The
Recompense for Reviving
A Forgotten Sunnah
In short, the Holy Prophet
has very much insisted upon conforming to the Sunnah, as it says in one
Hadith: -"Whoever revived anyone of my Sunnahs, which was dying out, will
receive from the recompense of the latter.” (Both will be rewarded equally,
while the numbers of people practising the revived Sunnah multiplies the
rewards of the person who revived the Sunnah).
In another Hadith the Holy Prophet
giving congratulations, says: "Religion will retract towards Hejaz, even
as a snake slithers into its hole, and religion will become secluded only
in Hejaz, even as the mountain-goat takes refuge on the mountain-top. Undoubtedly
religion appeared as an unfamiliar thing and soon it will be alienated
just as it has been introduced. Blessed are those poor (unsung) strangers
who, when masses would have corrupted my Sunnah after me, will reform them.”
In another Hadith the Holy Prophet
says: - "He, who ate legitimate (Halal) things and acted upon the Sunnahs
and saved people from mischiefs, will enter Paradise.” So a man said: “O
Apostle of Allah! Such men are too many these days". He replied, "They
will also be there in the time after me".
In one Hadith the Holy Prophet
tells the Companions: "You happen to be in such a time that if anyone of
you leaves even one-tenth of what you have been ordered to do, he will
be ruined. Then will come such a time that if anyone accomplishes even
one-tenth of what the people have been ordered to do, he will be absolved."
This Hadith is very encouraging for those whom Allah Most High has granted
the grace to act upon His religion in any degree. They should not give
up their action, considering it to be small and scanty. It is usually a
very great deception of the Satan. One should continue to act upon the
Sunnahs as much as one can. Who knows which act of ours might please Allah
whereby we might succeed and reach the destination safely.
We should be staunchly active in the Sunnah method, for the Holy Prophet
has said: "I leave among you two things. As long as you keep hold of them,
you will not go astray: one is Allah's Book, i.e., the holy Quran, and
the other is the Sunnahs of Allah Apostle.”
The words in another tradition are: "I am leaving among you two heavy
things. As long as you keep grasping them, you will not deviate: one is
Allah's Book and the other is my Sunnah. Whenever the clutch of the Sunnah
is left, there will be sheer deviation.
As Hazrat Ibn Mas'ud has also said that the man who wishes to present
himself as a Muslim in the Divine Court tomorrow on the Day of Judgement,
he should make sure to say prayers at a place where the prayer-call (azan)
is given (i.e. in the mosque), because Allah Most High has promulgated
such Sunnahs through our Prophet
which are guidance from one end to the other. Among them are these congregational
prayers also. If you start offering prayers in your own houses, just as
so and so you will become one who forsake the prophetic sunnah, and just
understand that if you give up the Holy Prophet's
sunnah, you will go astray.
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