Examples of deviating from the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in acts of worship through excess

The Shaykh : Let us now give an example in light of the previous hadith, the hadith of the group of men. If a man today wants to stand in prayer all night long, is this worship? Most people would say, "What Allah willed, this is worship," but very few people would find it acceptable. If a man wants to pray, or rather, to complete a recitation of the Qur'an in a single night, is this worship? Many people think this is worship, but if we recall his previous statement (peace be upon him): In the first example, the man who stands in prayer all night, we know with complete clarity that the Messenger (peace be upon him) disapproved of the group of men standing all night. Therefore, the one who stands all night is not drawing near to Allah through it, but rather he only increases his distance from Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Why? Because he has turned away from the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The second example: We said, a man who completes the entire Qur'an, from Surat al-Fatihah to Surat al-Nas, in one night. Is this from the Sunnah? The answer is no. Why? Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said in the authentic hadith: ; and therefore it came in the hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did not recite the Qur'an in less than three days, and he said: And so it is with all acts of worship; they are treated in this manner. As also came in the authentic hadith, which al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their "Sahih"s, from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both). Abdullah said: "My father married me to a woman from Quraysh, and then one day he asked her: How are you with your husband?" Her answer was in very simple Arabic: ; meaning, they are still virgins; he has not come to her, nor has she come to him, as if they had not married. So the matter became difficult for Amr ibn al-As, the father of Abdullah, and he complained about his son to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), saying: "My wife is such that I remain as if I have no wife?!" Abdullah ibn Amr said: "Either the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) sent for me, or he met me," the narrator was uncertain, and he said to him (peace be upon him): . He said: "I said: That was indeed the case, O Messenger of Allah." He said: meaning: the guest, the visitor , and then he set for him a methodology to worship Allah, whether it concerned standing in prayer or fasting. So he used to stand all night, and he said to him: Stand in prayer for a third of the night, and recite the Qur'an once a month, once in every month. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am young, I have strength, I am able to do more than that." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) kept being lenient with him and increasing his worship and obedience until he reached his saying: اقرأ القرآن في ثلاث ليالي ، فَمَن قرأ القرآن في أقلِّ من ثلاث لم يفقَهْه Read the Qur'an in three nights; whoever reads the Qur'an in less than three nights does not understand it., regarding fasting, he said to him (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him): صُمْ من كلِّ شهر ثلاثة أيام ؛ فإن الحسنة بعشر أمثالها ، فكأنما صمت الدهر كله Fast three days of every month; for a good deed is rewarded ten times over, so it is as if you had fasted the whole year.. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am young, I have strength, I am able to do more than that." So he also kept... being lenient until he said to him: صُمْ يومًا وأفطر يومًا ؛ فإنه أفضل الصيام Fast one day and break the fast the next; for it is the best of fasting., and in a narration: أعدل الصيام وهو صوم داود - عليه الصلاة والسلام - ، وكان لا يفرُّ إذا لاقى The most balanced of fasting is the fast of Dawud (peace be upon him), and he did not flee when he met the enemy., he said: يا رسول الله ، إنِّي أريد أفضل من ذلك . قال : لا أفضل من ذلك ، ما صام مَن صام الدهر ، لا صام ولا أفطر ، وانفصل الشاب هذا الصحابي عن النبي - صلى الله عليه وسلم - على هذا لكن الأيام أخذت تمضي وتمشي عليه كما هي سنة الله في خلقه حتى شاخ وأسن وشعر بالضعف عن القيام بما فارق عليه الرسول - عليه السلام - فكان يقول : " يا ليتني كنتُ قبلتُ رخصةَ رسول الله - صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم - " .
وفي هذا الصدد - أيضًا - حديث لعله أختم هذه الكلمة به ما أخرجه البخاري في " صحيحه " من حديث سلمان الفارسي رضي الله عنه أن النبي - صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم - آخى بينه وبين أبي الدرداء كما كانت سنته أول هجرته أن آخى بين كل مهاجري وأنصاري ليتعاونوا على المعيشة لأن المهاجرين تركوا أموالهم وبيوتهم وجاؤوا ليس معهم شيء فواستهم الصحابة فآخى الرسول - عليه السلام - بينهم ومن جملة من آخى بينهما سلمان الفارسي وأبو الدرداء ، " جاء ذات يوم إلى دار أبي الدرداء ، ولم يكن هناك أبو الدرداء ، فرأى زوجة أبي الدرداء أم الدرداء متبذِّلةً في ثيابها " ؛ ما عليها ثياب لائقة ، ثياب يعني عتيقة بالية ، " قال لها : ما هذا يا أم الدرداء ؟ " ، قالت له مثل امرأة يعني شاعرة بالضيق بضيق ذات اليد وعدم اعتناء زوجها بها ، " قالت : يا سلمان ، هذا أخوك أبو الدرداء لا حاجةَ له بالدنيا " ، تقول أنا يعني الدنيا فهو لا يلتفت إلي فهو صائم قائم قريبًا ، " دخل أبو الدرداء فرحَّبَ بأخيه سلمان ، ووضع له الطعام ، وكان قد علم منها أنه صائم الدهر ، فقال له : كُلْ . قال : والله لا آكل حتى تأكل ، ففطَّره وأكل معه . ثم قال له مذكِّرًا : يا أبا الدرداء ، إنَّ لجسدك عليك حقًّا ، ولنفسك عليك حقًّا ، ولزوجك عليك حقًّا ؛ فأعطِ كلَّ ذي حقٍّ حقَّه O Messenger of Allah, I want something better than that. He said: There is nothing better than that. No one who fasts the whole year, neither fasting nor breaking the fast, has done better. This young Companion parted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with this, but the days passed and time went on for him, as is the habit of Allah with His creation, until he grew old and weak and felt unable to do what he had agreed to with the Messenger (peace be upon him). So he would say, "I wish I had accepted the dispensation of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." In this regard, there is also a hadith with which I will perhaps conclude this talk. Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih from the hadith of Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made a brotherhood between him and Abu al-Darda, as was his practice at the beginning of his migration, making a brotherhood between every Muhajir and Ansari so that they would cooperate in livelihood, because the Muhajirs had left their wealth and homes and came with nothing, so the Ansari brothers took them in, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) made a brotherhood between them. Among those he paired were Salman al-Farisi and Abu al-Darda. "One day he came to the house of Abu al-Darda, and Abu al-Darda was not there, so he saw the wife of Abu al-Darda, Umm al-Darda, in tattered clothes," with no decent clothes on her, meaning old and worn out. "He said to her: What is this, O Umm al-Darda?" She answered him like a woman in distress, complaining of poverty and her husband's lack of care for her. "She said: O Salman, this is your brother Abu al-Darda; he has no need for the world." She meant that as for the world, he does not pay attention to me; he is fasting and standing in prayer. "Abu al-Darda came in and welcomed his brother Salman, and set food for him. He had learned from her that he was fasting the whole year, so he said to him: Eat. He said: By Allah, I will not eat until you eat. So he broke his fast and ate with him. Then he said to him, reminding him: O Abu al-Darda, your body has a right over you, your soul has a right over you, and your wife has a right over you; so give every one who has a right his due.", and in the morning, "They went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and they prayed the Fajr prayer, then Abu al-Darda' narrated the story to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and how he had admonished him with those words, so the answer of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was: صدق سلمان ؛ إن لجسدك عليك حقًّا ، ولنفسك عليك حقًّا ، ولزوجك عليك حقًّا ؛ فأعطِ كلَّ ذي حقٍّ حقَّه Salman spoke the truth; your body has a right over you, your soul has a right over you, and your wife has a right over you; so give every one who has a right his due.. This is the Sunnah: moderation in matters and not excess in them. So whoever brings an act of worship in which he contradicted the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), even if he is sincere in his heart, this act of worship is not considered a righteous deed, because one of the two previously mentioned conditions is lacking in it, which is that this act conforms to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Therefore, it is not correct for us to pass off all the actions that Muslims do today on the grounds that their intentions are good and their purposes are pure. A good intention or a sincere intention does not avail the act anything if this act does not conform to the Sunnah. So we must know the actions that conform to the Sunnah and the actions that contradict the Sunnah. The actions that contradict the Sunnah are those about which the Messenger (peace be upon him) warned in many hadiths. I do not want to lengthen this explanation more than I have done, so that we can free up a little time to hear what may be in your possession, or at least in the possession of some of you, of questions that concern you. I hope that the questions have intrinsic value, such that the answer benefits both the questioner and the listener, while maintaining and preserving, as much as possible, the decorum, calmness, and tranquility of the gathering. So whoever has a question, raise his hand. Please.