Love of God

IJTIHAD IS NOT PERMISSIBLE IN WORSHIP emphasis should be laid upon producing the spirit of tazkiyah, rather than upon the external form of worship. It would be true to say that, without worship, the claim to have attained tazkiyah is false. But it is also a fact that the outward form of worship cannot automatically produce the spirit of tazkiyah. IJTIHAD IS NOT PERMISSIBLE IN WORSHIP Rituals such as repeated loud recitations of Quranic phrases were not practiced in the religion handed down to us by the Prophet. Exercising ijtihad in the matter of worship is both unscholarly and unacceptable. A religious scholar once visited a well-known Sufi hospice, where he found that people were engaged in loud recitation (zikr biljehr) and other such rituals. On observing this, the scholar cited a tradition of the Prophet which said that “anyone who invents anything in this religion which is not in it stands rejected.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 2697) The scholar said that these Sufi rituals were not prevalent at the time of the Prophet and his companions, therefore, they would be regarded as innovations (bid’ah). The Sufi replied that what is forbidden in the Hadith is innovation in religion (ihdath fil-amr). It does not forbid innovation for religion (ihdath lil-amr), and all the practices of sufism are of the nature of innovation for religion.