—from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah—who related: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered an eloquent sermon to us. A man then said, ‘Messenger of Allah, it is as though this is a farewell admonition; what charge do you give us?’ He replied: ‘I enjoin you to listen and obey. Whoever of you lives on after me will witness great discord, so hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Grasp it firmly—bite onto it with your molars. Beware of newly introduced matters, for every innovation is misguidance.’

The Sunnah’s prohibition of excess in acts of worship

190 – How much more, then, with those acts of worship that Allah and His Messenger have actually forbidden because they are innovations? As recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs¹—with Muslim’s wording—Anas ibn Mālik narrated that a group of the Prophet’s Companions asked the wives of the Prophet ﷺ about his private devotional practice. One of them said, ‘I shall never marry women.’ Another said, ‘I shall never eat meat.’ Another said, ‘I shall never sleep on a bed.’ The Prophet ﷺ praised and extolled Allah and then said: ‘What is the matter with people who say such-and-such? As for me, I pray at night and I sleep; I fast and I break my fast; and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me.’