something the other Companions did, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had not prescribed it for his community, it could not be called a recommended Sunnah. At most, one could say that this was a matter in which the Companions could legitimately exercise scholarly judgment, or that whoever practised it should not be censured, because it was open to scholarly judgment—not because it was a recommended Sunnah instituted by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for his community. Alternatively, concerning the observance of the Day of Arafat through supplication and remembrance, one could say that there is no harm in doing so occasionally in response to a particular circumstance, provided it is not made a regularly observed Sunnah.

This is how the leading scholars speak about this and similar matters: sometimes they disapprove of them, sometimes they allow scope for scholarly judgment, and sometimes they permit them provided they are not adopted as a Sunnah. No scholar versed in the Sunnah says that these are practices prescribed as Sunnah for Muslims. Such a statement can only be made about what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prescribed, since no one else has the authority to institute a Sunnah or prescribe religious practices. Whatever his rightly guided caliphs instituted, they instituted at his command, and it therefore forms part of his Sunnah. Nothing in religion is obligatory unless he made it obligatory, forbidden unless he forbade it, recommended unless he recommended it, disliked unless he deemed it disliked, or permissible unless he permitted it.

The same applies to judgments of permissibility. For example, Abū Talha considered it permissible to eat hail while fasting, and Hudhayfa considered it permissible to eat the pre-dawn meal after the spreading light had appeared, to the point that it was said, “It was daytime, except that the sun had not yet risen.” Other Companions did not hold these views, so the matter had to be referred back to the Quran and the Sunnah.

The same applies to disapproval and prohibition, such as Umar and his son’s disapproval of applying perfume before circumambulating the House, and the disapproval expressed by some Companions of converting Hajj into tamattuʿ (performing ʿumra followed by Hajj), or of tamattuʿ in general;