A word from the Shaykh on holding fast to the Book and the Sunnah, preserving what Allah has commanded, and staying away from what Allah has forbidden.

onAl-Halabi : Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to misguide, none 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:

The Shaykh : Before the questions, I have a word to say.
onAl-Halabi : Our esteemed professor, Muhammad al-Nasir al-Albani, has a word to offer us as general advice and a call to us before the questions. Please, go ahead.

The Shaykh : As you know, if Allah wills, in the authentic hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Sunnah in the language of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) has a broader meaning than the Sunnah in the terminology of the jurists. The jurists have agreed—and there is no dispute in terminology—that the Sunnah is that which is opposite to the obligatory, meaning that which is below the obligatory; where the Muslim is given the choice between performing it and receiving a great reward for it, or leaving it and incurring no sin, neither great nor small. This is taken from, for example, the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to that man who came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) asking about what Allah had made obligatory upon him. He mentioned to him the five prayers in every day and night, and the fasting of Ramadan. At the end of the hadith, the man said:The questioner : Is there anything else upon me? He said: What did that man say? He said: By Allah, I will not add to them nor subtract from them. I am a man of contentment; I am satisfied to perform only the obligatory acts, and I will not add anything else or perform any of the voluntary acts. So what was the position of the Messenger (peace be upon him) toward this statement?
It was not as stated in the hadith that is not authentic in its attribution to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is mentioned in some books of jurisprudence by the later scholars: This hadith has no basis, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not say anything of that. On the contrary, he said: Meaning, if he maintains what Allah has made obligatory upon him and does not add anything from the regular recommended prayers and recommended practices to them, then if he is sincere in what he promised, he will enter Paradise. Performing the obligatory acts actually includes staying away from what is forbidden, because staying away from what is forbidden is part of the obligatory and required duties. Therefore, it came in another hadith that a questioner asked: O Messenger of Allah, if I forbid myself from what is forbidden, permit what is lawful, perform the five prayers, and fast Ramadan, will I enter Paradise? He said: So the Muslim must strive, at the very least, to maintain performing the obligatory acts and staying away from what is forbidden. If he does that, he will enter Paradise, as it is said in modern expression today: transit without a stop. But if he mixes in some negligence in performing something of what Allah has made obligatory upon him, or in committing some of what Allah has forbidden him, then his case is with Allah the Exalted and Majestic; if He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will forgive him.
I want to say that the Sunnah in the previous hadith: does not refer to the Sunnah that is below the obligatory, but rather to the legal meaning of the word, which you must be aware of when this word passes through you in some of the authentic hadiths. Do not understand from it the technical meaning of the Sunnah, but rather the legal meaning, which is the way and methodology that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) followed. The intention here is not only my Sunnah of voluntary or regular prayers, but rather the way that he (peace and blessings be upon him) came with must be adopted in its entirety, not partially or as a part. First, in thought and creed, and second, in application and action to the extent a person is able, and This Sunnah means the way and methodology, and it does not mean the Sunnah that is below the obligatory. So what he (peace and blessings be upon him) brought from the Shari'ah and explanation is the Sunnah, meaning the way that the Messenger (peace be upon him) followed.
And the Sunnah in this specific legal and linguistic meaning is what is intended in the famous authentic hadith: It is not permissible for anyone to understand from this hadith that whoever leaves the regular recommended prayers, for example, and holds to the school of that Bedouin who said: The meaning of the Sunnah in this technical jurisprudential sense is not intended, but rather the meaning of the Sunnah in this hadith is also: The same meaning as the first hadith: That is, my way and methodology that I was upon and died upon. If the Muslim turns away from this way and this Sunnah, he is not of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in any way. And if we mention to you the reason for the narration or the reason for the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying this second hadith: this legal and linguistic meaning of the word will become completely clear to you: That is, a group of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) but did not find him, so they asked his wives about his prayer (peace and blessings be upon him) at night and his fasting during the day and his approach to women. They answered them that he (peace and blessings be upon him) stands in prayer at night and sleeps, meaning he does not stand in prayer the whole night as some of the extremists in worship do, nor does he sleep the whole night as some of those who desire to renounce the great reward of standing in night prayer do, but rather he stands and sleeps. Regarding fasting, the wives of the Messenger (peace be upon him) said that he fasts and breaks his fast, so he is not one who fasts the whole year, nor is he one who breaks his fast the whole year, but rather sometimes you see him fasting and sometimes you see him breaking his fast, as Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: And regarding women, they said: He marries women. So what was the position of this group upon this answer? One of them said: This is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and Allah has forgiven him what came before of his sin and what came after. They said that the worship of the Messenger (peace be upon him) that they heard from his wives is little, but the reason for the littleness is that Allah forgave him, so why should he increase in worship? This is an error on their part, and it is not permissible for a Muslim to say such a thing regarding his Prophet (peace be upon him). But they were, it seems, new to Islam, new to Islamic knowledge, and therefore this statement came from them. When they heard this worship, they said it was little; they found it little. Then they returned and attributed the littleness to the fact that Allah had forgiven him, so why should he tire himself by standing in prayer the whole night, fasting the whole year, and renouncing all women? Why? And Allah has forgiven him. So it is not that he should increase in worship, and it is not that he should turn away from women. They erred in this most severely, without doubt, but companionship wipes out such a fault. The Messenger (peace be upon him) came a little later and they informed him of what the group had asked, what they had answered, and what they had said. So he (peace be upon him) ascended the pulpit and said: What did this group say after they found the worship of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to be little? They said: We must tire ourselves and increase in worship to our Lord. Why? So that He may forgive our sins. The Messenger of Allah was forgiven and his matter was finished. As for us, the poor ones, we must increase in worship so that Allah may forgive us. And to obtain this worship, in their claim, one of them said: As for me, I will stand in prayer at night and not sleep at all. And a second said: As for me, I will fast the whole year and not break my fast. And the third said: As for me, I will not marry women. Why? Because women are a distraction.
And in connection with this, there is a hadith in our manner: "We throw two birds with one stone." A fabricated hadith was mentioned: So, in his opinion, fulfilling these rights occupies him from fulfilling the right of the Lord of the Worlds upon him; therefore, he becomes a monk and does not get married.
He (peace be upon him) said in the sermon: He recounted the words of these people: "Whoever turns away from my Sunnah..." The intention is not regarding the Sunnah of voluntary acts, but the path that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) followed. Included in this, and this is the main point of this hadith, is that it is not permissible for a Muslim to worship Allah according to his own whim, whatever comes to his mind, as it came to the minds of these three. One of them stands in night prayer and does not sleep; most people today do not worship Allah by following the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but they worship Allah according to their desires and their own ways. And so, when someone is appointed to teach them the Sunnah and tells him: "My brother, do not do this thing," he says to him: "What is the problem, my brother? This is worship by which I draw near to Allah, Mighty and Majestic." We tell him that the One who established the Sunnahs for us did not bring them in this way. One of these men wanted to stand in prayer the whole night; what did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) reply to him? He said: "I stand in prayer at night and I sleep." He replied to the second person who said: "I will fast the whole year," in order to draw near to Allah with extra effort, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) replied to him and said: So, the Sunnah, meaning the path and method that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) followed, is to fast voluntary fasts and to break the fast, and not to fast the whole year. So, no person can draw near to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, by what the Messenger of Allah did not draw near to Allah by. No one, ever, can draw near to Allah by what Allah did not legislate through the tongue of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), or through his actions and deeds, as is the case in this Sunnah. Did he stand in prayer the whole night? No. The Lady Aisha says in Sahih Muslim: as in some narrations.
The point is that the Sunnah in this hadith and that hadith is the methodology that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) followed throughout his life, and he left the community on a night that is like the bright white day, as he said in the authentic hadith: .