Some young people emulate and follow the actions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that are considered customs; what is your comment on that?

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh : We encourage some of the young Muslims to follow the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and they have become obedient to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in all the actions reported from him; even though some of the actions the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do were not established as acts of worship, but rather were some actions, as you mentioned in some previous tapes, that were actions of custom and actions of worship. So now, due to the abundance of love for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), they perform the actions of custom that he used to do as a custom, and they speak about them, call to them, and adhere to them. And when they are discussed on this matter, they say: "We love the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and we want to do and follow him in everything." And when it is said to them that this was not what the Messenger intended for worship... some of them cited the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him). I do not remember the text now, but the hadith was that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) loved a type of food, the dubba', yes, the dubba'. So Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) explained this hadith because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) loved the dubba', so he loves it too and eats it; what is your comment on that?

The Shaykh : We say to him: May he be in good health, he loves the dubba', may he be in good health, but what is the connection between this and that? I mean, Anas ibn Malik in this authentic hadith, which is in al-Bukhari; did he seek nearness to Allah by eating the dubba'? The Messenger (peace be upon him) loved honey; does the Muslim seek nearness by eating honey? This does not occur to the mind of a Muslim who understands the religion. In any case, this hadith of the dubba' 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 place where you intended to agree with him. And I have explained this, especially in this period, more than once. The explanation is that, as he (peace be upon him) said in the hadith agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim: . So if a Muslim wants to do an action that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did with a certain intention, the Messenger did it with a certain intention, but this Muslim did the same action the Messenger did but with another intention, this means he has agreed with the Prophet in form and contradicted him in intention. And we give an example of this, killing two birds with one stone, as it is said. I mentioned a while ago, when we were sitting answering questions, something about the Qadiani sect, and how they went out of the circle of Islam by their interpretation of 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. The Muslims agreed that these two rak'ahs are from the confirmed regular voluntary prayers (rawatib) which the Messenger 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 compare to this whatever you wish of the voluntary acts if a person does them with the intention of obligation. So in form he prayed two rak'ahs, but in intention he contradicted the intention of the Messenger (peace be upon him). So who among the people of knowledge and understanding of Islam says that this is emulating the Messenger (peace be upon him)? The intention of emulating the Messenger is not just the shape and form, but the intention as well. 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 custom still exists among some Arabs in the desert. So a Muslim from these people saw that the Messenger entered Makkah with four locks of hair, so he grew four locks of hair. Fine; what do you mean by emulating 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 straps, and there are many examples. He does this emulating the Messenger of Allah. You believe that the Messenger did this for need, not for worship, as I said. So you are contradicting the Messenger and not following the Messenger. So this is the point that can be used to refute these extremists.
Yes.

The questioner : The example of Ibn 'Umar when he used to follow the traces of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in things...

The Shaykh : ...in 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 that. When he preached to his companions who were with him in his pilgrimage during his days of authority; when he saw people heading to a place in a lodging he had stayed in, where are these people going? He said: "There is a prayer place where the Messenger (peace be upon him) prayed." So he said: "O people, whoever catches the prayer in a place or in one of these prayer places, let him pray; and whoever does not, do not follow the prayer there. For indeed, what destroyed those before you was their following the traces of their prophets." So Ibn 'Umar had this trait, which was exaggeration in following him (peace be upon him), but the truth is what his father 'Umar did.