بدعت اور رواج : اسلامی تعلیمات کی روشنی میں تقابلی جائزہ

A Comparative Study of Custom and Religious Innovation in the Light of Islamic Law

Abstract

Culture is generally influenced by many factors including religion. However, religion is also affected by certain elements that include culture. Due to such influence from both the sides, it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the two. Islam as a religion is not an exception to this general. This is evident from the fact that Muslim societies in various parts of the world have their unique cultures and hardly any two Muslim societies share the same cultural values and traditions. However, Muslim jurists have laid down a framework under which cultural exercises can be distinguished from religious practice; such cultural practices, if done in the name of religion, may result in religious innovation which is despised by Islam. Due to the matchless efforts of the Muslim scholars of the past till date, Islamic teachings have remained unpolluted by the amalgamation of cultural norms and practices. In this article, we define custom and religious innovation and elaborate, with the help of examples, the underlying principles on the basis of which the two can be distinguished.