Allah, Exalted is He, has completed and perfected the religion of Islam, and has bestowed His perfect grace on His servants, and therefore it is incumbent on Muslims to keenly seek to conform with the will of Allah, Exalted is He, and His Messenger ﷺ (i.e., by compliance with the provisions of Islam), to the best of their abilities, and refrain from introducing religious innovations that have no basis in the Laws of Islam. Whoever introduces a religious innovation and invents something which has no basis in Islam, such a religious innovation will be rejected. In this hadeeth, the Prophet ﷺ informed us that if anyone introduces a religious innovation that has no basis in the Quran and the Sunnah, does not fall under the heading of a Laws of Islam provision stated therein, or contravenes the provisions of Islam, such an innovation will be rejected, meaning that such an unprescribed act will be declared null and void, and shall not be accepted by Allah, Exalted is He. This is one of the fundamental principles of Islam, and this hadeeth is one of the examples of the Prophet’s eloquent, aphoristic speech. In this hadeeth, he ﷺ explicitly rejected all religious innovations and unprescribed acts and sayings that have no basis in Islam. The hadeeth commands Muslims to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and abide by it, and forbids them from introducing any religious innovation. It is deduced from the hadeeth that the criterion for declaring a given act a religious innovation is having no basis in the Quran or the Sunnah. .