Likewise, invoking the hadith to prove the permissibility of the aforementioned specification is also unsound—unless what is meant by “specification” is simply taking account of some benefit, not preferring one day over another without a text from the Prophet ﷺ. For example, choosing a given day for teaching or for delivering a lecture so that people can gather to listen: there is no objection to this, for the day itself is not sought for its own sake, and one may therefore shift to other days whenever benefit so dictates.

This is altogether different from singling out certain days for particular acts of worship on the assumption that they are superior to others—such as devoting the nights of the two festivals to prayer and worship, reserving their days for visits (meaning grave visitation), or designating the month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal for reading the account of the Prophet’s birth ﷺ. All of this and the like are innovations and reprehensible practices that must be discarded and forbidden.

Accordingly, when al-Nawawī, in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, cited the hadith to allow such specification, he said: “Ibn Maslamah al-Mālikī disliked it, perhaps the hadiths had not reached him.”

I say: This is far-fetched; what is more likely is that they had reached him, but he did not understand from them what al-Nawawī and others deduced. We have already stated what we consider to be the correct view on the matter. Allah knows best.