Following the Deeds of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and What Was Specific to Him
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Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Someone mentioned that the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) act of facing the qiblah when relieving himself was specific to him. How is that, when the principle is to follow him (peace and blessings be upon him) in all his actions?
Answer:
Except when he commanded the people or forbade them from something, and then he did the opposite of that. In that case, we do not follow him in it, because that indicates specificity. We do not follow him in what was specific to him (peace and blessings be upon him). Among his specific traits was that he married nine wives. Is it permissible for us to marry nine? No. What was specific to him is not something we enter into, do, or follow him in. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Someone mentioned that the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) act of facing the qiblah when relieving himself was specific to him. How is that, when the principle is to follow him (peace and blessings be upon him) in all his actions?
Answer:
Except when he commanded the people or forbade them from something, and then he did the opposite of that. In that case, we do not follow him in it, because that indicates specificity. We do not follow him in what was specific to him (peace and blessings be upon him). Among his specific traits was that he married nine wives. Is it permissible for us to marry nine? No. What was specific to him is not something we enter into, do, or follow him in. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من أبواب أحكام التخلي — islamhouse.com (1:06:55)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.