al-Qāsim Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Umāmah: a man said, “Messenger of Allah, grant me permission to practise siyāḥa (ascetic roaming).” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “The siyāḥa of my community is jihad in the path of Allah.”

186 – A related report states: “The monasticism of this ummah is jihad in the cause of Allah.”¹

There is no monasticism in Islam

187 – For there is no monasticism in Islam. As for what Allah mentioned in His Book about the Christians inventing monasticism,² Allah and His Messenger have forbidden us from innovations.

188 – Muslim records—on the authority of Jābir, and others besides him—that the Prophet used to say in his sermon: “The truest speech is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, and the worst affairs are those newly introduced; every innovation is misguidance.”³

The command to follow and the prohibition of innovating

189 – It is likewise authentically reported from him in the Sunan⁴, in a ḥadīth judged sound by al-Tirmidhī