The Shaykh's remarks on the condition of following the Sunnah for the acceptance of righteous deeds.

The Shaykh : And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
, , , As for what follows:
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, every innovation is a religious innovation, every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.
You know, O brothers, that the believer is obligated in two things: faith in Allah and what the Messenger of Allah brought from Allah, and the other is following this faith with righteous deeds. These are two fundamental pillars for the Muslim to be successful in this worldly life and in the Hereafter, and not to be among the losers. Therefore, the Lord of the Worlds said: , . The scope of discussion regarding faith on one hand and righteous deeds on the other is very broad, and some beneficial books have been written on this. Among the most important is the book *Al-Iman* (Faith) by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), and may Allah reward him for Islam and the Muslims with the best. What I wish to speak to you about in this short time, since we are compelled to leave your gathering before the call to the night prayer due to an appointment we have with some of our brothers there, is to draw your attention in these limited minutes to this deed, which is the second foundation for the Muslim to be successful and victorious in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. For the deed to be righteous and acceptable to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), two conditions must be met. The first condition is that it be in accordance with the Sunnah, that it be in agreement with or conform to the Sunnah. If the deed that is claimed to be righteous is, in reality, contrary to what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was upon, then the deed is not righteous, even if its appearance or its origin is righteous. Take, for example, prayer and fasting. There is no doubt that both prayer and fasting are two great acts of worship in Islam. But if any act of worship departs from conforming to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), that act of worship is not acceptable to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). For us now, the hadith of Imam al-Bukhari in his *Sahih* from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) is sufficient as evidence: "That a group of the Companions of the Prophet came to him to ask him, but they did not find him. So they asked his wives and his household about his worship (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), about his standing in prayer, his fasting, and his intimacy with his wives. They told them what they knew of that, and they said: 'He (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) stands in prayer at night and sleeps, and fasts during the day and breaks his fast, and he comes to the women.' When the group heard the answer of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) regarding his standing in prayer and fasting, they considered it little ; that is, they found the worship of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) to be little, this smallness that they claimed relative to what was in their minds that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), since he is the master of all prophets and messengers, must be diligent and excessive in his worship. They imagined that he was standing in prayer all night, they imagined that he was fasting all day, they imagined that he was fasting perpetually without breaking his fast. So they were surprised by the news of the women when they said: 'He (peace and blessings be upon him) stands in prayer at night and sleeps'; so he does not keep the whole night awake. Thus they were surprised when they were informed, they were surprised when they were informed by them that he (peace and blessings be upon him) is not fasting perpetually, but rather he fasts and breaks his fast. And more amazing than that, they imagined him to be a monk who does not come to the women. So when they heard from the women the opposite of what they had imagined, they found the worship of the Prophet to be little. Then they went back to justify this worship with a reason for which they needed to repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness, because if they had been aware of the deficiency in this word that is not befitting the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), they would not have uttered it. What is this word? They found it little, they found the worship of the Messenger to be little, then they justified it with this: Why does he stand in prayer all night? Why does he fast perpetually? He does not need to do all that, because Allah has forgiven him what has passed of his sin and what has remained. There is no doubt that this justification is not permissible for the Muslim to justify the reduction of the worship of the Messenger (peace be upon him) with such a reason, because it contradicts what you will hear of the response of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) to those people. The point is that they returned to themselves and said: 'As for us, we have not obtained the forgiveness of Allah, so it is upon us to be excessive in the obedience of Allah.' So they made a covenant among themselves. One of them said: . And here is the point. Standing in prayer at night is worship, but will this worship be worship if the Muslim stands the whole night? You will hear the answer. The second man stood and said: . Likewise, fasting is among the best of deeds with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), but is it among the best of deeds that the Muslim fasts perpetually? You will also hear the answer in what follows: , meaning I live as a monk. Why? Because they mistakenly believe that women occupy the worshipper from the worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and his complete devotion to it. Therefore, he vowed not to marry women. 'And they departed with this covenant. Soon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) came, and his household said: 'The group came and asked us, and we answered thus and thus, and they said thus and thus.' So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) addressed his Companions and said to them: , recounting the words of the three men, saying: . So he (peace be upon him) responded to them: . The crux of this story is his (peace be upon him) saying at the end: .