Explanation of His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): “Today I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and chosen for you Islam as a religion”

The questioner : ... such as the interpretation of this noble verse ... as He promised ...?

The Shaykh : I do not know if our brothers are specifying something in the organization ... we may be bound by appointments ... .

The questioner : ... I ... in the interpretation of the verse ... .

The Shaykh : Now or after the prayer?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : It is mentioned in “Sahih al-Bukhari” the saying ... an important story that clarifies the greatness of this verse in terms of what it contains of this divine obligation by which Allah favored the Muslims; for He perfected their religion as He explicitly stated in this noble verse. A man from the Jews came to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab during his caliphate and said: “O Commander of the Faithful, there is a verse in the Book of Allah that, had it been revealed to us, the Jews, we would have made the day of its revelation a festival. A verse in the Book of Allah; meaning the Qur'an, that, had it been revealed to us, the Jews, we would have made the day of its revelation a festival.” He said: “What is it?” He said: , and 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “It was indeed revealed on a day of festival. It was revealed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on a Friday while he was at 'Arafah. A festival within a festival, not just one festival; a Friday and the Day of 'Arafah.”
The lesson from this story is that the enemies of Islam—regrettably—knew the importance of some of the texts we have, while many of us were unaware of it. This Jew says regarding this verse: “Had it been revealed to us, the Jews, we would have made that day a festival.” As for the Muslims, they recite this verse and never feel its danger or the greatness of this favor that our Lord bestows upon His servants in His saying: . This is because, especially in this time, we feel the stumbling of states and nations that claim for themselves awareness, culture, and knowledge, and so on. Every day they bring new constitutions, let alone laws; every day they change and alter. Why? Because they originate from the earth, rather, they originate from desires and contradictory appetites. As for the Book of Allah, it was revealed from our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) by the inspiration of the sky, which knows what every nation needs in every era and every time and place. And by that, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) sufficed the believing servants from coming up with new laws and legislations every day in which they stumble for long years, until after these experiences it becomes clear to them that what they were in was indeed manifest error. So when the Muslim believes that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has perfected the religion and completed the favor upon His servants, he is relieved from innovation and invention in the religion, and then he directs his ability and faculties to innovation in this world in what benefits him in this world. For the ability and energy of man, as we all know, is limited. And if a person spends it in one direction to the extent he turns to it, it decreases his attention to the other direction. So if the innovations that the Muslims have introduced over the centuries and eras were counted, they would reach thousands upon thousands.
In reality, I had started twenty years ago a very extensive project, then many scientific projects stood between me and it. I named the project “The Dictionary of Innovations”; because they are many and very many. And I organized the classification in my mind according to the chapters of jurisprudence: innovations in purification, innovations in prayer, zakah, and so on. So in every act of worship you find hundreds of innovations. We have, for example, a book titled “The Rulings of Funerals and Their Innovations,” a printed book, in which I mentioned the innovations of funerals that exceeded or reached approximately two hundred innovations. And this, of course, is not by way of statistical enumeration and exhaustive investigation.
So the point is these efforts that were spent on innovation in the religion, and our Lord has relieved us of the burden by completing the favor upon us by perfecting the religion. So if we had directed these ambitions to what the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to us explicitly: , we would then be leaders, not only in the religion, but also in this world. And we would not be a burden on our enemies in the weapons we want to fight our enemies with. We would be the ones exporting weapons to those people, instead of importing them from them and asking them for it as well.
So this is part of the importance of this verse: that we know that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has perfected the religion, so we stand at the limits of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and do not transgress them, and we direct the ambition of innovation, invention, and introduction in this world, not in the religion; because the religion is complete. As for this world, it is not finite, and every day, as you see, there is new and new. And the research on this verse has, of course, a wider and wider scope. Perhaps we will expand on it on another occasion, and it may be near—Allah willing—after the 'Isha' prayer. And perhaps this amount is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.