The Shaykh's remarks on following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and mentioning some of the guidelines.

The Shaykh: Do you want to go on lecturing to me, or do you think you have been going on for a long time? The principle, may Allah reward you, is following the Messenger (peace be upon him) because of this verse and many, many hadiths. For example: "A man asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about the permissibility of a man kissing his wife while fasting. He answered that it is permissible. So some people refrained from doing that. He said: 'What is the matter with a group of people who abstain from doing what I do? I am the most afraid of Allah among you, and the most mindful of Allah among you.'" This is a hadith. Another hadith: "A group of people came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not find him [as they expected]. They asked his wives about his standing in the day, his standing in the night, and his visiting the women. They said: 'He fasts and breaks his fast, he stands in the night and sleeps, and he marries women.' They were shocked by this news. They had imagined the Messenger (peace be upon him) to be like a monk, turning away from the world, standing in prayer all night and fasting all the time. What about the women? A monk? The answer came to them contrary to what they had imagined. Why would he torment himself? Why fast all the time? Why stand in prayer all night? Why, my brother, not... with the women? Since Allah has forgiven him? But as for us, Allah has not forgiven us, so we must strive in worship until Allah forgives us. One of them said: 'As for me, I will fast all the time and not break my fast.' The second said: 'As for me, I will stand in prayer all night and not sleep.' The third said: 'As for me, I will not marry women.' Living like a monk, a little while, the Messenger came, and the women told him what they had heard from the group. He entered the mosque, gathered the Companions, and delivered a sermon to them. He said to them: ما بال أقوام يقولون كذا وكذا وكذا ؟! What is the matter with the people that they say such and such?Sunan Abi Dawud 4788 ; meaning one says he will fast all the time and not break his fast, one says: I will stand in prayer all night and not sleep, one says: I will not marry women ما بال أقوام يقولون كذا وكذا وكذا ؟! أما إنِّي What is the matter with the people that they say such and such?Sunan Abi Dawud 4788 that is the indication أما إني أخشاكم لله وأتقاكم لله ، أما إني أصوم وأفطر ، وأقوم الليل وأنام ، وأتزوَّج النساء ، فَمَن رَغِبَ عن سنَّتي فليس منِّي As for me, I am the most afraid of Allah among you and the most mindful of Allah among you. As for me, I fast and break my fast, I stand in prayer at night and sleep, and I marry women. So whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me. ; so the Messenger of Allah is the model for the Muslims, that is the rule. But this does not mean that we do everything he did. Our discussion now is that he had nine wives, no, we are not going to marry [nine].

The questioner: Four.

The Shaykh: Yes, but what is the rule? The rule is لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern[Al-Ahzab 33:21] ; and so what do the scholars say? "Every action the Messenger (peace be upon him) performed, the principle is to follow him, unless there is evidence that this was specific to him. In that case, we say it is not permissible to follow him in that." For example, he married nine women, or rather more, but he died with nine. Why is it not permissible for us to marry [nine]? لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern[Al-Ahzab 33:21] ; why? Yes, the verse is well known: فَانْكِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ then marry those that please you of [other] women, two or three or four[An-Nisa 4:3] , but do you know, Abu Ahmad, that some of the exegetes interpreted it as marrying without a limit? Marrying whatever you want of women, three, four, four, gather these... No, I want to point to something very important. When I tell you that there are scholars, exegetes, who interpreted the verse this way, my intention is to show you the importance of the Sunnah, because the Sunnah is what explains the Qur'an. جاء رجل كان مشركًا A man who was a polytheist came. All the Companions before the coming of the Messenger were polytheists and they had no law to govern them. إجا واحد متزوج تسعة أسلم وتحته تسعة فقال له - عليه السلام - : أمسك منهنَّ أربعًا ، وطلِّقْ سائرهنَّ A man who was married to nine women became a Muslim and had nine wives under him. So he said to him (peace be upon him): "Keep four of them and divorce the rest." ; so this became a ruling for people to marry four and not exceed that. So the fact that the Messenger married nine or more is a specificity for him, because you know that the rulings of the Shari'ah are not limited to a hundred or a thousand or thousands upon thousands. So every action the Messenger performed, we must say it is a specificity for the Messenger without evidence, meaning we have destroyed the entire Shari'ah under the claim that the Messenger did this specifically for himself. No, the opposite is the case. The principle is that we follow the Messenger (peace be upon him) except for what the Messenger prohibited us from following him in. For example, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to fast day and night, not breaking his fast, not breaking it in the evening and not eating the pre-dawn meal in the morning. He was fasting, fasting, fasting, fasting. Some of the Companions wanted to follow the Messenger in this fasting, so he prohibited them. They thought the prohibition was for dislike and not for prohibition, so he said to them: لا تواصلوا ؛ فإنِّي أبيتُ عند ربِّي يُطعمني ويسقيني Do not continue fasting; for I spend the night with my Lord, and He feeds me and gives me drink. .