What is your opinion of the one who says to the one who follows a Sunnah, "Do not do it, so that you do not hinder the call?"

The Shaykh : And blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and whoever follows them. So whoever has a question, let him please proceed.
Please go ahead.

The questioner : There are some of our brothers who are eager to apply the Sunnah, may Allah reward them with good. And there are brothers of theirs who are not eager about this Sunnah, for example, one that people do not see, or that people or the common folk in this time cannot do. So their brothers come and advise them, saying, "Postpone this matter to a later time, meaning, so that you do not hinder the call and so that people do not accept you." Such a Sunnah, for example, is raising the garment to the middle of the shins. These brothers are also committed, but I say to them, "Why not... be optimistic, so that you do not hinder the call?" What is your opinion of that?

The Shaykh : This is hindering the call. Every Muslim knows that the call to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, is by the Book and the Sunnah, and it is not merely by speech. If the call is restricted to speech without action, first: the caller falls under the warning of His saying, the Exalted: And second: he will not have that expected impact that occurs and is realized in the people who are called to the Book and the Sunnah. Rather, it is known among the people of knowledge that the impact of action on the masses of people is greater than the impact of mere speech without action. And in this regard, there is more than one hadith. It is known that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he performed the 'Umrah of Hudaybiyyah, and was compelled after the peace treaty he concluded with the polytheists, for a profound wisdom that became apparent later in time, to exit the state of ihram from the 'Umrah, so he slaughtered his sacrificial animal. As for the majority of the Companions, they hesitated. He entered upon Umm Salama, as I recall, and it seemed to him (peace be upon him) that he was not pleased with the stance of his Companions regarding their not hastening to exit the state of ihram. So she (may Allah be pleased with her) suggested that he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) slaughter his sacrificial animal in the sight of his Companions. No sooner had they done so, when they saw that he had slaughtered his sacrificial animal, or that he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) had slaughtered his sacrificial animal, did they do the same. The point is that action has an impact on the general public that is greater than speech. This is from one aspect. And from another aspect, action in the science of usul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence) is often an explanation and clarification of his saying (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him), which may carry a meaning other than what he (peace and blessings be upon him) applies to it. The important thing is that combining action with speech has merits, many and very many merits. Therefore, the departure of some of our brothers who say with our saying and follow the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by postponing the application of some of his (peace and blessings be upon him) Sunnahs is a deviation from the Sunnah in both speech and action. As for action, it is clear, because they do not follow the Sunnah in that. As for speech, what was reported from them is that they advise their brothers to postpone the application of some of the Sunnahs. This is from one aspect. And from another aspect, until when will these Sunnahs be postponed? And what is the dividing line between the Sunnah that is permissible to postpone and the Sunnah that should be hastened? What is the dividing line? There is no doubt that the matter is... that, because some practical issues that are considered from the Prophetic Sunnahs may sometimes fall into the category of obligations or fard (obligatory acts) that the Wise Lawgiver has made obligatory through the tongue of his noble Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him). I know that many of those who claim to belong to the call to Allah, or at least are attributed to the call to Allah, see no importance in many of the matters regarding which the Prophetic command came, and they attach them, in their claim, to such Sunnahs about which the question was asked or the reference to the question was made. There is no doubt that shortening the garment to the middle of the shin is a recommended Sunnah that is the stronger position.