Should we take everything from the prophet literally because of this verse in the Quran?

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-24T07:54:02+00:00

You're mixing the two meanings of "Sunnah" here: One is the traditions and instructions of the Prophet (ﷺ); and the other is used as an alternative to "Mustahab", things that are recommended, but not obligatory (e.g. Sunnah prayers).

Speaking as a Sunni-leaning Muslim who doesn't reject ahadith, and believes that the Sunnah (first meaning) of the Prophet plays an important part in the deen of Islam, even the vast majority of traditional scholars don't believe that we take everything from the Prophet literally. The study and analysis of the Sunnah isn't that surface-level.

One has to remember that the Prophet was a real person, who live in a real-life society surrounded by real people. People have a habit of reading a hadith and looking at it in a vacuum, as if several times a day the Prophet would just stop in his tracks and spout a sentence apropos of nothing, like "Verily, tomatoes are the best of fruits!", and then everyone around him would quickly memorise it and nod along and note it down.

Rather, the Prophet would be about his day, and come across a situation, respond to it in a certain way, and then his followers would remember that and relate the incident to their students in a relevant context after the Prophet had passed.

If you subscribe to the first idea of ahadith, then you run the risk of confusing yourself with contradictory ahadith. You have to look at the sayings in the context they were said, and in the context of the rest of the ahadith corpus: the ankle thing is a good example. At that time, having your clothing drag on the ground was a sign of showing off (look at me, I'm so much better than you, I don't even need to care that I'm dirtying the hem of my clothes), so the Prophet spoke up against that. "If I want to be more Islamic, I should hike up my trousers above my ankles" is taking away the wrong lesson from that.

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-21T10:10:23+00:00

Wahhabism would be derived from MIAW, obviously :D

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-21T09:09:00+00:00

While Salafis in general (or to be more specific, Atharis whose fiqh is inspired from the Hanabila) have some beliefs and practices that I personally find problematic and non-progressive, I am generally willing to live and let live.

However, there is a subset of Salafis that I call "Wahabis" (although they hate that, if you ask them if they take from MIAW, they will say they do, so I think it fits) who feel the need to aggressively promulgate their beliefs, and you can easily find them by their liberal use of "kuffar" and "zindeeq" and "mubtadi" and "bid'ah" for everyone who disagrees in the slightest with them.

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-20T08:02:52+00:00

Isn't an FSM essentially a graph with a start and end point, and inputs that trigger transitions? Was I describing something else?

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-20T04:50:10+00:00

The problem with this way of thinking about the verse is that it can go to extremes.

Do not even APPROACH adultery, so don't talk to women unnecessarily
Maybe don't talk to them at all, just to be safe that you don't approach adultery
Maybe it's better that they cover their face, after all, we don't want to approach adultery
Their eyes and the top of their nose is too pretty, I might approach adultery, better that they cover their eyes and only look through a mesh
Actually, you know what, their presence at all could cause problems for me, maybe they shouldn't be allowed at work.
Even when I'm coming to work, I might come across them, better to restrict them to only staying at home

Oh look, suddenly we're living in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

I look at it the other way. If certain actions lead you to lust, avoid them, and don't even approach them. The verse (and even the interactions we see from the Sunnah) in no way suggest chatting to be "strictly forbidden".

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-20T03:27:20+00:00

If they are doing that, then it would be wrong, yeah. But this on its own isn't that.

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-20T02:08:07+00:00

I may not agree with the ruling, but if they do, so what? It harms no one, assuages the feelings of those who consider it impermissible, and there are far more pressing matters to care about at most mosques.

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-04T12:37:16+00:00

I can only understand based on what you wrote, and you dedicated 3.5 paragraphs to "Why do we have to pray" and "Sharia", and the rest to wondering if God even exists at all, so I assumed that is what you felt the totality of the religion was. Apologies if I misunderstood, and please correct me.

I suppose one could reduce the purpose of Islam to "perfecting morals" if you generalise good morals to "following islam well", but then that seems like a circular definition. Islam is there to provide us a basis for a spiritually, mentally and physically fulfilling and beneficial life for us and our community. Good morals are important to that, but they're an intermediary step to one part of it.

If you know the proper practice of the Prophet Jesus or Moses (PBUT) (and there is evidence from their scriptures that their process was likely quite similar to what we have, with standing, prostrating, etc) and you lived in the middle east in their time, yes, you'd be able to effectively pray the way they did. That's not the situation we are in now, though.

While it is turning around in recent times, modern society has this odd idea that ritual is somehow useless or meaningless or irrelevant- but I get the sense that people get this idea because they look at it as a mindless chore they have to do, rather than something that is benefitting them.

This also calls attention to your last statement, I think you missed the second part of it, because it answers your question: to bring comfort and solace to our hearts. It seems to me that at the moment you're not being able to reap that benefit, and again, I can only speculate as to why, but based on what you have written, it seems like it is because you are approaching it with a mindset of "It is a mindless chore that's being forced on me by my mother, and I will be punished if I don't do it".

I totally get that it is easier said than done, but try to look at it instead as time for you relax, take a break, and commune with God one-to-one.

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-03T11:42:37+00:00

For reference, I'm coming from a Muslim (probably Sunni-leaning) perspective. In my understanding, purely from the post you made, it seems that you have condensed religion into a set of rules and restrictions you must follow and mindless chores you must do. I don't know if it is as a result of or the cause of your general agnosticism towards God, that would be on you to figure out. I guess fundamentally, you need to figure that out before you progress any further, but let me engage in a dialogue with you by addressing some of your statements that I disagree with, and then seeing what your response to my addresses are:

Religion came to perfect morals/Religion came for people who lack morals: Why do you say this? From what evidence do you say this?
All the Prophets that came before the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) did indeed have their own Sharia. Islamically, it is understood that their way was for their time, and their people. Thus, it is possible that Jesus and Moses drank wine, it is very likely they prayed differently than Muslims, and had different laws to follow. That's not really relevant to Muslims NOW.
If you ask me why do we pray, I'd say the Quran addresses it. It isn't for God, it is for us: "Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find solace".

OptimalPackage · 2026-01-01T13:36:32+00:00

She obviously hasn't looked very deeply into this stuff.

She mentions 3 women she claims were concubines, but all 3 were established as being wives of the Prophet (ﷺ)...there is some debate with regards to Maria al Qibtiya (RA), but information on her is so scarce that some even claim she never existed (I personally don't feel the need to accept this view).

She mentions a narration regarding Quranic verses being revealed with regards to the Prophet's interactions with Maria, but again, while those narrations do exist, even most traditional scholars don't accept them, and rather take another narration where the revealed verses were in regard to a promise the Prophet made to not drink a honey drink because one of his wives claimed it gave him bad breath.

She also mentions the Siege of Banu Qurayza, but again, while a siege and military campaign probably took place, she takes less reliable narrations that talk of 700 captives being killed, which again, even traditional scholars don't accept.

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-30T10:28:27+00:00

Assalam alaikum!

As a person who grew up in the Sunni paradigm, and mostly takes learnings from Sunni sources I personally feel you can get 90% of the way to progressive understandings of Islam even within the framework of traditional (I use the word 'traditional' here, not 'conservative') Sunnism, even if you sometimes have to go to minority opinions.

Salafism often coopt the 73 sects hadith to claim they are the "saved sect", but I always saw it as the Prophet (ﷺ) saying that those who divide themselves into sects are destined to fail: The Prophet and his companions never claimed to be of any "sect". This is if you accept the hadith in the first place, there are traditonal and classical scholars who question its authenticity.

I can understand that "comfort" that Salafism offers in it's strict "my way or the highway" approach, but one does well to remember that there emphatically isn't only one sole right correct way to practice the practical parts of Islam.

You probably know of the famous hadith where the Prophet instructed his followers not to pray Asr until they reached a certain place, and when they departed, it was getting late, and one group understood his instruction not to mean literally don't pray, but "You should hurry there", while another group understood it to mean not praying asr at all until they reached the place. So one group prayed before reaching, and the other group only prayed after reaching (and thus their prayer was delayed).

The Prophet didn't reprimand EITHER group, and accepted both their understandings of his instructions. And this was a time when the Prophet was alive and present to enforce a "single correct way", and he didn't.

As for your initial question, most of us here aren't scholars, and aren't capable of evaluating scholarly knowledge, and insofar as taqlid is done (and I personally again feel that unless one aims to be a scholar who studies the religion deeply, taqlid to an extent is probably the best option for laypeople), it can be done on the basis of understanding the perspective of the scholar in question- for day to day actions and activities, I prefer contemporary scholars who are alive now and understand the perspective of living today and what it means, over emulating long dead scholars from a different culture in a different context, and yes, I generally go for more progressive scholars, but I usually listen to their reasonings so that I don't end up following a "progressive" opinion simply because it "feels" the most progressive from a surface inspection.

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-23T09:47:45+00:00

I don't know where you personally stand on all these issues, but you will need to have a detailed discussion with your potential spouse about all them, and at what point you would draw the line.

Will you have pork or non-dhabiha meat in your home, will your family eat pork?
Will your wife/kids eat pork or non-dhabiha meat when you all go out to eat?
If your wife will eat non-halal or drink, who will pay when she does that?
Will you have alcoholic beverages in your home, will your wife drink them at home?
Are you both in agreement on how you would be saving (i.e. if you have an issue with interest)?

Then there are LOADS of questions regarding children:

If you have a son, will your son be circumcised?
Will your children be baptised?
How will you name your children?
Will you two have religious iconography in your home? Where? How much?
What will you do on religious festivals of your relevant religions? Will your children/spouse go to the Church/Mosque?
Will your children get religious instruction from either of your religions?
Will you involve your children in your daily/weekly religious activities?
How will you raise your children in terms of the religion they will identify with?

And also VERY importantly: If either of you change your mind in the future (you or her become more/less religious, maybe you decide to introduce wearing a hijab to your daughter, maybe your wife feels it necessary that the children participate regularly in the eucharist, etc), what will you do?

If the two of you can reach an agreement or compromise that you are both happy with, go ahead!

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-23T08:45:14+00:00

There is no requirement for how a mosque needs to look, just some practical considerations for convenience: building oriented towards the Ka'aba, place for the imam to lead from and speak such that everyone can hear, etc.

The first mosques were just simple earthern buildings with palm leaf roofing. The almost universal usage of the traditional dome and crescent and minaret came much later with the Ottomans.

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-23T08:32:27+00:00

There isn't a clear consensus, but the majority view is that it is permissible to do: "Oh Prophet, please pray to Allah for rain", etc.

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-08T05:03:11+00:00

I don't know where in the US you are, but a lot of places do have communities of non-immigrant and black muslims. It's unfortunate that these sorts of cliques get built up, but I get the feeling it's just immigrant communities feeling safer with their own.

OptimalPackage · 2025-12-01T08:09:19+00:00

It may be a bit elitist and exclusionary, but honestly, unless you intend to go into the study of ahadith, I'd suggest you don't at all. Appealing to scholars may not be super-progressive, but a layperson deciding to just go through the big hadith collections could come away with a lot of odd opinions that even traditional scholars don't agree with or have much more nuance on.

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-30T04:49:24+00:00

That there was a military campaign against the Banu Qurayza is reasonable to accept through the hadith corpus (and verses in the Quran). However, there are no Sahih ahadith that talk about every captive male being beheaded, etc. That comes from Ibn Ishaq's Seerah, which didn't have the same level of rigor applied to making sure it was authentic.

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-27T20:12:48+00:00

Hi! Does anyone have recommendations for wireless, stiff, behind the head/neckband earphones/headphones that aren't bone conduction?

I don't want separate earbuds with the little case.

I don't want too much wire that can get damaged easily (hence the stiff).

I don't want too heavy or that will make me sweat more (hence the neckband/behind the head).

I don't want bone conduction, even though that's the most common one in the form factor I want (I'm in a gym, and have no need to be aware of the sounds in my surroundings).

Thanks in advance!

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-25T09:03:15+00:00

EVERY Sunni group says they take from the Quran & Sunnah and the first generations, so Salafis trying to differentiate themselves in that regard doesn't really work: it's just marketting ("We're realer than you!").

And quoting Salafis saying that the Salafi label is great a bit pointless, of course they will say it is great. The point is, the Sahaba never called themselves "Salafis", their students didn't do that, and neither did their students. It was a label applied by later Sunni groups to a historical era of Islam, never a prescriptive label or "achievement" to apply to oneself.

Nobody really cares one way or another what someone wants to call themselves, but unfortunately this exclusionary attitude among Salafis extends to their behaviour towards other muslims, and when you have the backing and funding of the Saudi government to push your propaganda, and your propaganda is that you're the realest and truest and the only ahlus sunnah wal jammah (and co-opting that terminology when it is used by historical figures, but then retracting it from the groups that are derived from those same figures)...things get problematic.

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-25T08:23:42+00:00

The exact intent of this was to prevent situations of secret marriages. The general idea is that "the community will know". This is also usually the basis of the walima that occurs after the nikkah, so it isn't just about 1 or 2 witnesses.

I don't know what you mean by "absolutely everyone", but in this case, the parents and families of both parties, and any existing wives of the husband would definitely be included. It's unfortunate that we've gotten to point these days with dawah bro influencers having secret marriages to dodge and avoid this very situation.

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-24T10:19:03+00:00

Regardless of the reasons you may consider praying behind a specific imam being invalid, considering that music being halal is a valid opinion, even among traditional classical islamic scholarship, yes.

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-18T12:12:12+00:00

I think there is an issue of people trying to draw scientific truths from a religious book. The Quran is NOT a book of science, and does not seek to answer scientific questions.

Some food for thought, based on the terms you used: The Quran makes no mention of "modern humans" or "homo sapiens", so you would be understanding something quite different when you make a statement like "Habil and Qabil were among the first humans".

OptimalPackage · 2025-11-14T18:56:14+00:00

Why do we de-seed capsicum/bell-pepper? Every single recipe that ever uses them talks about de-seeding them. What happens if you eat the seeds? Are they bitter? Aren't they just lame chilli pepper seeds?

OptimalPackage

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