The Shaykh's address on the piety upon which mosques are built and his emphasis on adhering to the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : I wish to remind the believers, and the best of knowledge is that which is unknown to the people. As for repeating words on matters that have become common, where the general Muslim public participates with students of knowledge, and even scholars, in knowing many of the matters that it is supposed that only scholars, or even students of knowledge, are aware of. And there are many, and very many, issues in which all Muslims share in knowledge, with no difference in that between a scholar, a student, and an illiterate who cannot read. What I want to remind our brothers present here, and in this mosque in particular, is that I hope it was first established upon piety towards Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and that its construction was built upon piety towards Allah the Mighty and Majestic.
And secondly, that piety continues to do its work in this mosque which was established upon piety. And that will not be the case unless the Sunnah is observed in everything related to the mosque. And I mean by the word "Sunnah" now what is broader than its meaning and implication in the customary fiqh; because the Sunnah has two usages.
One is legal and the other is customary. As for the legal one, it is the broader and more comprehensive, and it includes the entire Shari'ah in all its aspects, whether it is obligatory or mandatory, if there is a difference between the obligatory and the mandatory as some schools of jurisprudence say, or if there is no difference between the obligatory, the Sunnah, the recommended, the encouraged, and the permissible. All these rulings fall within the meaning of the Sunnah brought by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). So it includes all the rulings known as the five rulings. As for the Sunnah in the customary sense, it is what is not obligatory and not mandatory for those who distinguish between the obligatory and the mandatory. What I want to remind you of now, and I say it once again: that this mosque should be, in all its manifestations, based upon the Sunnah. What caught my attention now in this sitting is the lighting of these lights. This is a later imitation, an imitation with no basis in the Sunnah. Rather, they claimed in some narrations that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) saw a light that had been renewed in the Prophet's Mosque on the occasion of standing in prayer in Ramadan, so he made a supplication for the one who was the cause of lighting the Prophet's Mosque.
I say that this narration is not correct in terms of its chain of narration, and in terms of its meaning and foundation, it contradicts many, many hadiths that prohibit the decoration of mosques and showing off in them. And I think, if my memory does not fail me, that in a previous sitting in this mosque, I told you some of the hadiths related to the prohibition of decorating mosques. I do not want to bring to your minds now what I had told you before, but rather I want to remind you of something else that encompasses all the prohibitions of life, which is the hadith of al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The point of this hadith is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited the waste of wealth.
There is no difference between the mosque in the month of Ramadan and in other months of the year. The light that the mosque needs is what is necessary, but light that is in excess of the mosque's need is a waste of wealth and extravagance in wealth, and Allah the Mighty and Majestic does not love the extravagant. This is what I wanted to remind you of, and we ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic to enable those in charge of the mosque to manage it differently from the general mosques, because many of the general mosques were not established upon piety towards Allah, even if many of them were established upon piety towards Allah, meaning their construction was with lawful wealth. But despite that, they did not continue in the Sunnah; rather, they are still contradicting the Sunnah in those mosques. This is what came to my mind on this occasion to remind you of, and we ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic to benefit us with what He has taught us and to increase us in knowledge. Now we will listen to some of your questions, until the time for breaking the fast and the time for prayer arrives, and I do not say until we hear the adhan.