The Meaning of the Sunnah in Reality (Whoever Turns Away from My Sunnah)

The Shaykh : The reason for this is very important, and it is that what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon, which is called the Sunnah, is the Sunnah mentioned in more than one hadith. Among them is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of the group of men who asked the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about his worship, his fasting, his standing in prayer, and his visiting his wives. The story is well known, and I do not wish to lengthen this answer beyond what the time allows, for this hadith alone deserves a full lecture, at least an hour in length. It is sufficient for me to say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said at the end of this well-known hadith of the group of men, after mentioning his saying (peace be upon him): . His Sunnah (peace and blessings be upon him) does not mean the technical meaning among the jurists, which defines the Sunnah as that which is not obligatory. The Messenger (peace be upon him) does not mean, in any hadith where he mentions the word "Sunnah," the technical meaning of the Sunnah in the branches of jurisprudence, where they say, for example, "the obligations of prayer" and "the recommended practices of prayer," and define the Sunnah as "that for which its doer is rewarded and its leaver is not punished." This is not the meaning intended in such sayings of his (peace and blessings be upon him) as . Rather, the intended meaning is the methodology, the system, and the path upon which the Messenger (peace be upon him) proceeded from the beginning of his call to Allah until his last breath. This system, this starting point, and this path upon which the Messenger (peace be upon him) proceeded is what is meant by the Sunnah when it is mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is clear that the Sunnah, in this intended meaning from the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him), means Islam as a whole, indivisible, whether in its obligations, its recommended practices, its recommended acts, its encouraged acts, or its permissible acts, whether in the style of the call or in the essence of the call. This is the meaning of the Sunnah. Among this is the hadith of al-'Abbas ibn Sari'ah, which I also think you have all read or at least heard. In it, al-'Abbas ibn Sari'ah said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave us a sermon that made our hearts tremble and our eyes flow with tears, so we said, 'Advise us, O Messenger of Allah.'" He said: , and the rest of the hadith is well known, if Allah wills. Does our Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) mean in this hadith , for example, the recommended practices before and after the five daily prayers and other things? The answer is no. This is only a part of what he (peace be upon him) means by the word "Sunnah" whenever he mentions it in any of his hadiths. The whole, as we mentioned, is the methodology and the path upon which the Messenger (peace be upon him) proceeded. To make this meaning clear to you, I will give you two examples that have a bearing on the reality of many who claim to call to Islam, whether they are a party, a sect, or a group. You may have heard or read in some articles or some books that "a hadith of a single narrator does not establish a matter of creed." A hadith of a single narrator does not establish a matter of creed. This statement has a technical meaning, so it must be clarified. Creed is everything related to the unseen world that is not connected to a practical ruling, unlike rulings and acts of worship, which are related to the actions of the accountable servants. Faith in the unseen has a very wide scope. Let us give an example: the punishment of the grave. The punishment of the grave is a matter of creed, and no legal ruling follows from it regarding knowing the manner of it. Therefore, Islam commands us to believe in the unseen and not to strain ourselves or delve deeply into knowing this hidden manner.