Class 2
REASONS WHY SUNNAHS ARE ABANDONED
Have we wondered why is it that nowadays majority of the people follow anything and everything but the Sunnah so easily? Why is the phrase “Its Just Sunnah” so common? Why are people so desperate in following the Sunnah but so complacent in following the Sunnah? And worse of all, why is it that living in a Muslim Community it is okay to look like non-Muslims and difficult to look like Practising Muslims?
SubhaanAllah some really harsh things but if we look around it is nothing but fact a sad sad fact. And unless we do something within ourselves there will always be a long list of Forgotten Sunnahs. So in today’s class we will study 7 main reasons the Sunnahs are abandoned
1. HEART IS NOT RIGHT
The most important part of the body is the heart as has been mentioned by our noble Prophet Muhammed – ﷺ- in his saying, “Indeed there is a piece of flesh in your body that, if it be sound, then the whole body will be sound and if it be corrupt then the whole body will be corrupt. Indeed it is the heart.” – Sahih al-Bukhari [1/49] & Sahih al-Muslim [1599]
The heart is thus the port where all actions stem, whether good or evil. If the heart is good then the actions will be good and if the heart is corrupt then the actions will be bad. The heart is the place where Allah scans, as the Messenger of Allah – ﷺ- says, “Allah does not look at your bodies nor your faces but he scans your heart and actions.” – Sahih al-Muslim [4/6221]
So if the Heart is the Port we it is a given that unless our heart is sorted even if we know all the Sunan we would not readily bring all the Sunan in our lives and hence they would still be abandoned. Amongst the things that makes a difference in one’s Heart are:
a) Not Loving the Prophet ﷺ as we are required to
Anas radi Allahu ‘anhu (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his children and all mankind.” (Bukhari)
Now we all say we love the Prophet but if we actually love the way we are supposed to as mentioned the Hadeeth, we often abandon Sunnah to please parents, children, society and worse of all is we leave sunnah to please the Non-Muslims. SubhaanAllah May Allah give us all the Hidaayah to love our Prophet ﷺ the way we supposed to as it will automatically lead us follow him.
b) Forgetting the purpose of life
So what does our Creator, Allah, tell us about our purpose in life? Allah states in the Quran that He created man to be His Khalefah, His trustee on earth (Quran 2:30). Mankind’s basic trust, our responsibility, is to believe in and worship Allah: (And I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me…) (Quran, 51:56-58)
Very simple! The purpose for man’s creation is to worship the Creator. And if we follow the Sunan of our Prophet ﷺ our whole life would be a worship even going to the toilet, eating food or having relations with his wife.
So know the purpose and Follow the Sunnah! May Allah make us all fulfill our Purpose of Life!
c) Desiring the World more than the hereafter
Again this is on the same lines as the above. To have a good life in the hereafter is our main goal but when people give preference to have a good life in this world they usually end up leaving Sunan and compromising with their Deen.
On the other hand if the Hereafter is our preference we wouldn’t care about anything and there would be no reason good enough to leave a single Sunnah known to us infact we would do our best to learn all the Sunan and implement it in our lives.
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Rabbana atina fiddunya hasanatan wa fil ‘akhirati hasanata waqina ‘adhaban-nar
“Our Lord! Give us in this world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire!”
2. LACK OF KNWOLEGE
Sadly this is an age where there is an abundance of information but scarcity of knowledge.
The Prophet ﷺ said, “Envy is permitted only in two cases: A man whom Allah gives wealth, and he disposes of it rightfully, and a man to whom Allah gives knowledge which he applies and teaches it.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
Notice what ﷺ says its not just to have knowledge but it is to APPLY it and then Teach it.
According to Imam An-Nawawi’s explanation, the word Hasad (jealousy) is used in the sense of Ghibtah i.e., envy. In Islam, jealousy is forbidden and is held unlawful. The reason being that one who is jealous wants that the person, who possesses the quality of which he is jealous, be deprived of that quality. Envy is permissible for the reason that when one seems that a person has been graced by Allah with certain gifts and qualities, he also desires to be blessed with those gifts. In the latter case, he does not grumble and grieve but eagerly prays to Allah for those gifts. `Knowledge’ here stands for the knowledge of the Qur’an and Hadith because this knowledge alone is beneficial for man, and it is through this knowledge that correct judgements can be made among the people. This Hadith has an inducement for acquiring useful knowledge along with wealth to spend in the ways ordained by Allah.
“It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fear Allah.’‘ (35:28) and those who fear Allah tries to do good (by following the Quran & Sunnah) before they face their Lord!
3. FRIENDS WHO ARE NOT ON THE SUNNAH
It is in Quran – ‘ O’ you who believe, Be afraid of Allah (SWT) and be with those who are truthful (Muslims) (At-Tauba – 119).
Also the Prophet ﷺ said, "Man follows his friend's religion, you should be careful who you take for friends". (Abu Dawood)
If we are with the righteous we either follow the Sunnahs or we leave their company as we will be reminded as and when we are slipping. It will be easy to follow the Sunnah as it becomes part of their persona and they are not just comfortable but proud of it.
And when we are amongst the people who are not on the Sunnah, even if we have some Sunnahs that we implement in our lives, more often than not, we end up leaving them either out of forgetfulness or more sadly because of trying to fit in.
4. FOLLOWING INNOVATIONS (Bidah)
One of the big fitnas of all times for the Muslims.
The Prophet ﷺ always urged us to adhere to the Sunnah and to always reject Bidah.
He ﷺ said: “You must adhere to my Sunnah and the way of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs who come after me. Adhere to it and cling to it strongly, and beware of newly-invented matters, for every newly-invented matter is an innovation (bid’ah) and every innovation is a going astray.” (Narrated by Abu Dawood)
Shaikh al-Islam Ibn Taimiyyah said, “There is not a people that invent an innovation except that they abandon a Sunnah to go along with it.”
Today let us not get into the debate of what is Bidah and what is not, let us all just make an intention that first we will follow all the Proven Sunan and then lets get into the extra things. SubhaanAllah there are so many Sunan that we wouldn’t have time or energy to do anything extra.
May Allah keep us on the Sunnah!
5. NOT COMPETING TO DO GOOD AND BEING CONTENT
Allah says, “So race to all that is good...” (Qur’an 2:148 and 5:48)
The Fard is something that everyone has to do so how can we race in doing good? It is in the extra deeds and these extra deeds can only be accepted if it is done for the Sake of Allah and ON THE WAY OF THE PROPHET ﷺ
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A believer never satisfies doing good until he reaches Jannah.” [At-Tirmidhi].
According to this Hadith, it is a quality of a Muslim that he is very much concerned about acquiring virtues and doing good, and he is never tired of struggling for them and live by them so much so that in this struggle he reaches the end of his life. So one cannot be satisfied by saying I am atleast better than him.
6. ASKING TOO MANY QUESTIONS
The Prophet ﷺ said, “Leave me as I leave you) for the people who were before you were ruined because of their questions and their differences over their prophets. So, if I forbid you to do something, then keep away from it. And if I order you to do something, then do of it as much as you can.” (Bukhari)
Nowadays we see a lot of so called intellectual Muslims who would be questioning, why did he do this, why did he stop us from doing this, that was not for this time etc. We need to follow the Sahaba as to how they followed the Prophet ﷺ they said “We Hear and We Obey” so when we get an Authentic Narration we obey!
7. PROCRASTINATING (delaying saying we will do after this or that)
Another common problem, will start after marriage, will do it after college, after I get a job etc it is a never ending story but the main question is, who promised you that there will be an after college? Or after marriage? Or any of the likes? The Prophet ﷺ ordered us to “Hasten to do Good Deeds”
Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Hasten to do good deeds before you are overtaken by one of the seven afflictions.” Then (giving a warning) he said, “Are you waiting for such poverty which will make you unmindful of devotion; or prosperity which will make you corrupt, or disease as will disable you, or such senility as will make you mentally unstable, or sudden death, or Ad-Dajjal who is the worst expected absent, or the Hour, and the Hour will be most grievous and most bitter“. [At-Tirmidhi].
In this Hadith the Prophet ﷺ is urging us to do good before the inevitable, one or the other test is eventually going to come our way and although we might have good and firm intentions of following the Sunnah but we might never be able to due to our procrastinations.
The Prophet ﷺ said: "There are two blessings that many people are deceived into losing: health and free time."
May Allah give us the Hidayah to make use of now and make us start doing good for His Sake.
TIPS FOR THE TEST
Do not have to memorise the ayahs or hadeeths word for word and their references, but remember their meanings and the msg being given.
Remember the reasons, why sunnahs are abandoned and more immportantly fight them so that you do not do so.
ASSIGNMENT
There will be an Assignment Question asked in the Test. Marks will be given based on the following: -
Invite atleast 15 people to the course (can invite via WhatsApp, Facebook, Email, telegram or word of mouth) 3 Marks. (check the note below for exceptions)
Note:
Those who have already invited whether on Whatsapp, Email or FB, do not need to invite again.
It does not matter, whether people join or not, our job is to invite.
Implement any 5 of the Sunnahs covered from week 1. (5 Marks)
Talk about any 5 Sunnahs covered in this week’s classes with atleast 3 people. 5 Marks.
Pray for the Ummah, pray for the ease of all the poor & oppressed Muslims and pray that Allah make us all strong in imaan and give us the hidayah to work for the aakhirah and to help each other. Pray for this applying any three Sunnahs from class 4. - 2 Marks
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