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What is the ruling on one who innovates against scholars, and believes that listening to them is an innovation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Accusing trustworthy scholars of innovation (bid‘ah) is a clear injustice and a sin that must be denounced. Sheikh Ibn Baz advised on the obligation of listening to scholars, for they convey from Allah, and neglecting knowledge and its people leads to corruption and misguidance. The hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, "Indeed, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from people, but He takes away knowledge by taking away the scholars, until when no scholar remains, people will take ignorant leaders who will be asked and will give fatwas without knowledge, thus going astray and leading others astray," indicates that ignorance in religion stems from not seeking knowledge from its rightful sources. Likewise, the verse, "And when there comes to them a matter of security or fear, they publicize it. But if they had referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them, then the ones who [can] draw correct conclusions from it would have known it. And if not for the favor of Allah upon you and His mercy, you would have followed Satan, except for a few," clarifies that referring matters to specialists prevents falling into error.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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