Muharram Innovations

The practices of drinking and the distribution of milk (specifically for the tenth of Muharram), self-mutilation and visiting Karabala in the month of Muharram are Bid’aat, have no basis in the Shari’ah and cannot be established or substantiated from the practices of the Sahaaabah Radiallahu Anhum or pious predecessors. These practices are salient features of the Rawafidh (a deviated sect better known as the Shi’ah), and enacting these practices (even though a person claims not to be a Shi’ah) would result in emulation of this group which is impermissible and sinful.

وقَالَ: أُوصِيكُمْ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ، وَالسَّمْعِ وَالطَّاعَةِ وَإِنْ تَأَمَّرَ عَلَيْكُمْ عَبْدٌ، فَإِنَّهُ مَنْ يَعِشْ مِنْكُمْ فَسَيَرَى اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا، فَعَلَيْكُمْ بِسُنَّتِي وَسُنَّةِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ الْمَهْدِيينَ، عَضُّوا عَلَيْهَا بِالنَّوَاجِذِ، وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَمُحْدَثَاتِ الْأُمُورِ؛ فَإِنَّ كُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ

Translation: Rasoolullaah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), said, “I counsel you to have Taqwa (fear) of Allah, and to listen and obey [your leader], even if a slave were to become your Ameer. Verily he among you who lives long will see great controversy, so you must keep to my Sunnah and to the Sunnah of the Khulafa ar-Rashideen (the rightly guided Khulafa), those who guide to the right way. Cling to it stubbornly [literally: with your molar teeth]. Beware of newly invented matters [in the religion], for verily every Bid’ah (innovation) is misguidance.”

[Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi]