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Is the vocalization of the Mushaf considered a bid‘ah hasanah (praiseworthy innovation) that those who advocate for bid‘ah hasanah use as an argument?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The compilation of the Qur’an, its vocalization (tanqeet), and diacritization (tashkeel) are not considered innovations (bid’ah). This is because innovation is defined as something the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not do, despite the presence of a motivator and the absence of any impediment. In his era (peace be upon him), there was no need for such actions. However, when the Muslim population grew and non-Arabs entered Islam, the situation necessitated these measures. This falls under the category of al-masalih al-mursalah (unrestricted public interests) and is linguistically termed a "good innovation" (bid'ah hasanah), similar to Umar’s statement regarding the Tarawih prayer: "What a blessed innovation this is!" Conversely, introducing an act of worship for which there was a clear need during the Prophet’s time (peace be upon him) and no impediment, but which was not performed, is an innovation.

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

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