Is sunnah not fard in a sense? Allah orders us to follow the Prophet (pbuh) in many places in the Quran.

Allah orders us to follow the Prophet (pbuh) in many places in the Quran. (an-Nur, 24/54, 56 etc.) Is it not like the other orders in the Quran? That is, is it not fard, in a sense, to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh)? Does it not mean to underrate something that is the order of Allah to sometimes say, "This is sunnah, not fard"? To sum up, is the Sunnah of the Prophet not decreed fard for us by Allah?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Sunnah is all of the things and deeds that Prophet (pbuh) did and said. Then, we can call whatever he did throughout his life sunnah.

The word Sunnah mentioned in fiqh books generally means “if you do it, you get rewards; if you do not do it, it is not a sin. For instance, like eating the food with the right hand, cleaning the teeth and not to eat while standing.

However, when we consider the word sunnah in a broad sense, it includes everything that the Prophet (pbuh) did. In that case, sunnah includes Allah’s orders and prohibitions. For instance, did the Prophet (pbuh) perform prayers? Yes, he did. Then, performing prayers is a sunnah.

Then, it is necessary to divide sunnah into parts:

The fard ones: They are everything that Allah definitely wants us to do or to abandon. The one who practices Allah’s orders, avoids His prohibitions in the best way and sets a model is the Prophet (pbuh). When we follow what he did, we will obey him in the best way, like performing prayers, performing fasting, not committing fornication, not eating haram, etc. 

The wajib ones: They are the wajib ones of our religion. For instance, it is wajib to perform witr prayer as three rak’ahs.

The nafilah ones: They are the things that we do apart from fard and wajib while worshipping. For instance, it is fard to read some chapters of the Quran but it is nafilah to read "Subhanaka" supplication.

The Adab ones: They are called adab. If we follow the Prophet (pbuh) when we do our daily deeds like eating, sleeping, going into and coming out of the mosque and toilet, we are regarded to have done them in accordance with their adab.  

That is, we can divide sunnah into fard, wajib, nafilah and adab. The highest and most virtuous sunnah is based on this order. 

We can think of it like a human body. There are essential organs for a person to live like, the brain, heart and head. The principles that we need to believe are like the brain and heart of our spirit.  

There are sense organs like the eyes, ears, hands and feet in our body. Fards are like that. They are like the eyes, ears, hands and feet of our spirit. A person who does not perform fards are like a person without hands, feet, eyes and ears.

We also have some beauties and ornaments like fingers, eyebrows and hair. We can live without them but we become perfect with them. Similarly, the nafilah and adab parts of sunnah are the ornaments and beauties of our spirit. If we do them, we will receive a lot of rewards; if we do not do them, we are not regarded to have committed any sins.

To sum up, fard and wajib parts are the sunnahs that have to be done. We receive a lot of thawabs if we do nafilah and adab parts.

As for harams, we protect our body from mortal things like microbes, viruses, poisons and fire; similarly, we need to protect our spirit from mortal and poisonous harams. 

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Will you please give information about the bindingness of the Sunnah acting in accordance with it and understanding whether it is based on revelation or not?

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