Islams Reformers

“Islamic scholars who have not gone wrong in their ijtihâd in
the belief and the Muslims who believe the truth like them are
called Ahl as-Sunna or Sunnî.
“The worship of the seventy-two groups of bid’a is not
acceptable even if they worship correctly. Their bid’a in their
worshipping is an additional guilt, even if they call it ijtihâd.
“The ijtihâds deduced by the Ahl as-Sunna scholars in the
knowledge concerning ’ibâdât are not bida’. Their mistakes in
finding out this knowledge will not cause them to be guilty.
Leaders of the four madhhabs derived this knowledge, with the
permission of the Prophet (’alaihi ’s-salâm) who announced
Islam, from the sources which Islam prescribed. This knowledge
has not changed Islam, but it has helped Islam. Ijtihâd cannot be
employed on the things that are declared clearly in the Qur’ân
and the Hadîth. They should be admitted as they are. It is not a
guilt to go wrong in searching for the proof of something that has
not been declared openly. But, if the proof stating the right way is
clear and if the mujtahid goes wrong in finding out the proof, or
by following his own mind without deriving from a proof, an
’ibâda based on this deduction is a bid’a and heresy. If such a
reform causes a sunnat muakkada to disappear, it will be a worse
sin.
“The action Rasûlullah (’alaihi ’s-salâm) used to perform as an
’ibâda and omitted from time to time is called sunnat hudâ or
sunnat muakkada. It has not been declared that those who
sometimes omit them will be punished. An action which he never
neglected and he said that those who would neglect it would be
punished is called wâjib. That which he performed at times is
called mustahab. An action which he used to do not as an ’ibâda
but as a custom is called sunnat zawâid or adab. It is adab to begin
with good things on the right and with bad things on the left and to
use the right and left hands, respectively.
“It is not a bid’a to make changes in customs. It is better for
men of wara’ not to do it. It is declared in a hadîth, ‘Hold fast to
my sunna and, after me, to the sunnas of al-Khulafâ’ ar-Râshidîn.’
The word sunna, when used alone, means everything that Islam
declares. Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), who taught Islam, did not
declare anything on customs, for he came in order to preach the
religion, not to teach people how to do the things they needed in
the world. It is declared in a hadîth, ‘You know better how to do
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