What is your comment on the behavior of some young people who, out of their eagerness to follow the Sunnah, have come to imitate everything the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did, even what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did

The questioner : Your Eminence, some young Muslims, out of their eagerness to follow the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), have come to follow the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in every action reported from him, even though some of the actions the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to perform were not established as acts of worship, but were rather some customary actions, as you mentioned in some previous tapes, that there are customary actions and acts of worship. So now, some people, out of their great love for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), perform the customary actions that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do, and they speak about them, call people to them, and adhere to them. When they are discussed on this matter, they say, “We love the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), so we want to do and follow him in everything.” And when it is said to them, “The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not intend worship in some of these,” some of them cite the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him). I do not remember the exact text now, but the hadith was that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) loved a certain type of food.

The Shaykh : *Dabaa*.

The questioner : Yes, *dabaa*. So Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) told the one who narrated this hadith to him that it was because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) loved *dabaa*, so he also loves it and eats it. What is your comment on this?

The Shaykh : We say to him, “May Allah grant you well-being regarding your love for *dabaa*, but what does this have to do with that?” I mean, did Anas ibn Malik, in this authentic hadith which is in al-Bukhari, seek nearness to Allah by eating *dabaa*? Did the Messenger (peace be upon him) love honey? Does a Muslim seek nearness to Allah by eating honey? This does not occur to the mind of a Muslim who understands the religion. In any case, this hadith of *dabaa* is authentic and has no relation to the matter you are pointing to. So we say to these young people: “You have contradicted the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the very way you intended to agree with him.” And I have explained this, especially on this journey, more than once. The explanation is that, as he (peace be upon him) said in the hadith agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim: If a Muslim were to perform an action that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not perform with a certain intention, but the Messenger (peace be upon him) did perform with a certain intention, and this Muslim performs the same action the Messenger (peace be upon him) performed but with a different intention, this person would have agreed with the Prophet in appearance but contradicted him in intention. And we give an example of this, as it is said, “killing two birds with one stone.” I mentioned a while ago, when we were sitting answering questions, something about the Qadiyyah sect and how they went out of the circle of Islam by interpreting some verses according to their desires. One of the misguidances of these people is that they explicitly stated, quoting from their lying prophet, that the two rak'ahs of the Fajr Sunnah are obligatory. And the Muslims agreed that these two rak'ahs are from the confirmed regular voluntary prayers (rawatib) which the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not leave, even in the state of travel. So if we believe that they are a Sunnah, and a person prays them with the intention of obligation, do you think he is following the Messenger or contradicting him? There is no doubt that he is contradicting him. And apply this to whatever you wish of the voluntary prayers if a person performs them with the intention of obligation; he has, in appearance, prayed two rak'ahs, but in intention, he has contradicted the intention of the Messenger (peace be upon him). So who among the people of knowledge and understanding of Islam would say that this person is following the Messenger (peace be upon him)? The intention of following the Messenger is not just the form and appearance, but also the intention. And since the matter is so, we should look at the fact that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), for example, entered Makkah with four locks of hair, and this is a custom that still exists among some Arabs in the desert. So a Muslim from among them saw that the Messenger entered Makkah with four locks of hair, so he grew four locks of hair. Well, what does that mean? Following the Messenger. But you have no evidence that when the Messenger did this, he did it to seek nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). He wore sandals with two straps, and the examples are similar. You do this following the Messenger of Allah. You believe that the Messenger did this out of need, not for worship, as I said. So you are contradicting the Messenger, not following the Messenger. This is the point by which one can respond to these extremists.

The questioner : Like Ibn 'Umar when he used to follow the traces of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in things?
Another questioner : Shaykh, if you could give us a criterion in this so that it does not confuse us.

The Shaykh : The criterion is the intention. Yes, Ibn 'Umar is known for this, but he was unique in this among the Companions, and his father 'Umar contradicted him in this when he preached to his companions who were with him on his pilgrimage during his days of caliphate. When he saw people heading to a place in the house where he was staying, he asked, “Where are these people going?” They said, “There is a prayer place where the Messenger (peace be upon him) prayed.” So he said: So Ibn 'Umar had this characteristic, which was exaggeration in following him (peace be upon him), but the truth is what his father 'Umar did.