What is the customary Sunnah?

The student : What is the customary Sunnah for which its doer is not rewarded, and does the turban fall under this category?

The Shaykh : The customary Sunnah is that which, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did it, did not appear to be done with the intention of drawing near to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) or as an act of worship. For example, it was part of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) attire, as reported in al-Bukhari and Muslim from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: . What appears here is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) wore this type of sandal with the intention of drawing near to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Similarly, it is established in Sahih Muslim, also from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had four locks of hair, meaning braids. These are Arabic dialects; I do not know what you call them, locks or braids?
The student : Braids.

The Shaykh : Braids, yes. And this custom still exists in some of the Arab deserts; you find a handsome young man with two locks or more. This is from the Sunnah of custom, not the Sunnah of worship. Likewise, the ruling regarding your specific question about the turban: the turban is also an old Arab custom that existed before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), like their garment, the abaya. These are Arab garments, and it did not appear in the Messenger’s (peace be upon him) dealings with the turban that he intended by it to draw near to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Yes, if some of the hadiths reported regarding the virtue of the turban were authentic, its status would rise from the customary Sunnah to the devotional Sunnah. But as far as I know, no hadith has been established regarding the virtue of... excuse me, such as what is attributed to him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . If such a hadith were authentic, it would be established that the turban is a devotional Sunnah, not a customary Sunnah. And from this, for example, and this is an important matter: the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed in a certain place due to a certain circumstance, and it did not appear that he (peace and blessings be upon him) intended that place itself when he prayed there. For this reason, it is stated in Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah and Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur with a sound chain: "That 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), when he performed Hajj during his caliphate and stopped at a camp, saw some people taking a path and asked, 'Where are these people going?' They said, 'They are going to the prayer place where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed.' So he addressed them and said: 'O people, if prayer catches up with you in any of these places where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed, then pray. And if prayer does not catch up with you, do not pray there, for what destroyed those before you was their following the traces of their prophets.'" So, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed in that place during his journey; if he had not prayed in that place, he would have prayed in another. He did not intend to pray in that specific place for its own sake. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to specifically intend to pray in a place where the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed, unless it appears that he intended it for a specific virtue in it. So, the distinction between the Sunnah of custom and the Sunnah of worship is that the act was done by the Messenger (peace be upon him) due to a personal or customary impulse, and nothing appeared from it to indicate that what he did was from the Sunnah of worship. Let us give another example: wearing white clothing. It could have been considered from the Sunnah of custom, but his (peace and blessings be upon him) hadith came: . This moved from the rank of the Sunnah of custom to the Sunnah of worship because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) described it as superior. By this methodology, we can distinguish the Sunnah of custom from the Sunnah of worship.