Why The Sunnah And Its People Are Strange
By
Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori
Br. Bisi Mohammed is a consistent follower of Mallam Sanusi Lafiagi on Facebook, and he had been so anxious to meet him since all these days. There was a time we had an appointment to meet the "soborlation" man, we missed it due to one reason or the other. But yesterday, I finally had the opportunity of connecting and uniting these two treasured brothers. And as you can trust, the meeting of people who are conscious and striving upon the Sunnah cannot be without atleast one benefit.
The benefit of our meeting yesterday at Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Nigeria was what Br. Bisi said when the gateman banged his car boot after checking it. I was expecting him to get angry like he used to then, but he said: anyone who is mindful of the Sunnah would abandon his own usual character and embrace the character of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. May Allaah make it easy for us to do. When we eventually met with Mallam Sanusi Lafiagi, he repeated the same sentence. But this time, he added another thing. He said: someone who is conscious of the Sunnah would not look normal to people again. That was when I decided to think about the origin of the word "normal". Then, I said: the word normal is taken from the word "norm" which also mean "custom", "tradition", "usual", "common", "trend". I said if one is to practise Islaam properly in accordance with the Sunnah, he will be doing things that are uncommon to people because the real Islaam itself is now uncommon.
Anyone who chooses to follow the common trend in our world today would lose significant parts of his Deen because the trend of things are fast turning against the Deen. Anyone who tries to be normal by following the customs and traditions of his people would be misled because a lot of our local customs and traditions are against the shari'ah.
No wonder, the people of Sunnah are the ghurabaa' (strangers) as mentioned by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in a famous hadith. In a hadith reported by Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه, the Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
بَدَأَ الإِسْلاَمُ غَرِيبًا وَسَيَعُودُ كَمَا بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا فَطُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ
Islam began as a something strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers.” [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 145]
The People of Sunnah behave strangely because the real Islaam (Sunnah and the manhaj of the salaf) itself has become something strange to many people. Look at the way they think, the way they pray, the way they fast, the way they behave, their events and their general attitude towards worldly things. Look at their dressing. No music, no birthday, no valentine's day, no dating, no desperate leadership ambition, no protest etc. This doesn't mean they are perfect. But they are the one upon truth because they strive to remain upon what the best generations of Muslims were upon. What is normal to the people of Sunnah based on daleel from the Qur'an and Sunnah is always an abnormality to many people due to the alarming rate of ignorance, desire, and blind followership of fake scholars in our society.
Perhaps, this was why al-Imam al-Bukhari رحمه الله urged people to be patient with the People of Sunnah because they are the smallest of the people. May Allah count us among the real People of Sunnah no matter how small they are, and no matter how abnormal or strange they look to the ignorant people.
Written on 18th Dhul Hijjah, 1438AH (9th September, 2017)
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