The Sunnah: A Source of Civilization

The Civilized Figh considers following as an essence of religion, whereas, innovation is the essence of life. Allah has perfected for us His Religion, and completed His Grace on us through it. Thus this Religion is invulnerable for additions or subtractions. For Allah says:  

"This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My Grace upon you, and have chosen Islam for you as your religion." (5:3) 

There Are Two Fundamental Bases For Allah's Worship:

First, one must worship Allah alone and anything that people worship besides Allah is falsehood, whether it was a star in the sky, an idol on earth, a plant, an animal or a human being. All Allah's prophets upheld this basis for Allah says:

"Not a messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I: therefore worship Me." (21:25)

Secondly, one must worship Allah in the lawful way that is ordained by Allah in His Book, and spelt out by the Prophet in his Sunnah. Whoever dares to invent or insert anything that is not in accordance with Allah's Book or the Prophet's Sunnah is doomed to rejection. The Authentic hadiths states:

"Whoever introduces something to this affair of ours will have it rejected". [Note: Agreed upon on the authority of `Aishah]

"Whoever does something which does not belong to our affair will have it rejected." [Note: Reported by Muslim]

and,

"Beware of new things in matters of worship, for every new thing is an innovation and every innovation leads to falsehood." [Note: Reported by Abu Dawud, No.4607, Al-Tirmidhi, No.2678, and said it is a Good Sound hadith, lbn Majah, No.42, Ibn Hibban, Al-Ihsan, No. 5. and Ahmad, vol.4, p.126, 127. All of them reported it on the authority of Al-' Rbad lbn Sariyah]

Thus the Prophet (Peace be upon him) protected religion from the novelties and innovations that had been inserted and introduced into the former religions perverting words from their meaning through additions, making the easy difficult, turning the Haram into Halal and the Halal into Haram.

For instance, the Christians invented cruel monasticism and tried to forbid Allah's instinctive religion which He has created in mankind. Therefore, they declared that marriage, Allah's ornaments and the good things which He has provided for His slaves as forbidden. Some of them went so far to say that cleanliness itself is forbidden. They even believe that the filth and stench of their bodies bring them closer to their Lord and that the cleanliness of their bodies bring them closer to Satan. For instance, a monk of the Middle Ages in Europe, said bitterly there were times where one on the clergy spent his entire life without touching water but we alas live at the time when people become used to bathrooms. [Note: See, Abu Al-Hassan Al-Nadawi, Islam and the World, Madha Khasira Al-`A lam Binhtat Al-Muslimin]  

It seems that the habit of "Frequenting bathrooms" was taken from Muslims in Andalusia!

The Sunnah warned Muslims against overburdening themselves. Anas reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

"Do not be hard on yourselves in religious rites; otherwise, Allah will be hard on you for there were people who were so hard on themselves that Allah became hard on them. you can see what is left of them inhermitages and monasteries". [Note: Reported by Abu Dawud in the book or Al-A dab, No.4904]

In this respect, Allah says:

"But monasticism they themselves invented, We did not ordain it for them." (57: 27)

This overburdening of one's self and Strict adherence to religion was contrary to the easy and mild attitude through which they dealt with life so much so that they welcomed every attempt towards creativity and innovation in worldly matters.

Undoubtedly, the Prophet urged Muslims to create for the good of life in general and to invent new styles of architecture and construction. In addition, he directed them to wards continuous improvement, and innovation in science, work and art. The Authentic Hadith reported that the Prophet said:

"If a Muslim innovates a good innovation (in Islam), he shall be rewarded for innovating it and shall be rewarded each time another Muslim follows it. Moreover, the Muslim who will follow it will also be rewarded". [Note: Reported by Muslim, Ahmad, Al-Tirmidhi, Al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah on the authority of Jurair, Sahih Al -Jami' Al- Saghir, No.6305]

This was the way the early Companions and Muslims conducted their lives. They did not hesitate to pass judgments concerning certain issues that were non-existent in the Prophet's time, or were not tackled or even dealt with before. They craved what was in the best interest of the Islamic Nation, for instance, they wrote the Qur'an and made copies of it, based Caliphate on mutual consultation (Shura), established the mint, built prisons besides other things upon which the scholars of Islamic Jurisprudence based their defense of the necessity of continuous observance of public interest. [Note: See, Al-Qarafi, SharhTanqih Al-Fusul, p.199]

Most of these innovations took place during the Caliphate of `Umar (May Allah he pleased with him) for he was the first to write down accounts of poor, army, etc., built cities and establish Islamic calendar. Those who followed him, followed his traces during the good and prosperous centuries of the Islamic Nation.

Naturally, they fought evil novelties concerning faith, rejected evil innovations in worship, kept the essence of religion intact and unblemished. Moreover, they created sciences that serve religion such as grammar, morphology and rhetoric, they compiled language dictionaries and developed the sciences of Fiqh, interpretation and Hadith; and satellite science so as to secure, clarify and set the bases for those who attempt to learn them. For instance, they established the science of Principles of Jurisprudence, Hadith Methodology, and Qura'nic studies.

They even went so far as to translate the sciences of other nations. Therefore, they borrowed, adapted and added to them. There were numerous instances of genius among Muslims in all fields such as: medicine, astrology, physics, chemistry, optics, mathematics, geography and other fields of knowledge as well.

Alas, when Muslims fell into the abyss of backwardness, (i.e. lack of adherence to Islamic principles) this bright image was blurred by their evil innovations in religious studies and their stagnancy towards the development of life.