The term has been said (by Mehram Kamrava) to have acquired over time "a highly negative, even dreaded connotation" in the Islamic world, where attacks on bidʻah have resonated with the masses of Muslims.
Economic instruments — "impersonal contracts, financial exchange mechanisms, corporations and record keeping" — that fostered and protected capital and entrepreneurship and led to the flourishing of rival Europe, were not to be found in Islamic world.
that can involve either worldly or religious matters;[15][6] and the "shariah" definition of Bid'ah, which includes (and forbids) anything introduced to Islam that was not done in the time of Muhammad or the Rashidun.
[15] Others (Al-`Izz ibn `Abdus-Salam) have divided Bid'ah into the five "decisions" of fiqh (al-aḥkām al-khamsa) of obligatory, recommended, allowed, condemned, forbidden.
Examples being: "building religious institutions, recording the research of Islamic schools of legal thought, writing books on beneficial subjects, establishing sciences in order to understand the Qur’an and Sunnah, using of modern weapons for Jihad, etc…".
The strict Ḥanbalī school of fiqh and the Wahhābi movement reject bidʻah "completely, arguing that the duty of a Muslim was to follow the example set by the Prophet (Sunnah) and not try to improve on it", according to Britannica.
[26] In comparing bidʻah to the Christian concept of heresy, Bernard Lewis says, "the gravamen of a charge of [innovation] against a doctrine was not, primarily, that it was false but that it was new -- a breach of custom and tradition, respect for which is reinforced by the belief in the finality and perfection of the Muslim revelation."
Scholars affiliated to the Salafi sects argue for an exclusive, literal definition that entails anything not specifically performed or confirmed by Muhammad.
"[42][43][non-primary source needed] Early scholar Hasan al-Basri (642-728 CE) mentions: "Do not sit with the people of innovation and desires, nor argue with them, nor listen to them".
(Note: The grade of the Hadith is da'eef i.e. weak)[54][non-primary source needed] Abu Hurairah said that Muhammad said, "Whoever prayed at night the whole month of Ramadan out of sincere Faith and hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be forgiven."
"[59][non-primary source needed] Abu Hurairah said that at the time of the Fajr prayer Muhammad asked Bilal ibn al-Harith, "Tell me of the best deed you did after embracing Islam, for I heard your footsteps in front of me in Paradise."
"[60] Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says in Fath al-Bari that "the hadith shows it is permissible to use personal reasoning (ijtihad) in choosing times for acts of worship, for Bilal reached the conclusion he mentioned by his own inference and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) confirmed him therein.
"[61] Similar to this, Khubayb ibn Adiy asked to pray two rak’as before being executed by idolators in Mecca, and was hence the first to establish the sunna of two rak'as for those who are steadfast in going to their death.
Hence, the Shiʻa stance mirrors the body of Sunni scholars who proffer the idea of "bidʻah hasana" (Arabic: بدعة حسنة).
[68] Despite the general understanding of standing scholarly disagreements (Arabic: اختلاف, romanized: ikhtilaf), the notion of lawful innovation is a polarizing issue in the Islamic world.
All scholars agree that such celebrations did not exist in the early period of Islamic history, and yet mawlid commemorations are a common element in Muslim societies around the world.
Even so, Sunni scholars are divided between emphatic unconditional condemnation[5][69] and conditional acceptance[70][71] of the celebration with the former insisting it is a bidʻah and thus automatically unlawful, while the latter argues it nonetheless is contextually permissible.
Ibn Taymiyyah however considered mathematics, a bidah, a false form of knowledge that "does not bring perfection to the human soul, nor save man from castigation of God, nor lead him to a happy life", and forbade its use in determining the beginning of lunar months.
[74] Very conservative Wahhabis allow the broadcast of television but Indian Deobandi forbid their followers from watching it,[75] but make use of the more recent invention the internet to issue fatwas.
[75] When the beverage known as coffee was introduced to the market of Cairo sometime between 1580 and 1625 CE, it was considered by the ulama to be a bid'ah so offensive to Islam that the pious were urged to attack and demolish establishments serving it.
"[79] A number of contemporary Muslim sources assure readers that Bidah is confined to religion and has nothing to do with technology,[16] However, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, European inventions -- "steamships, factories, and the telegraph" -- were denounced in the Ottoman Empire as innovations leading to wicked deeds.
[A]mong the accepted practices of our time are decorating and furnishing the mosques, and expending great sums of money on their ornate construction and fine rugs which were then considered innovations.
Similarly disputation and debate are among the most honoured disciples of the day and are numbered among the best meritorious works (qarubat): nevertheless they were among the taboos at the time of the Companions.