Promoted Innovated Practices (Bid’ah)
False Accusation: He Promoted Innovative Practices
This is another broad accusation levelled against Alahazrat and the following things are cited by his enemies as examples:
1. He supported commemoration of death anniversaries of awliyā’a which are known as úrs in India.
2. He supported celebration of Mawlid.
3. He supported standing up in reverence [qiyām] at the mention of the Prophet’s ﷺ birth in Mawlid.
4. He supported fātiĥah, and donating reward to the deceased.
5. He supported seeking intercession from awliyā’a, prophets and in particular our Prophet ﷺ.
6. He supported seeking aid by calling upon awliyā’a and prophets and saying Yā RasūlAllāh.
The above practices were certainly supported by Alahazrat, and only Wahābīs consider the above as bidáh or polytheism. Wahābīs have been refuted by many scholars and foremost by Alahazrat himself. Deobandīs defame Alahazrat by correlating misdeeds of the ignorant public with his support of valid sunni-sufi practices. Where Alahazrat permitted úrs, he also forbade people from singing and dancing, he disallowed attending an úrs where things contrary to sharīáh take place. He absolutely forbade women to visit graves – he did not attend Mawlids which were led by people who were not devout, or who narrated baseless stories and anecdotes.
We ask his enemies and critics:
1. Did Alahazrat ever dissent from any established article in the creed of Ahl as-Sunnah – that of the Māturīdīs and Ashárīs?
2. If so, was it in any core belief or a secondary or tertiary issue?
3. And if so, where and how?
The undeniable truth is that Alahazrat was a staunch Sunni-Māturīdī and Ĥanafī scholar, who refuted Wahābīs, Rafiđīs and other heretics. But since the Deobandis could not find anything to malign him, hypocrites and liars like Abul Hasan Nadawi and Taqi Usmani in our times, make this allegation to defame him among Arab scholars.
Deobandis are hypocrites because they do not criticise or condemn Arab scholars for the same practises – such as Mawlid and Qiyam.