The Shaykh’s mention of the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding the group who came to ask about the worship of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and his commentary on it.

The Shaykh : We now mention, in support of this claim, what is in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim with a definitely authentic chain from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), that a group of men came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked his wives, since they did not find him himself (peace be upon him), about his worship: his standing in prayer at night, his fasting during the day, and his relations with his wives. They told them what they knew of his way (peace be upon him). This way is the best guidance on earth, as you hear from us and others in the openings of our sermons: "And the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)". They told them that he (peace and blessings be upon him) used to fast and break his fast, stand in prayer at night and sleep, and marry women. Anas said that when they heard this from the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), they considered it little, meaning they found his worship (peace and blessings be upon him) to be little. They considered it little based on what had formed in their minds: that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) must stand in prayer the entire night, fast the entire year, and be a monk who does not approach women. So they were surprised by what was not in their thoughts. After they considered his worship (peace be upon him) to be little, they returned to themselves and attributed that little amount, which they wrongly claimed, to a cause. They said, "This is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); Allah has forgiven him what has passed of his sin and what remains." As if they were saying, may Allah pardon their statement and their error, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) only limited himself to this worship which they considered little because Allah had forgiven him, so there was no longer a deterrent holding him back from increasing in the worship of his Lord (Mighty and Majestic). . These men did not know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in that worship was the most devout of people, and that his worship was one that the most devout of people could not perform, as I mentioned earlier. This is what necessitated that he was asked, and it was said to him (peace and blessings be upon him), when those who knew his worship found him, not those ignorant men who did not know his worship. Those who knew his worship (peace and blessings be upon him) feared for him because they saw that he had stood in prayer until his feet swelled. They said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, Allah has forgiven you what has passed of your sin and what remains." Meaning, they intended, "Have mercy on yourself, O Messenger of Allah, and be gentle with it, for you have tired yourself and your feet have cracked." So his answer (peace be upon him) was: . This is a refutation of the defective attribution that came from those men, where they attributed the littleness of his worship (peace and blessings be upon him) to the fact that Allah had forgiven him what had passed of his sin and what remains. They did not know that the Prophet had stood in prayer until his feet cracked. So when what was mentioned before was said to him, he said: . Based on what they imagined regarding the littleness of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) worship, and what they knew of the fact that Allah had forgiven him what had passed of his sin and what remains, it arose in the mind of each of those men that it is obligatory for each of them to exaggerate in worship and to increase beyond what they heard of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) worship: his fasting, his standing in prayer, and his relations with his wives. So they agreed among themselves on what follows. One of them said, "I will stand in prayer at night and not sleep." The second said, "As for me, I will fast the entire year and not break my fast." The third said, "I will not marry women." Why? Because they thought that marrying women is a distraction and a diversion from the completion of worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and they did not know.