AL-AARIFY'S FABRICATED NĀFILAH

By

Ibn Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori 

There is a famous brother on social media known as "Aarifi". He is well known for talking about intimacy. I saw one of his videos earlier this afternoon where he was talking about a nāfilah he tagged "back to sender". There are ways that some Alfas who don't understand Sunnah talk that anyone who has a basic understanding of the Sunnah will find it easy to detect the errors in their statements. In his prescription of the nāfilah, he said in the ablution preceding the nāfilah, one should recite Sūratul Falaq while washing the right leg and Sūratul Nās while washing the left leg. Then he said the nāfilah contains two rakats and after reciting Sūratul Fatihah in the first and second rakats, one should recite Sūratul Falaq and Nās 33 times respectively. With due respect, as sincere as he sounded in the video, his prescription is faulty because it lacks evidence from the Qur'ān and Sunnah. No one has the right to prescribe any ibādah to anyone except Allāh and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. Allāh says: 

فَفَرَرْتُ مِنْكُمْ لَمَّا خِفْتُكُمْ فَوَهَبَ لِيْ رَبِّيْ حُكْمًا وَّجَعَلَنِيْ مِنَ الْمُرْسَلِيْن

So I fled from you when I feared you. Then my Lord granted me wisdom and prophethood and appointed me [as one] of the messengers. (QS. Ash-Shu'araa: Verse 21)

This verse of the Qur'ān nullifies any attempt by anyone to legislate in the Deen no matter how small. The worst thing is that those who prescribe this kind of nāfilah or du'a and the likes will talk boldly as if they have evidence for what they are saying. They will also condemn the shirk of curing magic with magic but unfortunately they turn their blind followers towards bid'ah. Whereas both shirk and bid'ah are not allowed in Islām. 

It is important to stick to scholars of Sunnah or students of knowledge for guidance in matters of the Deen. If you follow anyone who is not upon Sunnah, it is easy to be misled, especially if you are not well grounded in the understanding of Sunnah and the person has sweet tongue. It is only the people of Sunnah who usually watch what they say and try to follow evidence to a great extent. As for people of bid'ah, they don't usually care whether or not there is evidence for what they say. Now, we have so many of them on social media these days and we need to be very careful.

If a Muslim perpetrates shirk, it will destroy his Islām, and if a Muslim perpetrates bid'ah, the bid'ah will not be accepted from him and he may get punished by Allāh for opposing the Sunnah. More so, when someone engages in bid'ah, his efforts will be wasted. You can imagine the effort someone will put into this kind of nāfilah the brother has prescribed? In fact, some ignorant sick Muslims will try it and it could worsen their state of health. When the Alfa was asked to bring evidence for the prayer he prescribed without basis in the Sunnah, he was not able to back it with evidence. Instead he went ahead to mention a hadith on ruqyah to create confusion. This is why we need to watch who we take knowledge from. The question is where did he find recitation of Qur'ān during wudhuu and who gave the 'adad (number) he attached to the Surahs to be recited in the nāfilah?

Some people, especially ignorant women are so gullible to the point that there is nothing you can tell them to abandon bid'ah in the name of worship. They have the zeal to worship Allāh but they are ignorant. They may even say, "after all, the Alfa did not tell them to bring any money". They are ready to try anything without finding out if it conforms to Sunnah or not. It is sad. 

Meanwhile, some of these Alfas know what they are doing. Apart from the fact that they find it easy to trend on social media with baseless claims, it is a way of indirectly inviting ignorant people, especially women for their subtle jalabi business. They claim this kind of jalabi is pure. There are some people who are likely to message them privately for more issues and they may use the opportunity to mislead them by giving them more baseless tips and rob them of their money if care is not taken. They may later tell them to slaughter some animals and this may lead to shirk. 

Besides, there are many du'a that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم عليه has taught us in the Sunnah based on authentic reports. Many of these du'a and nawāfil are in the books of Hadith. Let us stick to them. They are so many that we don't need to add anything to them. Many of them are Hisnul Muslim (Citadel of the Believers). For instance, Āyatal Kursiyy, Sūratul Falaq and Nās (3 times after Fajr and Maghrib) are for protection against all evils when we recite them after each of the daily prayers. There is du'a for Istikhārah well explained in the Sunnah for seeking guidance. The best thing is to have contentment with authentically reported acts of ibādah. 

So, don't be deceived, any du'a or nāfilah prescribed by anyone no matter who he is without any basis in the Sunnah is null and void even if it does not contain shirk because both du'a and nāfilah are acts of ibādah. And the asl (foundation) in all acts of ibādah is for us to hold it until we have evidence prescribing it in the Sunnah. 

Every Muslim needs to at least seek basic knowledge of Sunnah in order to know what is proper and what is not proper in the Deen. In my book, "50 Common Bid'ah", I have discussed all of these innovations in a way beginners will understand. 

May Allāh guide us all aright.