What is your opinion on distinguishing between what was reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as an act of worship, which is to be followed,

The questioner : The enemies of Islam interfere with the people of the Sunnah and say: that some things are customs and not acts of worship. They take what was reported from the Prophet in the realm of worship and do not take what was reported from the Prophet in the realm of customs, such as growing the beard, for example, or using perfume, or? The enemies of Islam interfere with the people of the Sunnah and say: that some things are customs and not acts of worship. They take what was reported from the Prophet in the realm of worship and do not take what was reported from the Prophet in the realm of customs, such as growing the beard, for example, or using perfume, or? What is your opinion?

The Shaykh : This is also a topic that requires a long study, and it is dividing the Sunnah into another type of division. The Sunnah that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) practiced is divided into two categories: the Sunnah of worship and the Sunnah of custom. The Sunnah of worship is that from which it appears that the Messenger (peace be upon him) intended to draw near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) by doing it. This is most evident when a hadith comes from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanding that thing which he did or encouraging it. The other Sunnah, the Sunnah of custom or the customary Sunnah, is that which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did by virtue of his human custom, or by virtue of the environment, society, and town in which he lived. No Muslim says regarding this type of the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) Sunnah: it is not permissible to follow it. Rather, there is a clear difference that must be observed when a Muslim wants to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him) of the type of customary Sunnahs. If he knows that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did that by virtue of custom, or by virtue of nature and human disposition, and that Muslim also does it, then there is no harm on him. But if he draws near to Allah with a Sunnah from the customary Sunnahs while he knows that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did not draw near to Allah with it, it is self-evident that he has contradicted the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Because following should not be confined to the form, but we must also include looking at the intention. If a Muslim prays two rak'ahs before Fajr with the intention that they are obligatory, and this is the view of the Qadiani, as they say among us, of the heresies, for they say: the Fajr prayer is two rak'ahs and two rak'ahs, both of which are obligatory. If a Muslim prays the Sunnah of Fajr with the intention of obligation, he has not followed the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him), because he did not pray them with the intention of obligation, but rather with the intention of voluntary prayer. Whoever prays them with this intention has emulated the Messenger (peace be upon him). Likewise, apply this to customary Sunnahs. For example, it is established in his (peace and blessings be upon him) characteristics that he had hair that sometimes reached the fatty parts of the ears and other times the tops of the shoulders. So no one has the right to say: I am following the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace be upon him), so I grow my hair to here or to here, drawing near to Allah with it, because we have no evidence that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did that to draw near to Allah with it. Likewise, it is established in Sahih... and he made it into four braids, drawing near to Allah with it. So a person may lengthen his hair to here without drawing near to Allah with it, or to more than that, or trim it as he (peace be upon him) did. He has that right, but he does not have the right to intend what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not intend. This detail is correct, I mean the distinction between the Sunnahs of worship and the Sunnahs of custom. The Sunnahs of worship were done by the Messenger with the intention of drawing near. The Sunnahs of custom were done by virtue of custom, by virtue of disposition. And of that, for example, are turbans. Turbans are still placed today in some hot countries, very large turbans, to ward off the heat from the heads of their wearers. Likewise, the Messenger (peace be upon him) wore a turban, and his people before him did, because it was an Arab custom. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) lived in an Arab atmosphere and wore the clothing of the Arabs, of which wearing a turban is a part. So his (peace and blessings be upon him) wearing a turban: there is no authentic hadith that explains the virtue of wearing a turban. If, for example, the hadith mentioned in some books were authentic: , it would not be clear evidence that the turban is a Sunnah of worship. But we only have that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) wore turbans of various types, which we are not discussing now. So the Sunnahs of custom were done by the Messenger by virtue of custom, not worship. So the Muslim has a choice between doing it and leaving it, and doing it and leaving it are both the same. As for the Sunnahs of worship, the matter is not so. When the Muslim emulates the Messenger (peace be upon him) in that, he has a reward that differs according to the Sunnah that the Messenger (peace be upon him) distinguished by his action or his speech. And before I conclude my speech, I must remind you that what came in the questioner’s question as an example of the Sunnahs of custom that some people deny today mentioned growing the beard. So I want to mention to the brotherThe questioner : that he should not get entangled with those who get entangled, who consider growing the beard to be from the Sunnahs of custom, and then he is unable to answer about it. Growing the beard is not from the Sunnahs of custom, but it is from the Sunnahs of worship. The command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is sufficient for that. And I have elaborated on this issue in my book "The Etiquettes of the Wedding in the Pure Sunnah." I will only briefly summarize some of the evidence. It is sufficient for us to classify growing the beard among the Sunnahs of worship, not custom. His (peace be upon him) saying: . Likewise, his saying in what was narrated by 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: . Likewise, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) — and these hadiths are all authentic — . So in this hadith is a lesson for whoever takes a lesson. In it is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed the women who change the creation of Allah for the sake of beauty. He said at the end of the hadith: . And these rulings are attributed to a cause that is explicitly stated: those who change the creation of Allah for beauty. So if a woman, for example, plucks her eyebrow, she deserves the curse of Allah explicitly by this authentic hadith. Do you see if there is a difference between the man and the woman in this ruling? That is, if the man plucks his eyebrow as he wishes and as it pleases him, do you see if there is salvation for him from this curse, or does he deserve the curse more than the woman? That is what I believe, because Allah has permitted the woman and allowed her from adornment what He has forbidden for the man, as is known to you all. So if a certain adornment is forbidden for her, then this adornment is forbidden for the men a fortiori, as the jurists say. So growing the beard is not from the Sunnahs of custom, but it is from the Sunnahs of worship. Rather, including it and classifying it among the Sunnahs according to the juristic terminology is not correct. Rather, growing the beard is an obligatory fard from the obligations, and the four Imams (may Allah have mercy on them all) agreed upon that.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good...