Is making a commitment to give charity of a specific amount on a specific day an innovation?
Question

                Is giving charity of a certain amount – which may be a fixed amount – on a particular day every week, without believing that it is Sunnah or feeling obliged to do that, and only doing that because circumstances are more conducive to doing it in this way, regarded as an innovation (bid‘ah)?
Praise be to Allah.
	Singling out a particular time or place 
	for doing an act of worship that is not prescribed in any Islamic text, 
	without believing that that time or place has a particular virtue – rather 
	it is something dictated by circumstances, so that he needed to do it in 
	that particular time or place – has nothing to do with innovation at all, 
	and there is nothing wrong with it. Rather innovation or introducing things 
	into the religion refers to cases where the aim is to add this innovation to 
	the teachings and prescriptions of Islam, or where that is the likely 
	outcome; in that case the Muslim has fallen into innovation.

	Dr. Muhammad Husayn al-Jeezaani (may Allah 
	preserve him) said:

	There are three characteristics of 
	religious innovation by which it is known to be such. A thing is not 
	regarded as innovation in religious terms unless it meets these three 
	conditions. They are:

	1.Being newly invented

	2.This newly invented matter begins to be 
	regarded as being part of the religion

	3.This newly invented matter has no basis in 
	Islamic teachings, either in a general or specific sense.

	A particular practice may be regarded as 
	an innovation when one of the following three things applies:

	1.The practice is aimed at drawing close to Allah 
	by means of something that He has not prescribed

	2.The practice drifts away from the general 
	guidelines of the religion

	3.The practice may lead to innovation.

	End quote from Qawaa‘id Ma‘rifat 
	al-Bida‘ (p. 18-23)

	But as for doing a particular act of 
	worship regularly, at a specific time or in a specific place because 
	circumstances allow doing it at that time or in that place, without 
	believing that one must do it then or that there is some special virtue in 
	doing so, there is nothing wrong with that – as in the case of one who fasts 
	on Tuesdays, for example, because that is his day off work; or one who 
	regularly prays qiyaam on Friday night, because he is off work on Saturday; 
	or one who regularly reads Qur’an between Maghrib and ‘Isha’, because he has 
	free time then; and there are many similar examples. All of that is 
	permissible, because no innovation is being introduced into the religion in 
	these cases, and it is not something that could lead to the introduction of 
	new innovations.

	Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on 
	him) was asked: 

	What is your opinion on what some imams do 
	of specifying a particular portion of Quran for every rak‘ah and every 
	night?

	He replied:

	I do not see anything wrong with that, 
	because the matter depends on what the imam sees fit. If he thinks that it 
	serves a purpose to increase the portion on some nights or in some rak‘ahs, 
	because he feels more energetic and thinks that he is able to do that, and 
	he sees that he is enjoying the recitation, so he increases the number of 
	verses in order to benefit himself and benefit those who are praying behind 
	him, so if he beautifies his voice and begins to enjoy the recitation, and 
	he feels focused, then he and those who are praying behind him will benefit. 
	So if he adds more verses in some rak‘ahs, or on some nights, we do not 
	think there is anything wrong with it. The matter is flexible, praise be to 
	Allah, may He be exalted. End quote.

	Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa 
	(11/335)

	Based on that, we do not see anything 
	wrong with giving charity regularly on a particular day because 
	circumstances allow that, to the exclusion of other days, and not because 
	one believes that there is a particular virtue in doing that on that day.

	And Allah knows best.