Why is Following the Sunna of the Prophet Important?

 

O soul! If you want endless accomplishments with regard to your afterlife in a short lifespan, if you want to see each minute of your life as fruitful as a whole life, and if you want to transform your ordinary daily deeds into acts of worship and your heedlessness into peace and constant awareness of always being in the Presence of God, follow the elevated Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. For when you act according to the rules of the Shari‘a, it gives some sort of peace, and becomes a kind of worship, which yields many fruits for the Hereafter. For example, at the moment you utter the phrase, I bought it, which the Shari‘a requires you to utter in a buy-and-sell transaction, that ordinary transaction of yours becomes an act of worship. Such remembrance of a rule of the Shari‘a reminds you of Divine Revelation, which, in turn, causes you to think of the Revealer of the Shari‘a and to turn your attention to Him. This produces some sort of peace. That means, by acting according to the elevated Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, one can make one’s transient life produce eternal fruits to be the means of an eternal life. Therefore, heed the following Divine decree,

So, believe in God and His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet who believes in God and His words, and follow him so that you may be guided. (7:158)

and try to be a comprehensive object to be enlightened by each of the Divine Beautiful Names manifested in the rules of the Shari‘a and the elevated Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings.

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.