What is your opinion of those who abandon some of the Sunnah on the pretext that establishing and adhering to them hinders the call?
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The questioner : May Allah preserve you, Shaykh. Some of the brothers say that establishing and adhering to some of the Sunnah hinders the call, so they abandon it in order to preserve the call. I ask you to point out the importance of adhering to what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) brought.
The Shaykh : This is one of the calamities of the present age. May Allah will it, everyone has become a caller, yet he barely understands a small amount of knowledge. Consequently, he deals with issues using his own mind and his limited knowledge, and he claims that preserving the Sunnah hinders the call. What is the call, people? The call is Islam. What is Islam? Islam consists of belief, rulings, morals, behavior, etiquette, and the like. Who says that if a Muslim adheres to the Sunnah established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), it hinders the call? Who says this? Is it one of the scholars and jurists to whom others should submit, as we cited earlier the saying of Allah:[An-Nahl 16:43] Or is he, in terms of knowledge, as the saying goes: "neither in the caravan nor in the army"? Yet some of these people say that adhering to the Sunnah hinders the call. If we adhere to the Sunnah, we must explain it to people. If people reject something of the Sunnah after the explanation, the responsibility falls on those who reject it, fleeing like donkeys from a lion. It is not permissible for us to abandon the Sunnah because we imagine that adhering to it drives people away. I know that it drives away the ignorant, but if we tell them, "This is a Sunnah from the Messenger of Allah," and explain it to them, and they object by saying, "Yes, this is a Sunnah, but it hinders the call," before whom is the hindrance? Before those who believe in the Sunnah, love it, and strive to implement it, or before those who hate the Sunnah? If it is the former, it is a lie, because those who love the Sunnah act upon it first and do not claim that it hinders the call. As for those who hate the Sunnah and consider those who adhere to it to be extremists, these are the enemies of the Sunnah, whether they say, "We love the Sunnah and call to it," or "We call to jurisprudence, not to acting upon the Sunnah." Both are the same. Therefore, I believe that a plague of this age is the emergence of these statements from some people that adhering to the Sunnah hinders the call, and they do not know who teaches them what resembles an argument. For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) to Aisha when she wanted to enter the Ka'bah and pray in it, following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), where he said to her (peace and blessings be upon him): So we ask: Who said "if not for..."? Is it like you, who did not understand anything of the knowledge? Or is it the master of scholars, the one who brought us this knowledge, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? He knows when to do this thing, and you do not know. So you abandon the Sunnah to defend your own desire. This is the truth, not as you claim, out of concern for the call and so that adhering to the Sunnah does not become a hindrance to the call.
In addition to this, I say something else: The Sunnah is divided into categories. Some of it is obligatory, some is a confirmed Sunnah, and some is below that. Who is able to distinguish between what is obligatory, what is a confirmed Sunnah, and what is a recommended Sunnah? Are these the ones who say that it is not permissible to adhere to the Sunnah because it hinders the call? These people do not know of knowledge except a small amount.
The Shaykh : This is one of the calamities of the present age. May Allah will it, everyone has become a caller, yet he barely understands a small amount of knowledge. Consequently, he deals with issues using his own mind and his limited knowledge, and he claims that preserving the Sunnah hinders the call. What is the call, people? The call is Islam. What is Islam? Islam consists of belief, rulings, morals, behavior, etiquette, and the like. Who says that if a Muslim adheres to the Sunnah established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), it hinders the call? Who says this? Is it one of the scholars and jurists to whom others should submit, as we cited earlier the saying of Allah:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فاسألوا أهل الذكر إن كنتم لا تعلمونPray in the Hijr, for it is part of the Ka'bah. If not for the fact that your people are recent in their association of partners with Allah, I would have demolished the Ka'bah and rebuilt it on the foundation of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), and I would have made for it two doors at ground level: one for entering and one for exiting.
صلي في الحجر فإنه من الكعبة فلولا أن قومك حديثوا عهد بالشرك لهدمت الكعبة ولبنيتها على أساس إبراهيم عليه الصلاة والسلام ولجعلت لها بابين مع الأرض بابا يدخلون منه وبابا يخرجون منهIn addition to this, I say something else: The Sunnah is divided into categories. Some of it is obligatory, some is a confirmed Sunnah, and some is below that. Who is able to distinguish between what is obligatory, what is a confirmed Sunnah, and what is a recommended Sunnah? Are these the ones who say that it is not permissible to adhere to the Sunnah because it hinders the call? These people do not know of knowledge except a small amount.