Is every act not performed by the Companions considered an innovation (bid‘ah), especially since Zayd ibn Thabit reviewed ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab regarding his compilation of the Qur’an by saying: "How can you do something that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not do?" So ʿUmar replied to him: "By Allah, this is good," and ʿUmar did not use the precedent of the Rightly Guided Caliphs as an argument?

Innovation (bid‘ah) was defined by Al-Shatibi as: "An invented way in religion that resembles the شرع (Islamic law), by which one intends to exaggerate in the worship of Allah." Among its forms are: committing to specific modes and postures. Also, every act that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not perform, despite the existence of a motive for it and the absence of any impediment to its performance, then performing it now is an innovation. The hadith: "Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs" does not mean that every caliph can legislate whatever he wishes. Rather, it means that they follow the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and that his Sunnah is taken from them. Thus, a Rightly Guided Caliph is not permitted to legislate a method other than what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was upon.