Servant of Allah
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Can you please make a list of commonly spread Bid'ah found in the Southern Asia subcontinent
List of Bid'ah practices in the Southern Asia subcontinent
- Thread starter Servant of Allah
- Start date
The list is very long, but here are the most prominent ones:
- Special invented styles of dhikr gatherings
People sitting in circles, often under a sheet, doing loud dhikr in chorus: leader shouts “takbir/tahlil/tasbih/tahmid” and group throws pebbles or date stones while repeating Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illallah, etc.
In themselves, these adhkar are correct, but fixing a special collective style and rhythm which is not from the Sunnah makes it a bid'ah.
- “Ihtiyati Zuhr” after Jumu'ah
After praying Jumu'ah, some people also pray 4 fard of Zuhr “just in case Jumu'ah was not valid”.
• There is no such precautionary fard prayer in the Sunnah.
• Either Jumu'ah is valid, then Zuhr is not fard, or Jumu'ah is not valid in that place, then they should not pray Jumu'ah at all.
So making a second “obligatory” prayer after the one Allah and His Messenger ﷺ made fard is an innovation.
- Salat ar Raghaib in Rajab
A special long salah on the first Thursday night of Rajab with amazing “virtues” is read in many masajid.
• This prayer did not exist in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, Sahabah or early generations.
• Scholars wrote that it appeared after 480 H and refuted it clearly.Reference: Ad Dur al Mukhtar 1/544
Therefore, fixing this specific night and format as a special ibadah is bid'ah.
- Customary Milad (Mawlid) celebrations
Yearly “Eid e Milad” with processions, flags, loudspeakers, mixed gatherings, qawwali, sweets and lighting, taken as an act of worship and a third Eid.
• Not done by the Sahabah or Khulafa ar Rashidun رضي الله عنهم.
• Not practiced or legislated by the four Imams in this form.
• Many early scholars (including Hanafis) clearly called the practiced Mawlid a bid'ah and said “what the Salaf did not do, there is no good in it.”
Loving the Prophet ﷺ is fard, but loving him is shown by following his Sunnah, not by innovating new festivals.
- “Giyarween Sharif” for Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani
Feeding people or making niyaz every lunar 11th “in the name of Pir Abdul Qadir Jilani”.
• If it is actually “for him” then it becomes shirk in financial worship.
• If intention is isal-e-thawab, then fixing the 11th as a special, repeating date is bid'ah, because charity and feeding the poor are not tied in Shari'ah to a fixed monthly date.
The Sahabah would spend for Allah's sake whenever they could, without binding it to such invented dates and labels.
- Bid'ah around death and funerals
(a) Dua timings fixed by people
• Making dua immediately after janazah salah as a fixed practice.
• Walking 40 steps from the grave then stopping for a “special” dua.
Sunnah: the Prophet ﷺ made dua for the deceased after burial, standing at the grave and said:
Everything beyond this fixed pattern and turned into a routine is an addition.
(b) Adhan at the grave after burial
After burial someone calls adhan by the grave, claiming “we did adhan at birth, now at death for a good ending”.
• No authentic hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, no practice of Sahabah.
• Leading muhaddithin called this a bid'ah and denied any analogy with adhan in the newborn’s ear.
(c) Fatiha / Quran khwani gatherings at the house
Days of continuous gatherings in the house of the deceased, people sitting, chatting, smoking, then reciting a little Fatiha or Yasin “for isal-e-thawab”, with big expenses on the grieving family.
Jarir ibn Abdullah رضي الله عنه said:
(d) Qul, 3rd day, 7th, 10th and 40th (Chehlum)
Fixing these specific days for large gatherings, recitation programs and feasts in the name of the deceased.
• Shari'ah only allows mourning for 3 days (except for a wife in iddah).
• These repeated scheduled events have no basis in Qur'an or authentic Sunnah and were explicitly condemned by many fiqh scholars as bid'ah.
- Bid'ah and shirk at graves and shrines
Common in the subcontinent:
• Building solid structures, rooms, domes and big tombs on graves.
• Plastering, tiling, marble, writing names and dates on tombstones.
• Covering graves with green or decorated sheets.
• Lights, decorations, fairs and annual urs at graves.
• Traveling specifically to shrines seeking “barakah”, making vows there.
• Tawaf of graves, kissing, touching, bowing or prostrating at them.
• Calling upon the buried person for help, children, rizq, health etc.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
Bottom line:
Many of these practices are widespread in South Asia, but spread and popularity do not make a bid'ah into Sunnah. The scale is always:
Anything in worship that is newly invented, fixed in a special form, time or number with the belief of reward, without evidence from these three sources, is to be avoided and gently corrected.
