Is bay’ah an innovation (bid’ah)?

The bay'ah taken in Tasawwuf (also written bai'at, bay'at, baiat or bayt) does have its precedent in the Sunnah. Mowlana Ashraf Ali rahimahullah, the great scholar, explains that the type of bay'ah taken by Sufis, which is a pledge to adhere to the Shariah and perform all the deeds and practices in accordance with the Qur'an and Sunnah, is often criticised. According to these critics, bay'ah is a bid'ah, a blameworthy innovation, not supported by the Qur'an or Hadith.

The Beloved Prophet ﷺ took the pledge from the Companions on various occasions. On the occasion of Hudaybiyyah the pledge was taken from the Companions to be steadfast and to have fortitude in battle. Some object that the pledge was only taken for the purpose of being steadfast in the war, but that is not true.

There were various other occasions when the pledge was taken from the Companions for matters other than war. It is narrated that Awf bin Malik may Allah be pleased with him said, "We were in the company of the Messenger ﷺ nine, eight or seven of us, when Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, 'Will you not pledge your allegiance to Allah's Messenger ﷺ?' As we had only recently pledged our allegiance to him, we said, 'We have already pledged ourselves to you, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ!' Yet again, he asked us, 'Will you not pledge yourselves to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?' So, we extended our hands and said, 'O Messenger of Allah ﷺ! To what shall we pledge?' He replied, 'That you worship Allah and not associate anything with Him, that you perform the five daily prayers, and that you hear and obey.' Then, he whispered something to us. He said, 'And do not ask anyone for anything.' Since then, I have witnessed those men that even if they drop their whips while mounted would not even ask anyone to hand it up to them." [Sahih Muslim 1043]

This hadith also indicates how the Companions followed the words of the Beloved Prophet ﷺ. The condition described in the later part of the hadith, prohibiting them from asking anyone, intended to prohibit the Companions from asking for anything that belonged to others. Yet the Companions followed the words of the Beloved Prophet ﷺ in the intended and the literal meanings, and never asked for anything even if it belonged to them.

Allah's Last Prophet ﷺ was Allah's vicegerent and everything he did was by the will of Allah. After him the Companions were the guiding stars and they did the same, and after them the righteous men followed in their footsteps.

Another hadith verifies the importance of bay'ah, where the Beloved Prophet ﷺ took a pledge from a group of his Companions and said, "Give me your pledge that you will not ascribe partners to Allah and that you will not steal." [Sahih al-Bukhari 18] There are examples of a pledge for performing a good deed and examples of taking the pledge for forbiddance, as mentioned in this hadith, and therefore bay'ah, or taking the pledge, is a Sunnah.

The only bay'ah the critics recognise is the one for conversion to Islam or for jihad. However, as Mowlana Ashraf Ali rahimahullah explains, in the hadith above the type of bay'ah is spiritual, because the ones who performed the bay'ah were Companions who had already pledged to Islam. Therefore this was not the bay'ah for Islam, and it was neither a bay'ah for jihad, as is obvious from the text.

Rather, it was a bay'ah to obey certain injunctions and to perform certain practices, and therefore it is obvious that the bay'ah in Tasawwuf does have its precedent in the Sunnah. [Thanvi, Haqiqat al-Tariqa min as-Sunna al-Aniqa 32]