Etiquette of Following the Sunnah (Ittiba‘ as-Sunnah) in the Quran & Sunnah

1. “If you love Allah, then follow me — Allah will love you.”

Allah says:

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

Say (O Prophet): “If you really love Allah, then follow me, and Allah shall love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Most-Forgiving, Very-Merciful.” (Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:31)

Love of Allah is given a single road and a single proof: following the Messenger ﷺ. The claim is empty until the feet are on his path.

2. “Whatever the Messenger gives you, take it; whatever he forbids you, leave it.”

Allah says:

مَّآ أَفَآءَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِۦ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْقُرَىٰ فَلِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ وَلِذِى ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ وَٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ كَىْ لَا يَكُونَ دُولَةًۢ بَيْنَ ٱلْأَغْنِيَآءِ مِنكُمْ ۚ وَمَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمُ ٱلرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَىٰكُمْ عَنْهُ فَٱنتَهُوا۟ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ شَدِيدُ ٱلْعِقَابِ

Whatever fai’ Allah has passed on to His Messenger from the people of the towns is for Allah and for the Messenger, and for the kinsmen and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, so that it may not circulate only between the rich among you. And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you from, abstain (from it). And fear Allah. Indeed Allah is severe in punishment. (Surah Al-Hashr 59:7)

The verse came concerning the distribution of spoils, and its words are general for all time: his giving is taken, his forbidding is left — that is the whole constitution of ittiba‘.

1. All will enter Paradise — except the one who refuses.

“All of my followers will enter Paradise except those who refuse.” They said: “Messenger of Allah, and who would refuse?” He said: “Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys me has refused.”

Lesson: Refusal is not a speech of the tongue; it is the life that walks the other way while the lips claim the ummah.

2. Whoever innovates into this affair of ours — it is rejected.

‘Aishah reported: “If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected.”

Lesson: The door of worship is guarded by harmony with what he ﷺ brought; sincerity of intention does not rescue an invented form.

3. His sermon: “Every innovation is misguidance.”

Jabir said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered the sermon, his eyes would redden, his voice would rise and his anger intensify — and he would say: “The best speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad; and the worst of matters are the newly invented ones, and every innovation is misguidance.”

Lesson: He ﷺ repeated this in sermon after sermon, so that no generation after him could call the warning unknown.