On the authority of Abu Hurairah Abd-ur-Rahmaan ibn Sakhr (RA) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: "What 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". [Related by Bukhaari and Muslim]
And as for His statement: "0 you who believe! Fear Allaah as He should be feared" [Q3: 102]. Then it has been said that this is abrogated by the aayah "And have taqwaa of Allaah, as much as you are able". However, what is correct is that it is not abrogated, but rather the first aayah is an explanation of this aayah, and makes clear what is intended by it. And it has been said that "fearing Allaah as He should be feared" means obeying Him all in that He has commanded, and staying away from all that He has forbidden, and Allaah does not order us except with that which we are able to do, as verily Allaah has said: "Allaah does not burden a soul more than it can bear" [Q: 286] "and [Allaah] has not laid upon you in religion any hardship" [al-Hajj,78]
And as for his statement: "and what I have forbidden you from then avoid it" then this is to be taken to apply generally in all situations, except if one has a necessity, such as eating meat from an animal which has not been correctly slaughtered if ones life is in danger or what is similar to that, then that is not considered to be forbidden. However, in all conditions other than that of necessity the individual is not considered to. have fulfilled this forbiddance of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) until he leaves all those things which the Shareeah forbids.
So he does not fulfill the forbiddance if he continues to practice even one of the forbidden things. This is in opposition to what has been commanded to do, for in terms of the commands we must do whatever we are able. And in his statement: "Verily the nations before you were destroyed due to their excessive questioning and disagreeing with their Prophets", then this was mentioned after his saying "Do not ask me about that which I have left [unspecified)". And this implies that we should not be excessive in questioning, as then we would be similar to the Banoo Israaeel when it was said to them: "Sacrifice a cow".
So if they had taken these words upon their apparent meaning and sacrificed any cow they would have fulfilled the command. But because they insisted on asking many questions regarding its colour, its appearance, its work etc, the matter became difficult for them, until they were able to find a suitable cow only after a great search and paying a large sum of money. So they were blameworthy for this, and our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) feared the same for his Ummah.
Summary
* That what is Haraam must be avoided
* That one must make sure that one has a satisfactory plea to present to Allaah for not doing what the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has ordered .
* That one must not ask too many questions. Ideally, one only wants to know what Islaam says [about a thing] and do that
* That asking too many questions and disagreeing with the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) can cause our destruction. If it happened to the people before us it can happen to us too
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited