Dear All,
Salamun Alaikum.
ASSESSING TRADITIONS
Any tradition in itself is not 'bad'. Traditions naturally develop as part of a living practice of a people that attempt to inculcate 'best practices' into their daily lives. The problem ensues when these traditions take a 'religious' interpretation (i.e. that they seem to be understood as ordained by God as 'part' of religion).
Then these traditions take a completely different meaning:
- They become a source of religion which God did not ordain.
- Followers lose the capacity to 'choose', they lose the capacity to critically evaluate the purpose and effectiveness of the tradition.
- Followers become dependant on the sources in which these traditions are found and ultimately they deem it as part of their God ordained 'deen'
For example, in 57:27, we note that some Christians 'invented' monasticism out of a desire for God's goodly acceptance. But this was never prescribed for them, they imposed it on themselves. However, albeit many transgressed, not all of them were automatically condemned.
Muhammad Asad captures the essence of the Arabic quite well as follows:
057:027And thereupon We caused [other of] Our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and [in the course of time] We caused them to be followed by Jesus, the son of Mary, upon whom We bestowed the Gospel; and in the hearts of those who [truly] followed him We engendered compassion and mercy. But as for monastic asceticism - We did not enjoin it upon them: they invented it themselves out of a desire for God's goodly acceptance. But then, they did not [always] observe it as it ought to have been observed: and so We granted their recompense unto such of them as had [truly] attained to faith, whereas many of them became iniquitous.This is a very important verse. All matters will be judged by God alone and good intentions will be judged regardless of the particular tradition.
In so far as the list of 'sunnah's quoted in the above post, I would tend to agree with sister Chadiga, some of them are good practices. However, none of them are part of deen instituted by God in scripture. If Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born in America, he would have most likely eaten with a knife and fork at a table and he would have most likely travelled by a motorised vehicle. These would have constituted his 'sunnah'.
A timeless scripture (i.e. The Quran) was applied by the Prophet to a particular time period in a particular locale (7th century Arabia). What developed was a time specific sunna. Today, we need to apply the same
timeless scripture (Quran) to our particular time period in our particular locale. What will naturally result is a particular time specific Sunna. The fundamentals of 'deen' remain the same on which the sunna is founded. The scripture prescribes
'fundamentals' not a particular sunna of a particular people. However, there is no harm in taking the best of the past as an 'individual choice', but as
'best practice' and not
'ordained deen'.Whether, these traditions have been captured faithfully by later compilers is also a legitimate point of contention. Regardless, only the fundamentals from scripture are binding on a believer. The rest is academic commentary.
I hope that helps, God willing.
Regards,
Joseph.