Hadith
On the authority ofAbuHurayrah (ra): I heard the Messenger of Allah (ο·Ί) say, βWhat I have forbidden for you, avoid. What I have ordered you [to do], do as much of it as you can. For verily, it was only the excessive questioning and their disagreeing with their Prophets that destroyed [the nations] who were before you.β [BukhariΒ &Β Muslim]
Abu Hurairah is a kunyah given by his father out of his love for cats. His actual name was Abdurrahman Ibn Sakhr. Laqd : Title, ex: the mother of the believers Nisbah : Attributions to something , ex : tribe, place, profession,
The prophet categorized actions into 2 :
- ProhibitionsAnNahi β Al-Ijtinab
#AlIjtinab means 2 things :
- Leave off somethingAtTark
- Stay away from anything that will lead you to it (not coming close to)AlMubaadah
- CommandsAlAmr β Do it as much as you can Why is the statement βdo it as much as you canβ is only attached to the commands and not the prohibitions? Because this statement shows ability. The scholars says, the origins of human beings, by default is An-Nahi (being in the dark, being in the wrong) for example : for you to just stay and do nothing is easy, not reading the quran, not pursuing knowledge, not praying, not doing anything is easy but doing something is hard. That is why doing commands requires ability & effort and not everyone can do it.
The Prophet then goes to mention about the previous nations who questioned their prophets which leads to their destruction. Whatβs the correlation with the previous statements? The scholars said that it is to show that our religion is based on submissionAlIstislam