17. ABANDONING SUNNAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL INNOVATIONS AND MISGUIDANCE
I pondered upon Abu’l-Darda’s (radiyA llahu ‘anhu) words, ‘I do not recognise anything of what is being practiced now, that was practiced [at the time of the Messenger] except for (praying toward) the Qiblah .’
So I said, ‘How strange! What if he were to see us today! All we have from Shan ah are apparent (rasm) things [not the reality of it].’
Shariah is the pathway (tariq). The Messenger’s Shari’ah can only be known through his actions (af’al) and sayings (aqwal).
The reason for turning away (inhiraf) from following the way of the Messenger is either due to not being aware of it, causing a person to follow (blameworthy) habits (tab) and customs (‘adat). The Companions saw and heard the Messenger and would sway away from this path so little.
A person may know the truth but his desires may force him to sway from it. Narrations related to the Messenger and his Companions (radiyAllahu ‘anbum) continued to be abandoned, until they became totally ignored these days. People adopted habits that go against Shan ah, because they were easier to do.
In fact most people of knowledge have neglected Shari’ah, so how about laypeople? And because of their negligence of authentic traditions, scholars innovated things in major and minor matters. For example, scholars of jurisprudence (usul) became too occupied with speculative rhetric (kalam) which they took from philosophers (falasafa) and scholars of logic (muntiq)
Specialists in fiqh became involved as well, to the point of busying themselves with argumentation instead of the narration around which the ruling revolves.
Then storytellers (qussas) noticed that wealth comes through hypocrisy (nifaq), some of whom used asceticism (guhd) to deceive people for the sake of worldly gain.
Others noticed that people enjoy songs, so they made use of singers to sing love poems, and abandoned hadith. They did not forbid laypeople from committing usury (riba) and fornication (ginna), or order them to perform the obligatory actions! They sing about Layla and the crazed man, Al-Tur, Musa, Abu Yazld, Al-Hallaj and other useless nonsense. Other ascetic people busied themselves with asceticism and seclusion, and stopped visiting the sick and mixing with others. They pretended to have humility and wrote books on self-control and eating less. Shan ah to them became the sayings of Abu Yazld and Al-Shibll and other Sufis!
He who looked into Shan ah knows well that it contains none of those things
As for those in power, they followed customs and considered killing and torturing people necessary polidcs. They did not adhere to Shari’ah.
So where is the Shari’ah of Muhammad?
And could it be recognised when people are refraining from Prophetic traditions?
We ask Allah for assistance (i’ana) in fulfilling Shari’ah and repelling innovation (bid’ah).
Truly He is All Capable.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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