the near relative his due, and the needy and the traveler, and do not squander wastefully.”
“Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord.”
Extravagance in permissible things means exceeding proper bounds and is a form of forbidden transgression. Forgoing what is superfluous in them is a permissible form of asceticism. As for abstaining from permissible things altogether—for example, someone who refrains from eating meat or bread, drinking water, or wearing linen and cotton, wears only wool, and refrains from marrying women, believing this to be recommended asceticism—such a person is ignorant and misguided, akin to Christian ascetics.
Allah Most High says:
“O you who believe, do not forbid the good things Allah has made lawful for you, and do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not love transgressors.”
“And eat of what Allah has provided for you, lawful and good, and fear Allah, in whom you believe.”
This verse was revealed because a group of the Companions had resolved to give up eating good things, such as meat and the like, and to forgo marriage. In the two Sahīh collections, Anas reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“What is the matter with men, one of whom says, ‘As for me, I fast and never break my fast,’ while another says, ‘As for me, I pray at night and never sleep,’ and another says, ‘As for me, I do not eat meat’? Yet I fast and break my fast, pray at night and sleep, marry women, and eat meat. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me.”