A Response to the Argument of Those Who Hold That Exceeding the Sunnah in Action Is Better Than Adhering to It

Question : But someone among the students of knowledge might say to me: What do you say about the hadith of Abu Hurayrah regarding the story of the two men whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent? Then the time for prayer arrived, and they did not find water, so they performed tayammum with clean earth and prayed. Then they found water within the time, so one of them performed wudu and repeated the prayer, while the other did not repeat it. To the one who did not repeat it, he said, "You have hit the Sunnah," and he gave the first one double the reward. This implies that the more one acts, the more one is rewarded. So what is the answer?

Answer : The answer is that this man who repeated the prayer did so through his own ijtihad (independent legal reasoning) while the Sunnah was obscure to him. A person who performs an act through ijtihad while the Sunnah is obscure to him is rewarded for it. However, once the Sunnah becomes clear, if one exceeds the Sunnah, he is not rewarded. Do you understand this? So if someone brings this objection to us, we answer with this response and say that the man who repeated the prayer thought that this was what was obligatory upon him, and the Sunnah was obscure to him. But if the Sunnah became clear to him and he said, "I will not exceed it," we would say, "You have no reward, and perhaps you will be saved from sin." May Allah guide those who engage in this matter. Yes.