What is the Sunnah then?

The Muslims would never differ about the Qur’an, it was the unified scripture that they all
agreed to define: from God, the very word of God, and authoritative. No wonder – it was
codified before the death of Uthman (d. 656). We believe that the Qur’an was codified sometime
between 650-653. They all agreed that Muhammad established a Sunnah, a new way of life and
community, what they could not agree upon was what was the legacy of Muhammad, it was his
Sunnah, but how do we know what it is, and what is the Sunnah of Muhammad after he died?

It is important to note that Muslims will differ on this Sunnah. Please remember that this was
happening in the first 200 years of Islam, before all the major sects formed and became mature.
The debate among the Muslims covered everything and was very open. Many students now
find it strange that things now taken for granted were debated and disputed before it was
resolved.

So a major issue then was what is the Sunnah and if we know what it is how do we know if it is
authoritative.

There were major answers to this question. These groups all belonged to the big umbrella
resolution that we call Ahl al-Sunnah wa-al-Jama`ah. But remember this was a major term that
unified many groups under one big tent: there were three major groups inside this grand
resolution that we call Ahl al-Sunnah:

1- The rationalists (Mu`tazilites) said that Muhammad left the Qur’an and that is his
Sunnah. Meaning the Qur’an is the basis of Islamic life and any Muslim of sound mind
can use the Qur’an to guide them with their reason to live a pious Muslim life.
2- The people of Medina, the birthplace of Muhammad’s community believed that they are
the carriers of Muhammad Sunna. Each generation of people in Medina lived a life that
was modeled on the teachings of Muhammad. So in addition to the Qur’an, the
practice of the city was the Sunna of Muhammad.
3- The Ahl al-Hadith group, these were a group of Sunnis who believed that the textual
utterances of Muhammad, reports about what he said and done were the embodiment,
the representative of his Sunnah. The Sunnah of Muhammad was his words (apart from
the Qur’an). They called the verbal reports from Muhammad Hadith.

The debates among these groups were very intense: Especially the Mu`tazilites who refused the
authenticity of the Hadith. They insisted that there is no way to know what Muhammad said
since it was not written down, and we don’t know if what someone said that Muhammad said
can be trusted.

Eventually the 3rd camp, the people of hadith will win the ideological battle and most Sunnis
accepted their solution. Thus a new understanding became the orthodoxy among the Sunnis:
the Sunnah of Muhammad is his Hadith.

So What is a hadith?
What is a hadith?

Hadith is the technical term that we use to refer to the speech and words attributed to
Muhammad. It is thus a term that refers to a particular one hadith or to the whole body of
speech and words attributed to Muhammad. Hadith is thus the physical embodiment and the
representative of the Sunnah. To the majority of the Sunnis, hadith is what the Sunnah of
Muhammad is. That is the teaching and the legacy of Muhammad is to be found in his words
and actions which has been preserved according to them by hadith.

Technically a hadith is made up of two parts:

1- The people who reported that they heard Muhammad say something – the chain of
those who transmitted what he said (from generation to generation). This chain is
called sanad in Arabic. For example: x heard from y who heard from z who heard from
A that he heard Muhammad say: “…..”
2- The very words that Muhammad is supposed to have said, the text, the matn.

Give any example of a hadith please.

The Ahl al-hadith will adjust their theory about the Sunnah to accommodate the 2 groups who
opposed them. They first accepted that hadith from Muhammad have forgeries, that is there
was an issue of authenticity with the material that claimed to be coming out of Muhammad.
They however believed that they can solve that problem by looking at the people who narrated
(the chain, sanad) the hadith. Thus biographies of these men and women was important to
determine if they can be trusted to have said the truth about what they heard.

Second, they also accepted that the term “hadith” can and should have the words and decisions
of the first 3 generations of notable Muslims. That is not only the word of Muhammad but also
the word of his first followers and prominent Muslims. So hadith came to include the sayings of
the most important early Muslims also.

The hadith was never officially collected. That is: not like the Qur’an which was officially
published by the Caliph Uthman (hence the name of the Qur’an as a physical book is called the
Codex of Uthman). Muslim scholars started collecting hadith and they made collections of
them. There were many collections. These collections became the repository of the hadith
literature. Famous hadith collections in Sunnism are Sahih Bukhari (called so because the guy
who collected them was Bukhari).

The status of Hadith:

Not only was hadith collected, it was also considered the most authoritative source of law and
wisdom for the Muslims. That is the hadith became similar to the Qur’an in status. This was so
because Muslims also considered Muhammad to be infallible (does not commit a sin or
mistake). Thus whatever he did and said was also similar to the Qur’an in status.
There is however a catch. Any Muslim can dispute the status of a hadith, meaning they can ask
the question: is this hadith authentic? Thus the hadith was always a disputed literature, and
Muslims know that. They however regard it as authoritative as the Qur’an.

The hadith can be divided into two major types:

A- Historical hadith, this is the hadith that tells the story of the life of Muhammad and his
campaigns in Medina. This hadith has a very specific name it is called the Sira (or
Maghazi). The Sira is the story of the life of Muhammad and it is a special kind of hadith.
B- The rest of the literature of hadith is what we usually call “hadith” which is strictly
speaking either the sayings of Muhammad or the sayings of the early generations of
Muslims.

The content of Hadith (the section B hadith):

First of all this literature is fast, there are thousands and thousands of hadiths. The hadith
cover everything that has to deal with life and religion (literally everything), from how to wash
for prayer to how to write a contract – including marriage, divorce, custody, sexual norms,
etiquette, wisdom, etc.

The supremacy of Hadith:

Hadith in Sunnism became the most distinctive characteristic of this sect. It represented a
continuous connection to the founding generation of Islam, a direct connection to Muhammad,
and the possibility of living a life similar to his life.