Are there customary sunnahs and devotional sunnahs?

The questioner : Are there customary sunnahs and devotional sunnahs? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : Yes, in reality, many students of knowledge must be clear about this issue, especially those who are keen to follow the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). However, his following of him (peace be upon him) should be accompanied by correct knowledge, not by emotion alone, because emotion may lead its owner to contradict the Shari'ah in many cases. The origin of the excess committed by those who love the Messenger of Allah and praise him with praise that is not appropriate according to the Shari'ah is from this starting point: they exaggerate in their love for him (peace be upon him) without looking at the Shari'ah restrictions. For example, what he (peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim: This hadith is the opposite of what is attributed to the one known as al-Busiri when he says:
"Leave what the Christians claimed about their Prophet, and judge as you wish in praising him, and refer to the law"
"Leave what the Christians claimed about their Prophet": What did the Christians say?
They said he is the son of Allah. So you do not say Muhammad is the son of Allah, and you say whatever you wish after that. No, there must be a measure. Perhaps he meant "refer to the law," meaning refer to the Shari'ah. And we know what came in *Musnad al-Imam Ahmad*: meaning: do not let him drag you to this by the path he beautifies for you through exaggeration in praising him (peace be upon him). And in another hadith, when it was said to him: : He (peace be upon him) refused to be described as the master of his companions, and he is undoubtedly not just the master of his companions, but he is, as he (peace be upon him) rightly said: , , : But why did he (peace be upon him) say to those who praised him in his presence by saying to him: Why did he say to them: ? Out of fear for them that Satan might drag them, as mentioned in the previous hadith.
The point is that moderation in following the Messenger (peace be upon him) is like moderation in praising him. Just as there is a fear that this praise may lead the praiser to excess in him, thereby imitating the Christians, so there is a fear of excess for the one following the Messenger (peace be upon him), that he may fall into excess in following him and follow him in things that are not good to follow him in according to the Shari'ah. For example:
It is established in *Sahih Muslim*: "four braids," meaning four plaits, because Arabic dialects differ; some call a woman's plait a "daffirah" and some call it a "ghadirah," and the plural is "ghada'ir" and so on. To this day, in some Arab deserts, there are young men in the prime of their youth with long hair, and they have braided it into plaits as well, as was the case with women in the past. But today, hair has been removed as you see, imitating the disbelieving women or the sinful women, except for a few Muslim women.
The point is that the Messenger (peace be upon him), based on this Arab custom, entered Mecca with four braids. And it came in his (peace be upon him) characteristics that he had long hair; if it was short, it reached the lobes of his ears, and if it was long, it reached the tops of his shoulders. So if a person grows his hair, and as they say today, like a "sawaleef shalish" or something similar, is this from the devotional sunnah or from the customary sunnahs?
We say: There is no doubt that it is authentic that the Messenger (peace be upon him) had this long hair, and it is authentic, as you heard, that he sometimes made four braids from it. If a Muslim grows his hair on the basis that it is a custom among customs, no one can deny that to him. But if he does that claiming that he is following the Messenger (peace be upon him), we say to him: Stop. This is not a place for following, because it is from the customs and not from the devotional sunnahs, so this restriction is necessary.