__without lessening the sin of those who practice with it.>>
Although the Prophet stated this hadith at that specific incident, the meaning is general and covers the general cases. It is not permissible to claim that this hadith applies only to charity because the Prophet used a general term in this hadith. He did not specify the reward to 'He who spends in charity,' rather he said: 'He who innovates a good innovation.' The Prophet used a general term in this hadith, even though it was revealed for a specific incident. It is the rule among the scholars that if an ayah or hadith was revealed for a specific incident or a specific reason yet a general term was used in that ayah or hadith, then the criterion would be in the general meaning of the term and not by the specificity of the incident.
Any Muslim who knows of an innovation innovated by the pious Muslim scholars which complies with the Qur'an and the hadith, let him step forward and apply it. All such innovations which comply with the Qur'an and the hadith are covered and included by the hadith of the Prophet: <<He who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and the reward of those who practice with it until the Day of Judgment.>> Hence this hadith is a foundation to affirm and confirm the validity of the good innovation in Islam. Moreover, the practices of the Companions and what we have witnessed from the pious Muslims stand as more proof of the validity of the good innovations.
Some people falsely claim that anything that was innovated after the Prophet is an innovation of misguidance. Their statement contradicts the saying of the Prophet previously mentioned; and it contradicts the doings of the Companions and their followers. One example of a good innovation is that which was done by Yahya Ibn Ya^mar--adding the dots above and below some of the Arabic letters in the Qur'an. Those who wrote down the Revelation that came down on the Prophet wrote the ayat of the Qur'an without the dots that are present today in the Arabic letters. For example, the letter ba' was written without a dot underneath; the letter ta' was written without two dots on top; and the letter tha' was written without three dots above. The entire Qur'an was written without these dots over or under the letters. Adding the dots took place after the death of the Prophet by a certain period of time.
Yahya Ibn Ya^mar was the first to innovate the convention of using dots on the Arabic letters. He was among the pious and trustworthy tabi^in. His action of applying the dots on the letters is included in the hadith of the Prophet referring to the one who innovates a good innovation in Islam. When the Companions witnessed this innovation, they did not disagree with him; they did not blame him and say, "You have done something that the Prophet did not do." They did not tell him, "The Prophet was not explicit about doing such a thing, how dare you do it?" On the contrary, they found this to be a good action on his part, because it has a great benefit for the nation.
When the Companions wrote the Qur'an, they did so without writing the dots for a certain wisdom. This was because the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet with different methods of recitation. In some of the recitations, the word would be recited with the letter ta' and in other recitations, it would be recited with the letter ya'. The ta' and the ya' are written in the same shape or format, however, they differ in the placement of the dots on them, i.e., the ta' has two dots on top and the ya' has two dots underneath.
Writing the format of the word without the dots would allow for either the ta' or the ya' to be read. As such, one Book compiling the letters and the words (without the dots) would be sufficient for more than one recitation. However, if one applies the dots, then this is restricted. That flexibility of reading the different recitations in one Book is eliminated, and if one wanted to recite according to a different recitation, one would need to rewrite the words with the dots placed differently to suit that recitation. For that wisdom, the Companions did not innovate the dots before this time.
When the benefit of this innovation became apparent at the time of Yahya Ibn Ya^mar, the Companions kept silent. At that time, many of the non-Arabs had embraced Islam and reading the Qur'an without the dots without making errors and mistakes constituted a hardship for these Muslims. To reduce the difficulty, Yahya applied the dots to the Qur'an. The Companions found that to be a good action on his part. This innovation of Yahya Ibn Ya^mar is included and covered by the hadith of the Prophet: <<He who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward ...>>
There are some who falsely claim: "Everything that was not done at the time of the Prophet and done later on--is an innovation of misguidance." If one followed this faulty reasoning, he would have to remove all of the dots from all of the texts of the Qur'anthat are available today, before he started raising other points falsely. Had the claim of such a person been true, it would have been an obligation to remove the dots on all of the texts that are available today. Yet, the Companions did not do that, and they did not order it to be done. All those who came after them, from the scholars and the lay people--until the present day--read Qur'an in texts that include the dots.
There are other examples of innovations unanimously agreed upon among all the scholars of the hadith. The scholars of hadith innovated something not done by the Prophet or by the Companions. The practice that the scholars of hadith did together was to have a session where they would relate the hadith of the Prophet with a continuous chain of narration back to the Prophet for the people to attend and listen. This particular session has specific rules that the scholars of hadith know. They said that it is liked for the session to commence with saying "Bismillah," then "al_Hamdulillah," then "as-Salatu ^ala an-Nabiyy", and then someone with good recitation would recite from the Qur'an. The one who conveys to the people from the speaker addresses the scholar of hadith by asking, "What do you have to say? May Allah endow mercy on you." At that point, the scholar of hadith would start narrating his chain, i.e., for example: X narrated to us from the route of Y, from the route of Z, and so on, all the way back to the Prophet. Such a session used to include thousands of people. In some sessions more than 30,000 people gathered. The scholar of hadith would not be able to make everyone in such a large session hear his voice so there were 'conveyers,' people who would convey that which they heard to those around them.
This methodology did not prevail at the time of the Prophet, nor at the time of the Sahabah;Abu Bakr did not do that, nor ^Umar, nor ^Uthman, nor ^Abdullah Ibn Abbas, nor Abu Sa^id al-Khudriyy, nor ^Abdullah Ibn Mas^ud, nor Abu Hurayrah, nor ^Abdullah Ibn ^Umar, nor other than those mentioned among the Companions. Despite this, all the scholars of thehadith unanimously agreed their practice was a good innovation, and they mentioned that in their books. Abu ^Amr Ibn as-Salah mentioned this in his book, Al_Muqaddimah, (The Introduction to the Knowledge of Hadith) as well as al-Hafidh as-Suyutiyy in his book, Tadrib ar-Rawi. Others mentioned this as well.
Those perverters, the Wahhabis, commit many innovations that are ugly and disliked. Some of their leaders, after writing the name of the Prophet in their books, write the letter sad alone to signify, in their minds, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam. Yet, it is documented in the books of the scholars of hadith that this is a disliked practice.
Furthermore, some of those Wahhabis claim that it is haram for the mu'adhdhin to say as-salatu ^ala an_Nabiyy in a loud voice after finishing the adhan. One of them, in the past, mentioned that this practice is so haram that it is similar to the one who fornicates with his own mother. This is an indication of the illness in his heart--otherwise such words would not come out of him. Saying as-salatu ^ala an-Nabiyy is a good practice--whether said before or after the adhan, with a loud or soft voice--because the Prophet said:
This means: <<He who mentions me, let him say as-salat on me.>> In the adhan the mu'adhdhin mentions the name of the Prophet. When he utters the Two Professions, he mentions the name of the Prophet. Hence, it is sunnah for him to say as-salat on the Prophet. In doing so, he is complying with the hadith of the Prophet. The Prophet did not say, "Let him say as-salat for me in a whisper or softly." Nor did the Prophet say, "Let him say as-salat on me in a loud voice." The Prophet said--in a general term: <<Let him say as-salat on me.>> This includes saying it aloud and in a whisper, such that he who says as-salat on the Prophet with a loud voice or a soft voice, is included in the hadith, i.e., he is complying with the hadith. Where is the entitlement for them to render this forbidden? They are not entitled, and they do not have any grounds to say this was not done at the time of the Prophet. The Prophet was explicit in his hadith, i.e., <<The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward.>> Moreover, the Prophet ordered the one who mentions him to say as-salat^ala an_Nabiyy. Hence, they are not entitled to render saying as_salat^ala an-Nabiyy in a loud voice as haram.
