Following sunnah of prophet(saws).

Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

 

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Where do we draw line between the personal habits of Prophet (PBUH) like eating habits (eat with right hand, start eating the food from the plate from the portion which is near to us), sleeping (sleeping with right side down and facing the Kaʼba), wearing the slippers (start wearing from right foot and removing from left foot), cutting nails (in the order shown by him), etc. and the other general ones which he expected and instructed his Ummah to follow?

Whether it is Sunnah to follow these personal habits of Prophet (PBUH) and will we get rewards for following these habits?

Can you please reply to this question with references from Ahadeeth?

                       

Jazakumullahu Khair.

 

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Answer:

 

Following sunnah of prophet(saws)

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

 

When one loves, admires, and idolizes someone passionately, it is only natural that one would try and emulate every aspect of their ‘idol’ …… the cricketers have their Sachin Tendulkars and their Brian Laras, the golfers have their Tiger Woods, the Tennis players have their McEnroe’s and their Federers, Hollywood have their Brad Pitts and Richard Geres, Bollywood have their Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachan, the statesmen have their Nelson Mandela, the businessmen have their Bill Gates, etc…..people who love their ‘stars’ passionately, strive their absolute utmost to learn the likes and dislikes of their ‘stars’, read and watch anything and everything written or documented about them, and emulate their ‘style’ in everything that they do! 

 

Ask any aspiring cricketer and he would talk of emulating a Tendulkar or a Lara, not only in their respective craft and skill, but even in their ‘style’ of clothing, hair-do, habits, etc….Same with an aspiring golfer and Tiger Woods….Same with an aspiring Hollywood actor and Brad Pitt….Same with an aspiring Bollywood actor and Shah Rukh Khan!  

 

The believers who sincerely believe in Allah and the Last Day are blessed and fortunate that their ‘idol’, or the one being they are in fact commanded to emulate by none other than their Lord Creator Himself, is the noble self of the Last and Final Messenger of Allah, Mohamed ar-Rasool Allah (saws)!   Allah is our witness brother, if there is no being in the annuls of creation who is worthy of emulation in even the minutest details of his ‘life’ and his ‘style’, for the believers it can be none other and none better (by billions of gazillion miles!) than the Noble Messenger of Allah (saws)! 

 

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 21:

There is indeed the best example for you to follow in the Messenger of Allah, for every such person looks forward to Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.

 

Every deed of the noble Messenger of Allah (saws) is aligned to earn the Pleasure and Good Will of his Lord Creator….starting from his look, to his exalted character, to his behavior and his relationship with his fellow human beings….as a brother, a husband, a father, a friend, a neighbor, a statesman, a leader, a general, a warrior in the Cause of Allah……and above all, his untiring, unimaginable, unattainable, and without any equal in the annuls of mankind….his unconditional love, his awe-inspiring fear, and his sublime worship of the Lord Most Majestic, Most Supreme, Most Exalted!  Every single deed, every single word, every single act of the Messenger of Allah (saws) was aligned to earn the Pleasure and the Good Will of his Lord Most High!

 

Allah is our witness brother, it would do no harm to a believer that he emulate whatever he possibly can from the example of the Noble Messenger (saws)…even if it be mere personal habits like eating, sleeping, wearing of clothes or shoes, cutting of his nails, or even his example when answering the call of nature!  If one wishes to align one’s deeds, regardless of however small or insignificant it may seem to an onlooker, if one wishes to align one’s deeds to earn the Pleasure and Good Will of their Lord, there would be no better example for them to follow than the ‘life’ and ‘style’ of the Noble Messenger of Allah (saws)!

 

Your Question: Whether it is Sunnah to follow these personal habits of Prophet (PBUH) and will we get rewards for following these habits?

If one’s intention in doing any deed is to emulate the practice or Sunnah of the Prophet (saws), without an iota of a doubt, one will have their due reward for their obedience from their Lord.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter  4 Surah Nisa verse 79-80:

We have sent you (O Mohamed) as a Messenger to mankind, and Allah’s witness suffices for this.  Whoever obeys the Messenger, in fact obeys Allah, and whoever turns away from him, he will be accountable for his deeds.  Anyhow, we have not sent you (O Mohamed) to be a guardian over them.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imran verse 31-32:

O Prophet,  tell the people, “If you sincerely love Allah,  follow me.   Then Allah will love you and forgive you your sins,  for He is All Forgiving,  All Merciful.”  Also say to them, “Obey Allah and His Messenger.”  And if,  in spite of this,  they do not accept your invitation,  warn them that Allah does not love those,  who refuse to obey Him and His Messenger.

 

Where do we draw line between the personal habits of Prophet (PBUH) like eating habits……………….and the other general ones which he expected and instructed his Ummah to follow?

If the Messenger of Allah (saws) specifically commanded, instructed, or guided the believers to follow his example when doing a particular act, regardless of however small or insignificant it may seem, then it would be incumbent upon the believers to obey their Prophet (saws), if indeed they believe in Allah and the Last Day.

 

Sahih Muslim Hadith 5831     Narrated by Rafi' ibn Khadij; Anas ibn Malik; Aisha.

Allah's Messenger (saws) came to Medina and the people had been grafting the trees. He (saws) asked: ‘What are you doing?’ They said: ‘We are grafting them’, whereupon he (saws) said: ‘It may perhaps be good for you if you do not do that’; so they abandoned this practice (of grafting the date-palms), and it thus began to yield less fruit. He (the Prophet (saws)) happened to pass by them (and said): ‘What has gone wrong with your trees?’  They said: ‘You said so and so’; whereupon he (saws) said: ‘I am but a human being, so when I command you about a thing pertaining to religion, do accept it, and when I command you about a thing out of my personal opinion, keep it in mind that I am but a human being. You have better knowledge (of a technical skill) in the affairs of the world.’

 

If one wishes to draw a line between which amongst the practices or habits of the Messenger of Allah (saws) one should follow and which one may choose to abstain, then it would be in the usage of conveniences made available to mankind through the evolution of time and technology.

 

For example if one were to say that to travel by horses or camels is a Sunnah when technology has made available to them cars and planes; or to live in a one-storey mud-house is a Sunnah when human development has made available strong buildings and skyscrapers; or to say that bathing or relieving oneself in the open desert is a Sunnah when development has invented modern bathrooms and toilets; or to say that to fight a war with swords and spears is a Sunnah when technology have given birth to bombs and missiles; or one insists on being treated by medieval medicine only because it is the Sunnah when advancement in medicine has given birth to scans, and operation theatres, and antibiotics, etc.;  it is only in the usage of these modern conveniences where one could draw a (short) line between which amongst the practices of the Messenger of Allah (saws) one chooses to follow or abstain.    

 

But in all other aspects of one’s life, regarding every act of worship, every command and guidance regarding the relationship with one’s Creator, one’s relationship with one’s fellow man, one’s relationship with the believers, the disbelievers, one’s wives, one’s family, one’s companions, or one’s character, one’s behavior, one’s etiquettes, one’s manners, etc……..basically every deed and act which remain totally unaffected and unrelated with the modern advancement and technological improvements of man….they would remain part of the Sunnah which the believers should strive to follow. 

 

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone.  Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

 

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

 

 

Burhan

 

 

 
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