Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed his entire life in struggle against conformity, but a number of people who claim to be his followers actually feel proud of being the fanatics. Uncritically, they insist on trivial things in life, arguing that miswak is sunnah, while toothbrush and toothpaste are not. If you ask them that traveling on camel and horse is also the “sunnah”, so why do you travel on cars and planes, and why do you use guns and missiles instead of swords and arrows, also the “sunnah”? They reply that cars, planes, guns and missiles (convenient to them) did not exist in the time of Prophet, and are now the modified form of camels, horses and swords. But for toothbrush and toothpaste, they are not prepared to accept the same logic. They do not realize that the Prophet used miswak because it was the best thing available at the time, and the real interpretation of the Prophet’s sunnah is to use the best possible product available at the time. Who is going to teach them that cleaning our teeth in the best possible way is the real Sunnah and not the insistence on miswak for it?

Let’s not forget the fact that before the ‘war of trench’, the Prophet had asked Salman Farsi, how do the Persians protect their cities? And he replied that they dig trenches, making it difficult for enemy to access the city. Prophet (PBUH) acted on his advice, and for the first time in Arabia, the trenches were dug to forestall an enemy. It really helped, and few hundred managed to stop the three thousand soldiers of the enemy. But the same exercise of digging trenches in Iraq against Americans in 1992 war did not help, as the entire army flew over it in giant choppers. In fact these trenches became death traps, as Americans managed to blast and seal the openings, massacring thousands. Thus, it can be seen that the real Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) is to use the latest possible means in the war, and not a particular strategy or product that was successful at the time.

We must never ignore the fact that the Prophet Muhammad carried out the instructions of Quran in the best available manner as per his times and we can follow his footsteps only by carrying out the instructions of Quran in best available manner as per our times. And this is the most important Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

(Excerpt from the book “Agony of Quran” by Asrar Ayyub)