Most customs and traditions have no basis in the Shari'ah, such as standing up for a person entering.

The Shaykh : In any case, we need to return to our first topic. My first topic had its relevance, and although that relevance has passed, the request remains. We live in a society today that has its customs and social traditions. A large portion of these customs and traditions has no basis in the Book or the Sunnah. Among them is what I wanted to speak about: when a person enters, the people stand up for him. This is not an Islamic custom; rather, it is a foreign, strange, and alien custom in Islam. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), as it is authentically reported from him, said: . And it was his custom (peace be upon him) that when he delivered a sermon to the people, especially the Friday sermon, he would begin it by saying: , and so on, .
Today, we have become completely distant from the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). First, in terms of knowledge. Knowledge, as is not hidden from everyone, is the foundation of action. One who does not know does not act. Then, we may know but not act. Both of these misfortunes exist among Muslims today. That is, there are many matters they do not know, either they do not know their permissibility and naturally do not act upon them, or there are matters that are not prescribed but they act upon them because they do not know their impermissibility. And there are other matters they know are not permissible, yet they are still falling into them.
Today, for example, who is ignorant? We give an example, and as they say in our region in Syria: "We strike it with a hammer," so that it is not hidden from anyone. Who is ignorant that the display of adornment by women is forbidden in Islam? No one. But despite that, it exists. We will suffice with this example for now regarding the actions of Muslims contrary to what they know. But there are actions they perform without knowing their impermissibility. Among them is this custom they practice today: when a person enters the gathering, the people sitting in the gathering must stand up for him. If they do not do so, there is talk and gossip. Is that right or not?
Yes?

The questioner : And how much there is of talk!

The Shaykh : Ah, why is there talk? Because they do not know. And so, perhaps you remember, when you were beside me, that I mentioned the whispering of Satan. Do you remember? Why? Because it is the nature of humans to differ. This is an eternal law established by the Lord of the Worlds in the Noble Book when He said: . So it is very natural that people's concepts and perceptions differ in all matters, whether related to creed, or related to worship, or related to behavior. All of this, and this, and this, may lead to disagreement among people.
If that is the case, there are people today, Muslims, who differ greatly in many issues. These are not the ones some people call branches. Rather, the disagreement referred to occurs even in what they call the fundamentals, meaning creed. If that is the case, then there must be some actual disagreement. And we feel this even in the second pillar of Islam, which is prayer. One raises his hands, the other does not raise his hands, right or not? One places his hands here below the navel, close to the private parts, one a little above the navel, and one on the chest, and so on. This is disagreement in prayer. So what about disagreement in ordinary matters? That will be even more so, in the name of Allah.
From this disagreement, some people stand up for the one entering, and other people do not stand up for the one entering. And this is what we witnessed at this wedding feast. And we live in such a society and know this disagreement. Therefore, based on his saying (peace be upon him): . They said: For whom, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "and for the common Muslims."

The questioner : .

The Shaykh. And since that is the case, we advise any Muslim, if he enters a gathering and a person or more do not stand up for him, that he should not feel any resentment in his heart, and that he should not let it cross his mind that the one who did not stand up for him did not stand up except out of arrogance. Because this stems from the whispering of Satan. And the principle for a Muslim regarding a Muslim is to have a good opinion of him, due to the texts in the Book and the Sunnah forbidding taking things by suspicion. The clearest of them in the Sunnah is his saying (peace be upon him): .
And it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" that Safiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her), the known wife of the Messenger, came to visit the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) at a time other than her usual turn. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) went out with her to take her back to her people—this is the text of the hadith; "take her back" means to deliver her, to see her off. Then he stood with her and talked. It appears that when he was talking, two young men from the Ansar passed by. When they saw the Messenger (peace be upon him) with a woman, they hurried their walking out of respect for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So he said to them (peace and blessings be upon him): . Why did he say this to them?

The questioner : Suspicion.

The Shaykh : Ah, the Messenger of Allah is standing with a non-mahram woman, talking in seclusion, perhaps Satan is whispering... Take it easy, there is no stranger with me. This is my wife, Safiyyah. They said: O Messenger of Allah, if we were to suspect anyone, we would not suspect you, O Messenger of Allah. He said: .
So do not hold it against me, I am just one of the individuals of the Muslims, if it crosses my mind the possibility that when Zayd or Bakr entered the gathering and we did not stand up, that these people have no manners, no respect. This thought is possible.

The questioner : But, O our Shaykh, we are accustomed to this.

The Shaykh : Allow me, what do I care, I do not know. If this one enters and that one enters, this thing does not cross my mind. Because we have been taught lessons about it, and we were raised on it. So you may be like this, and the brother, but perhaps one of the people entering is not like that.
So I say: If the Messenger feared for two Companions that Satan would enter their hearts with whispering from the Master of Mankind (peace be upon him), then it is not far at all that Satan would enter the chest of a person to whisper to him that thisThe Shaykh : and this companion and that one, and so on. What are all these? Arrogant. And if it is not like that, then it is a softer type of doubt, meaning, these people are not social, meaning, these people are as if they do not live in this country, they do not know the customs, and so on. No, we know these customs, and the completeness of our knowledge of them is that they are contrary to the Sunnah. Therefore, we strive to preserve them and call people to act upon them so that they do not become a source of real problems one day. And we feel this in many schools of thought. Perhaps you saw, as we saw, a man entering, meaning a worker, wearing tattered clothes, enters the gathering and no one stands up for him. Why? Because he is not well-dressed, not wearing a suit, not an officer, for example, and so on. Well, what is the difference between this and that? This is a Muslim and that is a Muslim. If we respect this one because he is a Muslim, we must also respect the other because he is a Muslim. But distinguishing between this and that is what will create resentment in hearts, and this poor man will say: Why me? What is the difference between me and so-and-so? Ah, so-and-so is a leader of people, when he speaks, people listen to him, but this man is a vagabond with no value. This is one of the reasons we stand up for some people and not for others.
The master of mankind is, without a doubt, the most deserving of being honored, but the honor he deserves is the honor that He legislated for people through the tongue of the Lord of the Worlds, or through the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds (Blessed and Exalted is He). Otherwise, not all honor is prescribed, and this is a known matter in the Sunnah. It was reported in a hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that when he returned to Madinah from his mission to Sham, the first thing he did upon meeting the Messenger (peace be upon him) was to intend to prostrate to him. He said to him: . What is this? He said: O Messenger of Allah, he is speaking now in the logic of people today, and this matter is natural unless there is a legal ruling. He would say: O Messenger of Allah, I came to Sham and saw the Christians prostrating to their priests and monks, and I saw that you are more deserving of prostration than they are. This is sound logic if a person were to take the matter by logic; these Christians prostrate to their priests and monks, and history, both ancient and modern, has told us that some of the monks are among the most wicked found on the face of the earth, and they pretend to what? Monasticism, while they are fornicators! So if the Christians prostrate to such people, then you, O Messenger of Allah, are more deserving that we prostrate to you. He (peace be upon him) said: .
So when Mu'adh intended to prostrate in honor, not in humiliation, he was prohibited from doing so. Why? The Messenger (peace be upon him) explicitly stated the reason: prostration is not fitting except for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
Another attribute comes: we do not prostrate, but we bow. Is it permissible to bow to some shaykhs or scholars? It is not permissible, because bowing is a pillar of the prayer as well. And we know that many of those called "muridin" (seekers) by some Sufi shaykhs, especially those known in Syria as the Mawlawiyyah, the dervishes, these are the ones who spin in circles, do you know them? The Mawlawiyyah, these wear a dress, or like a bride's dress!!

The questioner: But Arabs? Arabs, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner: Are these Arabs?

The Shaykh: If they are Arabs, what then?

The questioner: Or just Muslims?

The Shaykh: Arabs and Muslims.

The questioner: Non-Arabs or Arabs?

The Shaykh: Arabs in Syria, Arabs, so you find them spinning in these mosques, meaning without exaggeration, the dress of his, when he spreads it out like this, it can take up two or three meters, and you find him spinning and turning, this is before he does the spinning, he will beThe Shaykh : sitting, he goes to prostrate in front of him, this look at our eyes, in the largest mosque, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, he prostrates to him like this as if he is taking permission fromThe Shaykh : , so you find the second one also comes and prostrates to him, and the third, you find four or five have taken up a long space while they are spinning, what is this? Worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) they claim!!
The point is: this bending, let alone prostration, is not permissible either; because it came in "Sunan al-Tirmidhi" from a hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man said: O Messenger of Allah, when one of us meets his brother, should he bend to him? He said: . He said: Should he embrace him? He said: . To embrace him means to hug him. He said: . He said: Should he shake his hand? He said: . So now we have prostration, then bowing, and bending. Now we enter into standing up.
We all know that standing is a pillar of the prayer, and that it is a sign of honor; therefore the Lord of the Worlds said in the Noble Qur'an: . Did the first Muslims, who were the most knowledgeable about the status of the Messenger and his honor, stand up for him? The answer is from Anas ibn Malik, who served the Messenger in a special capacity for ten years. He said: "No one was more beloved to them than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and they did not stand up for him because of what they knew of his dislike of that."
So the master of mankind enters such a gathering and no one stands up for him, and more than that, he sits where the gathering ends for him. This is among the virtues and characteristics of the Messenger (peace be upon him) that Muslims should follow him in; because Allah says: . The example of the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not only in the specific matters of prayer, fasting, Hajj, and so on, but the example is in everything the Messenger (peace be upon him) brought of guidance and light; therefore he said in the previous hadith: . So if he (peace be upon him) disliked standing up from his Companions for him, and we certainly do not fear for him the whispering of Satan, while we do not guarantee this for others (peace be upon him), do we guarantee that a person, especially if he has status or a position with people... that if he enters and the people do not stand up for him, nothing will be in his heart?
We do not guarantee this thing at all. So if the Messenger, who is guaranteed that nothing will be in his heart from the deviation of Satan and the whispering of Satan, disliked that from his noble Companions; do you think why? So that we may follow his example; because we are subject to the whispering of Satan for us, unlike the Messenger (peace be upon him). For that reason, his explicit and awe-inspiring saying came for any person who wants and loves that when he enters a gathering, the people stand up in honor and respect, and he said (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him): .
And I say that if I forget, I will not forget the day I was a student in elementary school in the fourth or fifth year (meaning the fourth or fifth grade). We had teachers of different specialties. One of them was a specialist in history and Arabic language, I remember him well, even with the distance of time, his name was "Hilmi Effendi". This teacher was like the other teachers, and I think this system is still in place in schools; there is a monitor in the class chosen by the teacher who stands in front of the door, as soon as he sees the teacher has come...