Chapter on Innovations, Personal Opinions and Analogies

“If one would meet an innovator and considers him great such person has, in fact, the destruction of Islam.”

“Allah has rejected repentance of an innovator (in religion).” People asked the holy Prophet as to why is this. The holy Prophet replied, “He (Allah) has quenched his heart with the love of his innovation.”

“Abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) said that the holy Prophet has said, ‘It is certain that against every innovation with plots to destroy faith there will be an (religious) authority from my family as guardian of faith and as its defender. (Such) authority will speak on inspiration from Allah to declare the truth and bring it to light, repulse and foil the evil plots of the agents of wickedness and speak for the weak. O people of Intelligence, take a lesson from it and trust Allah.’”

“Abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) has said, ‘The people of analogy have sought knowledge through analogy and it has increased to their knowledge nothing but further remoteness. The religion of Allah is beyond the reach of analogy.’”

“All innovations are misguidance and all misguidance leads to Hell.”

I said to Abu al-Hasan Musa (as), "May I be your ransom! We have been given understanding in religion, and Allah has made us self-sufficient through you from the people, to the extent that a group of us may be in a gathering where no one asks his companion [about a religious issue], for when a question arises, its answer is already present in what Allah has blessed us with through you. However, sometimes an issue arises for which we have received nothing from you or your forefathers. So, we consider the best that comes to our minds and what is most in line with what has come to us from you, and we act upon it." He (a.s.) said: "Far from it, far from it! By Allah, those who perished have indeed perished, O Ibn Hakim!" Then he said: "May Allah curse Abu Hanifa! He used to say, 'Ali said so, and I say so.'" Muhammad b. Hakim said to Hisham b. al-Hakam, "By Allah, I only wanted him to permit me to use qiyas."

“I asked (Imam) abu al-Hassan the First, ‘How would I prove that Allah is one?’” The Imam replied, “O Yunus, do not be an innovator. One who depends on his personal opinion he is destroyed. One who abandons the members of the family of his prophet, goes stray. Whoever abandons the book of Allah and the words of His prophet he becomes an unbeliever.”

“I asked Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.), 'There come to us matters which we do not find in the Book of Allah or in the Sunnah, so we consider them (using our opinion).' He (as) said, 'No, indeed, if you are correct, you will not be rewarded, and if you are wrong, you will have lied against Allah, the Mighty and Majestic.'"”

“The Holy Prophet said, ‘All innovations are misguidance and all misguidance is Hell.’”

“I heard (Imam) abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) saying, ‘Ibn Shabrama’s knowledge is lost and void before al-Jami‘ah. It is a large book that was dictated by the holy Prophet to Imam Ali (a.s.), who wrote it with his own hands. Al-Jami‘ah has left nothing for any one to say. In it is the knowledge of all lawful and unlawful matters. The people of analogy sought knowledge through analogy and it increased to their knowledge but taking them away from knowledge. The religion of Allah is not of matters to learn through analogy.”

“The Sunnah can not be analogized (with qiyas). Don't you see that a woman has to make up for her fast (missed due to menses) but she does not have to make up for the prayers (missed due to the same)? O Aban, if the Sunnah was analogized, the religion would have been destroyed.”

“I asked (Imam) Abu al-Hassan Musa (a.s.) about the use of analogy and the Imam said, ‘What do you have to do with analogy? Allah is not asked about how he made things lawful or unlawful.’”

“(Imam) abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who narrated from his father who said that Imam Ali (a.s.) said, ‘Whoever sets out for analogy his whole life will get in confusion. Whoever would practice the religion of Allah by means of analogy his whole life will pass in a drowning condition.’” Imam abu Ja‘far (a.s.) then said, “Whoever gives Fatwa on the basis of his personal opinion he has practiced the religion of Allah by means of what is not knowledge. Whoever would practice the religion of Allah without knowledge he has opposed Him by making things as lawful and unlawful by means of what he has no knowledge of.”

“Satan analogized himself with Adam saying, “Lord, You have created me from fire and created him from clay. In an analogical explanation if the substance from which Adam was made would be compared with fire it would come to light that it has more light and value than fire.”

“Once abu Hanifah came to see Imam abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who said to abu Hanifah, “O abu Hanifah, do you practice analogy as I hear you do?” Abu Hanifah replied, “Yes, I do practice analogy.” The Imam then said to him, “Do not practice it because the first person who used analogy was Satan when he said, “Lord, you have created me from fire and created him from clay.” He analogized fire with clay. If he would have analogized the light in the clay and fire he would have learned about the difference between the two lights and the excellence of one over the other.”

“A man asked Imam abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) about an issue and the Imam replied him. The man then said, “Have you considered if it had been so and so it would have been the word in it.” The Imam then said, “Wait, whatever I said in answer was from the holy Prophet (s.a.). We are not of the people, “Have you considered” in anything.” ( The Imam that they did not need reasoning process and that all they said had come to them from the holy Prophet (s.a.)

“Do not take anyone closely and intimately between your selves and Allah lest you will not be believers. Every means, ancestral and relative relations and intimacy, innovations and doubts will be cut off except for what is established in the holy Quran.”