Pitfalls in the Quest for Knowledge

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Flawed
Approaches to Dealing with Preferable Acts

There are a number of ways that people fall into
error when trying to
put into practice
acts deemed by Islamic Law to be preferable.

1.Practicing a
supposedly preferable act before
confirming its validity

Some students,when they hear about a preferable act
that is supposedly
established in the
Sunnah,they hasten to put it into practice before making sure that it
is authentic.

Once,I saw a young man walking about with a turban
wrapped around his
head.In our
country,Saudi Arabia,such a turban is very peculiar,so his dress was
quite conspicuous
and strange.I approached him and asked:“Why are you wearing this turban
in stark
contrast to the customs of your country?”

He replied:“Because the Prophet (peace be upon
him)used to wear it.”He
then went on
to mention some fabricated hadîth about the virtues of the
turban,one of which states that
it is the dress of the angels.The truth of the matter is that there is
not a single authentic
hadîth that extols the virtues of the turban.

Another example of applying a supposedly sunnah act
is shaving the
moustache.Some
students are in the habit of doing this because of certain hadîth
that they read without
referring to what the scholars have had to say on the matter.

A slightly different case is the tendency some young
men have to
condemn the practice
of standing to greet someone who comes into the room.They do so on the
basis of hadîth
that allegedly prohibit this practice.

Now,I am not going to say that there is no room for
disagreement on
this issue,but the
prohibition of people standing in reverence to their kings has little
to do with a person
standing to shake his brother’s hand.

Sheikh `Abd al-`Azîz b.Bâz gave a very
good answer to a
questioner who asked about
this matter.He said:“This is a sign of good manners.As long as standing
to greet
someone and shake his hand is the custom in your country,then it is
simply part of good
manners and is not prohibited.And Allah knows best.”

Therefore,before a person practices something he
believes to be part of
the Sunnah,he
should make sure that it actually is.

2.Going
overboard in putting into practice an act
established by the
Sunnah

Once it is established that a given act is part of
the Sunnah,it should
be put into practice
in a balanced and reasonable manner.This is especially true if putting
it into practice
involves other people.

Take the matter of straightening the ranks of
worshippers before
performing the
congregational prayer.I have noticed that some young people seem to
think that
straightening the ranks means that everyone should press his heels
against the heels of
those standing on either side of him.This is clearly going overboard in
the matter and
causes discomfort for the other worshippers.It also causes the person
doing it to take his
mind off his prayer.Is this behavior really established by the
Sunnah?Let us look at the
evidence.

The Prophet (peace be upon him)said:“You should
straighten your ranks
or Allah will
bring divisions between you.”
Al-Nu`mân b.Bashîr,the narrator of the hadîth,then
observed:“I have seen that one of
us would press his heel against his companion’s heel and his shoulder
against his
shoulder.”Sahîh al -Bukhârî (676).Sahîh
Muslim
(659,660).
When we consider this hadîth closely,it becomes apparent that the
case being made with
it is unacceptable.

First of all,the Prophet (peace be upon him)did not
command us to touch
our heels.He
only commanded us to straighten our ranks in prayer.This just means
that everyone
should be in line with each other;no person should not be more forward
or more to the
back.

Also,al-Nu`mân said:“I have seen that one of
us would press his
heel against his
companion’s heel.”What comes to mind is that the person being spoken
about did this at
the beginning of his prayer to make sure that he was in line with the
people next to him,
since the heel is a good way to determine this.Therefore,as long as a
person is sure that
he is in line with everyone else,then he does not have to keep contact
between his heel
and the heel of his companion.

A third point is that it is almost impossible to
literally place your
heel against the heel of
the person standing next to you.You actually have to extend your foot
outward.The
same goes for the shoulder.You often have to lean into the other
person.If you lean into
the person on the right,you end up widening the gap between you and the
person on the
left.

This shows us that the hadîth,on the face of
it,is not telling us
to go out of our way to
press our heels together.It is only telling us to avoid gaps in our
ranks and that we should
all stand in a straight line when we pray.Some people go overboard in
putting this into
practice and cause a lot of discomfort and consternation for their
fellow worshippers.

Another example is an imam who,wishing to apply the
Sunnah in
prayer,prolongs the
congregational prayer inordinately.You might find him reading the
chapters al-A`râf and
al-Tûr during the sunset prayer,justifying himself with some
hadîth that show it was a
practice of the Prophet (peace be upon him).By doing this,he places
hardship on the
congregation and causes some of them to avoid coming to prayer.

It is strange that he justifies himself with what
the Prophet (peace be
upon him)did on
occasion,but neglects the Prophet’s command when he said:“If one of you
leads the
people in prayer,then make it short,because among the people there will
be children,
elderly individuals,and those who are sick.”In one narration,he also
said:“…and those
who have a need to fulfill.”Sahîh al -Bukhârî
(88,662).Sahîh Muslim
(714,715,716).

We say to such people:Is this what you do in the
name of the Sunnah of
the Prophet
(peace be upon him)?Taking the condition of the people into
consideration is also part of
the Sunnah.Lengthening the prayer is not all that the Sunnah entails.We
must be
moderate in doing so and consider the needs of the believers.

3.Failure to
weight the merits and demerits of doing
something


An old saying goes that a man builds his castle while tearing
another
castle down.A
person may perform some preferred act established by the Sunnah,but in
the process of
doing so,neglect another act which is obligatory.Similarly,a person may
avoid
something that is disliked in Islamic Law,but in doing so falls into
something that is
prohibited.This is clearly wrong.

Islam does not encourage divisions.Fostering rancor
and hatred are not
among its
objectives.A person might stress applying a preferred act so much that
he causes the
people to turn away from him.He might foster hatred between them as
well.This is why
the people of knowledge have said:“Reconciling the hearts of the people
is required,
even if it means leaving off an act that is recommended by the Sunnah.”

Let us look at a few examples:

First Example:

If someone comes to a group of people who are in the habit of saying
“Bismillâh al-Rahmân
ar-Rahîm”out loud when performing their audible prayers,then he
should do so
as well if he leads them in prayer.Not doing so could cause them to
disdain him or bring
about differences among them.It could lead to an argument breaking out
in the mosque.
The scholars have determined that it is alright to recite these words
out loud if it will
foster unity among the people in the mosque.Likewise,if he comes across
people who do
not say “âmîn”audibly during their prayers,he should do the
same,even if he is of the
opinion that it should be said audibly.

Second Example:

Sometimes,disputes erupt with respect to the number of units of prayer
that should be
performed for the Tarâwîh prayer in Ramadân.It often
leads to heated arguments,
lengthy debates,and divisions within the community.The matter
however,is only
whether performing a certain number of prayer units is preferable or
merely permitted.

Third Example:

Some people take the issue of shortening the clothes to extremes.Some
young people
only allow their garments to fall below their knees to the length of
four fingers.Some
allow their garments to fall halfway own their shins.I do not say that
what they are doing
is wrong.What I do say however is that if a young man wears a garment
of reasonable
length that neither falls below the ankles nor attracts undue
attention,then this is more
likely to be acceptable to the people and have a positive effect on
them.

This type of exaggeration that we see in the matter
of shortening one’s
clothing may be
due to a certain way of understanding the Sunnah.It may also be due to
a hidden desire to
show off.If a person wishes to test his heart in such a matter,he
should look towards the
preferable acts in the Sunnah that he performs that are not seen by
others,acts that
require some effort.This would include keeping up the remembrance of
Allah and
praying voluntary prayers at home.In matters like these,one really
feels the effects of
practicing recommended acts.

4.Condemning
others for not engaging in recommended
acts

Some people treat recommended acts as if they are
obligatory.If they
see someone
neglecting one of these recommended acts,they condemn him,though it may
be that the
matter at hand is one wherein people differ.A good example of this is
the practice of
sitting for a moment after making prostration before rising to perform
the next unit of
prayer.Another example is the practice of praying two units of prayer
upon entering the
mosque at times when formal prayers are forbidden by Islamic
Law.Sometimes,those
who perform these acts have a tendency to condemn those who do not.
This is wrong.These are not Islamic duties.There is room for leeway
here.We should
focus our attentions on matters of primary importance before attending
to these matters
where the evidence points almost equally well to more than one
opinion.A person who
prefers one opinion on these matters should not try to compel others to
agree with him.
We must research such matters in a wise and insightful manner,without
trying to impose
our view on others and without becoming severe.