Sunnah facts for kids

In Islam, sunnah, also spelled sunna (Arabic: سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed on to the next generations. According to classical Islamic theories, the sunnah are documented by hadith (the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions or disapprovals of Muhammad), and alongside the Quran (the book of Islam) are the divine revelation (Wahy) delivered through Muhammad that make up the primary sources of Islamic law and belief/theology. Differing from Sunni classical Islamic theories are those of Shia Muslims, who hold that the Twelve Imams interpret the sunnah, and Sufi who hold that Muhammad transmitted the values of sunnah "through a series of Sufi teachers."

According to Muslim belief, Muhammad was the best exemplar for Muslims, and several verses in the Quran declare his conduct exemplary, and enjoin his followers to obey him. Sunnah provides a basis not only for major laws and rituals in Islam like how to pray salat, but for "even the most mundane activities", such as the order in which to cut fingernails or the proper length of a beard.

In the pre-Islamic period, sunnah was used to mean "manner of acting", whether good or bad. During the early Islamic period, the term referred to any good precedent set by people of the past, including both Muhammad, and his companions. In addition, the sunnah of Muhammad was not necessarily associated with hadith.

The classical meaning that now prevails was introduced later in the late second century of Islam, when under the influence of the scholar Al-Shafi‘i, Muhammad's example as recorded in hadith was given priority over all other precedents set by other authorities. The term al-sunnah then eventually came to be viewed as synonymous with the sunnah of Muhammad, based on hadith reports. Recording the sunnah was also an Arabian tradition and once they converted to Islam, Arabians brought this custom to their religion.

The sunnah of Muhammad as based on hadith includes his specific words (Sunnah Qawliyyah), habits, practices (Sunnah Fiiliyyah), and silent approvals (Sunnah Taqririyyah). In Islam, the word "sunnah" is also used to refer to religious duties that are optional, such as Sunnah salat.

Definitions and usage

Sunnah (سنة plural سنن sunan) is an Arabic word that means

• "habit" or "usual practice" (USC glossary); also
• "habitual practice, customary procedure or action, norm, usage sanctioned by tradition" (Wehr Dictionary);
• "a body of established customs and beliefs that make up a tradition" (Oxford Islamic Studies Online);
• "a path, a way, a manner of life" (M.A.Qazi).
• "precedent" or "way of life" (pre-Islamic definition, Joseph Schacht and Ignác Goldziher).

Its religious definition can be:

• "the Sunna of the Prophet, i.e., his sayings and doings, later established as legally binding precedents" (along with the Law established by the Quran) (Hans Wehr);
• "All of the traditions and practices of the Prophet" of Islam, "that have become models to be followed" by Muslims (M.A.Qazi);
• "the body of traditional social and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community" (Encyclopædia Britannica);
• "the actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad" (Oxford Islamic Studies Online).

Islam Web gives two slightly different definitions:

• "the statements, actions and approvals (or disapprovals) of Prophet Muhammad", (definition used by "legal theorists");
• "anything narrated from or about the Prophet... either before or after he became a prophet, of his statements, actions, confirmations, biography, and his physical character and attributes," (used by scholars of hadith).

It was first used with the meaning of "law" in the Syro-Roman law book before it became widely used in Islamic jurisprudence.

Types of sunnah

Sunnah upon which fiqh is based may be divided into:

• Sunnah Qawliyyah - the sayings of Muhammad, generally synonymous with “hadith”, since the sayings of Muhammad are noted down by the companions and called "hadith".
• Sunnah Fiiliyyah - the actions of Muhammad, including both religious and worldly actions.
• Sunnah Taqririyyah - the approvals of Muhammad regarding the actions of the Companions which occurred in two different ways:
  • When Muhammad kept silent for an action and did not oppose it.
  • When Muhammad showed his pleasure and smiled for a companion's action.

It may be also divided into sunnah that is binding for Muslims and that which is not. Ibn Qutaybah (213-276 AH) distinguished between:

1. Sunnah "brought by Gabriel";
2. sunnah from "Muhammad's own ra'y and is binding, but subject to revision";
3. "non-binding sunnah", which Muslims are not subject to "penalty for failure to follow".

In the terminology of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), sunnah denotes whatever though not obligatory, is "firmly established (thabata) as called for (matlub)" in Islam "on the basis of a legal proof (dalîl shar`î).

Sciences of sunnah

According to scholar Gibril Fouad Haddad, the "sciences of the Sunnah" ('ulûm as-Sunna) refer to:

the biography of the Prophet (as-sîra), the chronicle of his battles (al-maghâzî), his everyday sayings and acts or "ways" (sunan), his personal and moral qualities (ash-shamâ'il), and the host of the ancillary hadîth sciences such as the circumstances of occurrence (asbâb al-wurûd), knowledge of the abrogating and abrogated hadîth, difficult words (gharîb al-hadîth), narrator criticism (al-jarh wat-ta`dîl), narrator biographies (al-rijâl), etc., as discussed in great detail in the authoritative books of al-Khatîb al-Baghdâdî.

In Shia Community

Shia Muslims does not follow the Kutub al-Sittah (six major hadith collections) followed by Sunni Islam, therefore in Shia community and the sunnah of Sunni Islam refer to different collections of religious canonical literature.

The primary collections of Shia community were written by three authors known as the 'Three Muhammads', and they are:

• Kitab al-Kafi by Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni al-Razi (329 AH),
• Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih by Ibn Babawayh and Tahdhib al-Ahkam, and
• Al-Istibsar both by Shaykh Tusi.

Unlike Akhbari Twelver Shiites, Usuli Twelver Shiite scholars do not believe that everything in the four major books of the Shia is authentic.

In Shia hadees one often finds sermons attributed to Ali in The Four Books or in the Nahj al-Balagha.

See also

In Spanish: Sunna para niños

• Bid‘ah
• Categories of Hadith
• Sharia