Another said, “I shall keep away from women and will never marry.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then came to them and said,

“Are you the ones who said such-and-such? (1) By Allah, I am the most God-fearing and most mindful of Him among you, yet I fast and break my fast, I pray and I sleep, and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me.”

This is the wording of al-Bukhārī, (2) and Muslim also transmits it with the following wording:

Anas reported: “A group of the Prophet’s Companions asked the wives of the Prophet ﷺ about his private acts of worship. Some of them said, ‘I will not marry women.’ Others said, ‘I will not eat meat.’ Still others said, ‘I will not sleep on a bed.’ (3)

The Prophet ﷺ praised and extolled Allah, then said,

‘What is the matter with people who say such-and-such? (4) By Allah, I pray and I sleep, I fast and I break my fast, and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me.’” (5)

Numerous other reports carry the same meaning, showing that his Sunnah—marked by moderation, both in worship and in abstaining from worldly desires—is superior to the monasticism of the Christians, which involves renouncing most worldly pleasures such as marriage and the like, and going to extremes in fasting and prayer.

Yet, through (mis)interpretation or lack of knowledge, a group of jurists and devoted worshippers have opposed this. A similar case is what Abū Dāwūd relates in his Sunan from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (6) from