Discussion on not exaggerating in worship and the exhortation to learn the Sunnah

The Shaykh : If you know what the group said and what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) replied to them, it becomes clear to you in these three examples that it is not from the Sunnah to stand in prayer all night, it is not from the Sunnah to fast all one’s life, and it is not from the Sunnah for a Muslim to live as a monk, neither to imitate the Christians nor to devote oneself entirely to worshipping Allah, even with that intention. It is not from the Sunnah for a Muslim to live as a monk. Why? Because Allah (Mighty and Majestic), when He created man and created him as mentioned in the Qur’an , just as He created the angels and created the jinn, that is the decree of the Almighty, the All-Knowing. When He created humans, He instilled in them things that He did not instill in the angels, whom He described by saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): . So He created them to eat, drink, and marry. Thus, a person cannot live like an angel who does not eat, drink, or marry. Therefore, a person must give his soul its rights within the limits of the Shari’ah, without excess or deficiency. For that reason, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith of the group: . This is a reality in which a believer who truly believes in Allah and His Messenger should not have the slightest doubt or uncertainty. One may fall into doubt without realizing or feeling it, when one prefers a group of Muslims from those who exaggerate in worship, known as the Sufis or the mutasawwifah, who exaggerate in worship and think that their exaggeration and extremism in worship is better than moderation in it. This is the moderation that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) specified in this hadith and in many other hadiths. The point is that a Muslim must, when doing good, do it according to the Sunnah, without adding to it, because the excess, as the common people say in some lands, is the brother of the deficiency. The excess is the brother of the deficiency. There is no difference in this between the obligatory acts and the regular voluntary prayers. When we want to illustrate this legal reality that it is not permissible to add to worship, we give the example of the five obligatory prayers: Fajr is two rak’ahs, Maghrib is three rak’ahs, and the remaining three prayers are four rak’ahs each. Is it permissible for a Muslim to pray the Fajr prayer three or four rak’ahs? The answer is obvious to everyone from all sects: no. But some ignorant people offer an explanation similar to the explanation of that group who asked why the Messenger of Allah reduced his worship. They said: because Allah has forgiven what has passed of his sin and what is to come. They were wrong in their explanation. Similarly, some people are wrong when we give them the example of the five prayers. Is it permissible to add a rak’ah to them? They say no, but then they return with a false cause and do not notice. They may notice after hearing the reply. They say: “O Shaykh, this is an obligation, so it is not permissible to add to an obligation.” We hasten to say to them: “Is it permissible for you to pray the Sunnah of Fajr four rak’ahs?” They are stunned and fall silent, and their ignorance becomes apparent at that time. Thus, there is no difference between what Allah has made obligatory and what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) established as a Sunnah, in that it is not permissible to add to this worship or that, in the obligatory act or the Sunnah. What is the purpose of this? The purpose is two things, one connected to the other. The first is to alert all Muslims to be careful in worshipping Allah to follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without adding anything to it. The hadiths supporting this principle are innumerable. The second thing is that it is not possible for a Muslim to avoid adding to the Sunnah except by knowing the Sunnah. This is the crux of my speech: I command you and advise you to know the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in all the acts of worship in which you worship Allah. Do not worship Allah based on what you found your fathers and grandfathers doing, but revive the knowledge anew and strive to study the Sunnah, either through personal study by connecting with the books of the scholars, or through another study that our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) specified in the Noble Qur’an when the Lord of the worlds said: . It is not permissible for any of you to worship Allah unless you know how the Messenger of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) worshipped. This is by one of two ways: either you are students of knowledge who read the books of the scholars, or at least you ask the scholars, acting on that verse I mentioned earlier. This is the first condition for righteous action, which is that it must conform to the Sunnah. And it is not possible for the action to conform to the Sunnah except through knowledge, not ignorance. This is what I intended in the first condition: that the Muslim’s action be righteous and in accordance with the Sunnah, and that requires studying the Sunnah by one of the two ways mentioned earlier.