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Our next question is brother Mahmoud asks especially in light of the fact that we have just begun the new Hijri year today

That is it permissible to congratulate one another over the beginning of the new Hijri year or will this come under a bidah or a religious innovation?

The answer to this question it really goes back to how you define bidah and I have given a much longer lecture a number of years ago

You can find it on YouTube where I go over the various definitions and who says what and what is their reasoning to say so and the fact of the matter is undeniable fact that based upon your definitions you will then have different opinions

If you follow a particular definition of innovation then you will find a group of scholars saying that it is religiously impermissible it is a bidah to congratulate people at the beginning of the new year or the Islamic New Year and to make dua for them

And then another group of scholars says that there is no religious innovation here it is a cultural thing there is no ritual that is done it is not associated with rituals it is simply a generic dua and you may make generic dua at any times and this is the position that I myself follow

and one finds plenty of fatawa actually going back to Imam Masyulti many many you know a century ago sorry 600 years ago Imam Masyulti was asked about this question that should we congratulate people at the beginning of the new year

and he says that this is something that many people do and you know some scholars discovered it but the fact of the matter Imam Masyulti says it is neither Sunnah nor bidah it is not Sunnah it can't be Sunnah because the Prophet of the Prophet did not have the Hijri calendar the way we have it

this was instituted in the time of Umar al-Khattar al-Yahwan the Hijri calendar was instituted in the time of Umar al-Yahwan not in the time of the Prophet

So clearly it is not a Sunnah at the same time it's not a bidah in the technical sense because you do not do it as ritual

you do not do it you know thinking that this is something that should be done and it is a part of our religious heritage

it is permissible to have cultural rituals so for example how we greet one another after we say salam

there are phrases that every culture uses okay in Urdu in Farsi in Arabic you know the Arabs say for example

ahlan wasahlan for example right is it wrong you know to say you know ahlan wasahlan is it wrong to say

no it's not these are cultural things that various cultures have done you say this salam you do what needs to be done

you may add your own culture in there and these can be routine those very strict scholars who try

to make these things as bidah I have politely disagreed and said that in reality one can pinpoint

things that every one of these cultures does that would also constitute bidah according to their definitions

but they overlook it and I've been trying you know politely I pointed out that in reality their definitions of bidah

are not in sync with their own lifestyles and multiple things can be pointed out that indicate that they

are not actually fulfilling the letter of the law in their own definition of bidah or

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