The ruling on abstaining from some permissible matters in acts of worship out of asceticism
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: If I want, Shaykh, to abstain from some permissible matters in acts of worship out of asceticism, not prohibition, what is the ruling?
Answer:
Acts of worship are not described as permissible; the prescribed ones are either obligatory or recommended. As for the obligatory duties, it is not permissible for you to leave them. As for the sunnahs (recommended practices), it is recommended for you to perform them. They complete the obligatory duties if there is a deficiency in them, they raise your rank, and you are in need of them, so do not lose them. Yes.
The questioner says: If I want, Shaykh, to abstain from some permissible matters in acts of worship out of asceticism, not prohibition, what is the ruling?
Answer:
Acts of worship are not described as permissible; the prescribed ones are either obligatory or recommended. As for the obligatory duties, it is not permissible for you to leave them. As for the sunnahs (recommended practices), it is recommended for you to perform them. They complete the obligatory duties if there is a deficiency in them, they raise your rank, and you are in need of them, so do not lose them. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/033 — archive.org (8:19)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.