Topic: Innovation (Bid‘ah)

5:5; 6:119.

5:74; 16:23; 37:5.

Important Words:

منسکا (rites of sacrifice) is derived from نسك . They say نسك الذبیحة i.e. he slaughtered and sacrificed the animal. نسك الرجلmeans, the man led a life devoted to God; he practised virtue and piety. نسك للّٰه means, he sacrificed seeking to win the pleasure of God; he did good deeds willingly and spontaneously in order to win nearness to God. نسك الثوب means, he washed the cloth. منسك means, rites of sacrifice; place where those rites are performed; one’s native place. مناسك الحج means, the religious rites and ceremonies of the Pilgrimage.

For مخبتین see 11:24.

Commentary:

With this verse begins the subject of sacrifice, one of the three main themes with which this Surah deals, the other two being Hajj and jihad.

The words "And to every people We appointed rites of Sacrifice," show that the commandment relating to Sacrifice is not confined to Islam. Sacrifice is common to all religions because they have proceeded from the same Divine source. It also appears from this verse that it was the sacrifice of animals that was originally enjoined on the followers of all religions and that the cruel practice of offering human beings as sacrifice was a later innovation.

In view of the different meanings of the root word true sacrifice possesses three essential characteristics:-

(a) It should be fully voluntary and spontaneous;

(b) It should be offered with the purest of motives, i.e. only to win the pleasure of God;

(c) It should not be offered from ulterior motives and material considerations.

Thus the first commandment relating to sacrifice though apparently very simple is of great inward significance. It is that sacrifice should be offered only for the sake of Allah and that Allah’s name should be invoked while the animal is being slaughtered for food. This not only sanctifies and blesses the food but is also calculated to turn attention to the sublime object underlying the act of slaughtering the animal—to win the pleasure of God and to be prepared to sacrifice the dearest thing in His way and for His sake.

The words, "So your God is one God, therefore, submit ye all to Him," have twofold significance: (1) The fact that the rite of sacrifice is common to all religions, although they are so widely separated from one another as regards the time and place of their origin, shows that originally they all emanated from the same Supreme Source and that the God of all nations is One God. (2) That the object underlying sacrifice is to realize and proclaim the Oneness of God by sacrificing our ambitions and aspirations, all our ideas and ideals and even life and honour for His sake, and by completely submitting ourselves to His commandments. The concept of sacrifice according to Islam does not consist in appeasing an offended deity or in atoning for one’s sins but in sacrificing one’s all for the sake of God and in the way of God. Those who have full realization of this concept of sacrifice are called (humble) in the language of the Quran.

6:51; 7:204; 10:16; 33:3.

Commentary:

بدعاً (new) is derived from بدع which means, he originated a thing or brought it into existence for the first time, the thing not having existed before, and not after the similitude of anything pre-existing. They say فلان بدع فی ھذا الامر i.e. such a one is the first person to do this thing. بدع means, first; new; a first doer of a thing; novel; a thing existing for the first time; an innovator (Lane & Aqrab). See also 2:118.

Commentary:

The Holy Prophet is here enjoined to tell his people that his being raised as a Divine Messenger was not a new thing. He was no innovator. They were already conversant with the phenomenon of prophethood. God had been raising His Messengers during the ages when people forsook the path of righteousness. He had raised Prophets in their neighbourhood, and, now, He had selected them for the bestowal of this great gift. They should, therefore, judge the Holy Prophet by the criteria by which the former Prophets were judged. The Holy Prophet is further asked to tell them that though there was no doubt that ultimately his cause would triumph, he was not vouchsafed the knowledge of the vicissitudes of circumstances through which he himself would have to pass during the intervening period, nor did he know how God would treat his opponents. His mission was confined to delivering the Divine Message to them and to warn them that if they did not behave they would come to grief.

2:88; 5:47.

5:83.

Commentary:

The verse may mean that the followers of Jesus invented monasticism in order to seek Allah’s pleasure but Allah had not prescribed it for them; or they invented monasticism which God had not prescribed for them—He had only prescribed for them the seeking of His pleasure.

In v. 26, it was stated that God had sent down المیزان (Balance) in order that people may act with equity and justice, i.e. by avoiding extremes they should adopt the golden mean or the middle course in all their affairs and actions because that was the best and the safest course. In the present verse the example of a people—the Christians—has been cited to show that the adoption of an extreme course by them, with howsoever good intentions, led them away from the goal they had sought to attain. They invented the institution of monkery in order, as they thought, to seek the pleasure of God, and in conformity with, according to them, Jesus’s own teaching and practice. The adage that the road to Heaven is paved with good intentions was never better illustrated than in the case of Christians for whom monkery proved a source of many evils. They started with monasticism and ended with giving themselves up to the worship of Mammon. By implication the Muslims were told that because a great Prophet had been raised for them, by following whom they would be given great worldly power and wealth, they should not go to the other extreme and give themselves up to the pursuit of material gains and physical pleasures. While monasticism has been decried and deplored as repugnant to human nature, the Holy Prophet also is reported to have said: لارھبانیة فی الاسلام i.e. there is no monasticism in Islam (Ibn Athir). Islam is not a religion for dreamers and visionaries who live in a world of their own conception, entirely divorced from the hard realities of life, but it is a practical system which gives effective and full guidance in mundane as well as spiritual affairs. It has not left any aspect of crowded human life for which it has not laid down practical guidance. There is no place in Islam for such an impracticable teaching as "take no thought for the morrow" (Matt. 6:34). It emphatically enjoins a Muslim "to look to what he sends forth for the morrow" (59:19). According to Islam a true Muslim is one who discharges fully and completely the obligations he owes to his fellow beings (حقوق العباد) as he discharges those he owes to his Creator (حقوق اللّٰه).