The actions of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, is a term of two compound words that make up an addition: action, and the messenger. And if this composite word is mentioned by the jurists absolutely without a presumption, it means: What was transmitted to us from the actions of the Messenger Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, in particular
The scholars of the science of jurisprudence principle took care of the actions of the Messenger, may blessings and peace be upon him, such as their concern for his sayings, so they spoke about their significance to the rulings, and what is related to them in terms of emulation if his actions, specifying the general, restricting the absolute, explaining the totality, abrogation, and so on.
The actions of the Messenger, may blessings and peace be upon him, are of three types:
First: Natural, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, dressing, and the like.
Second: Act of worship, such as prayer, fasting, and charity.
Third: Transactions, such as selling and marriage. His natural acts does not Connor more than permissibility of such acts consensually.
As for others, if its exclusiveness to the Prophet, peace be upon him, is proven by evidence, then it is his own, and his ummah is not like him in it, such as continuous fasting and marrying more than four wives. If his actions are not peculiar to him and turn out that they are specifying the general, or restricting the absolute or explaining the totality, then the rulings are given accordingly, as for other acts if its characteristic is known as obligatory, recommended, or permissible, then his ummah is like him, because the Companions, may God be pleased with them. On their behalf, they used to refer to his action, as evidence for imitation, for Almighty God said: {You have in the Messenger of God a good example}, and the imitation: is to do what he does in the way he did it
As for the act that is without clues indicating its occurrence in the aforementioned manner, there is a long disagreement regarding its rulings on us, some said it is obligatory on us, some said it is forbidden, some said it is permissible, and some sit on the fence.
Imam Abu Bakr al-Jassas said in his book: RULINGS of thAhkaamu Alqur’an when interpreting the Almighty’s saying: {You have had a good example in the Messenger of God} among the scholars who take this verse as an evidence for compulsoriness of emulating actions of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and those who disagree with this group also make use of this same verse in denial of compulsoriness of emulating his action.
As for the first ones, they support the fact that emulating him is to imitate him, and that is general in both words and deeds. When God Almighty said: {For whoever hopes for God and the Last Day} indicates that it is obligatory; As he made it a condition for faith, such as the Almighty saying: (And fear God if you are believers) and similar expressions related to faith, this indicates the obligation, while others protested that, His saying: {You have in the Messenger of God a good example} apparently indicate recommendation not compulsion, for the Almighty saying: {{ For you} Such as if one says: (You have to pray, and you have to give charity). There is no indication that it is obligatory.Abu Bakr said: The correct view is that there is no indication in it that it is obligatory. Rather, its indication for recommendation was more apparent than it being compulsory for what we have mentioned. Nevertheless, if it was mentioned in form of the command, it would not indicate the obligation in his actions, may God bless him and grant him peace because emulating him is to do what he did, and when we disagreed with him in believing the act or in its meaning, we would be emulating him. Do you not see that if he did it on the basis of it being recommend and we did it out of obligation, we would not be considered emulating in it, and if he, peace and blessings be upon him, did something in the basis of it being recommended, it is not permissible for us to do it on the belief of it being compulsory until we We do it on the belief until we know that he did it on that basis? If we know that it is obligatory, then we must do it in that manner, not from the point of view of this verse, as it does not indicate that it is obligatory, but from the aspect that God Almighty has commanded us to follow him in other than this verse.
