Why was the sunnah written

It is also either direct revelation from God, or decisions of the Messenger that were then confirmed by revelation. Therefore, the source of all the Sunnah is revelation. The Quran is the revelation that is formally recited as an act of worship, and the Sunnah is revelation that is not formally recited. The Sunnah, though, is just like the Quran in that it is revelation that must be followed and adhered to. The Quran takes precedence over the Sunnah in two ways. For one thing, the Quran consists of the exact words of God, miraculous in nature, down to the last verse.

The Sunnah, however, is not necessarily the exact words of God, but rather their meanings as explained by the Prophet. The Quran provides the general injunctions that formed the basis of the Law, without going into all the details and secondary legislation, with the exception of a few injunctions that are established along with the general principles.

These injunctions are not subject to change over time or with the changing circumstances of the people. The Quran, likewise, comes with the tenets of belief, sets down acts of worship, mentions the stories of the nations of old, and provides moral guidelines. The Sunnah comes in agreement with the Quran.

It explains the meanings of what is unclear in the text, provides details for what is depicted in general terms, specifies what is general, and explains its injunctions and objectives. The Sunnah also comes with injunctions that are not provided by the Quran, but these are always in harmony with its principles, and they always advance the objectives that are outlined in the Quran.

The Sunnah is a practical expression of what is in the Quran. This expression takes many forms. Sometimes, it comes as an action performed by the Messenger. At other times, it is a statement that he made in response to something. Sometimes, it takes the form of a statement or action of one of the Companions that he neither prevented nor objected to.

On the contrary, he remained silent about it or expressed his approval for it. The Sunnah explains and clarifies the Quran in many ways. It explains how to perform the acts of worship and carry out the laws that are mentioned in the Quran.

God commands the believers to pray without mentioning the times that the prayers had to be performed or the manner of performing them. The Messenger clarified this through his own prayers and by teaching the Muslims how to pray. God makes the Hajj pilgrimage obligatory without explaining its rites. God makes the Zakah tax obligatory without mentioning what types of wealth and produce it is to be levied against. God also does not mention the minimum amount of wealth that makes the tax obligatory.

The Sunnah, though, makes all this clear. This wording is general, applying to every family and making every child an inheritor of his or her parents. The Sunnah makes this ruling more specific by excluding the children of Prophets. Whatever we leave behind is charity. The verse does not mention the extent of the hand, leaving the question of whether one should rub the hands up to the wrist or the forearm.

The Sunnah also comes emphasizing what is in the Quran or providing secondary legislation for a law stated therein. This includes all the hadeeth that indicate that Prayer, the Zakah tax, fasting, and the Hajj pilgrimage are obligatory. An example of where the Sunnah provides subsidiary legislation for an injunction found in the Quran is the ruling found in the Sunnah that it is forbidden to sell fruit before it begins to ripen.

The basis for this law is the statement of the Quran:. Do not consume your property amongst you unjustly, except it be a trade among you by mutual consent. The Sunnah contains rulings that are not mentioned in the Quran and that do not come as clarifications for something mentioned in the Quran. An example of this is the prohibition of eating donkey flesh and the flesh of predatory beasts.

Another example of this is the prohibition of marrying a woman and her aunt at the same time. These and other rulings provided by the Sunnah must be adhered to. God says:. The Messenger is protected from error in all of his actions. God has protected his tongue from uttering anything but the truth.

God has protected his limbs from doing anything but what is right. Ansari , supra note 6, pp. See Hallaq, supra note 4. See infra footnote Souaiaia , ibid. Reinhart , supra note 89, p. Hourani , supra note 58, p. Juynboll , supra note 46, pp. Dutton , supra note 51, Chs. Hallaq , supra note 4, p. Hallaq , supra note 61, p. Juynboll , supra note , p. Souaiaia , supra note 18, p. Mathnee , supra note 17, p. Schacht , supra note 86, p.

Hallaq , supra note 61, pp. Wheeler , supra note 55, p. This distorted the nature and the scope of the concept as it was understood by the Prophet and the first generation of Muslims. Crone and Hinds , supra note 32, p. Ansari , supra note 54, p. Motzki , supra note , p. Guraya , Origins , pp. Rahman , supra note , p. Juynboll , supra note 46, p. This period marks only the beginning of the concept of Sunnah of the Prophet as having its own content.

As cited in Goldziher , supra note 36, vol. Faruq Abd-Allah , supra note 49; cf. Al-Qayrawani , supra note , p. Juynboll , supra note , pp.

Perhaps the person who hears it from him can have a better understanding of it than him. This fact complemented their efforts in establishing a sound and well-rounded methodology. But the diminishing of its prevalence in the society with time did not minimise the role memory played in the preserving of the Sunnah.

Thus, not only did the Companions use their gift of strong memories to start a tradition of oral transmission of the Sunnah, but also they added to that the use of their newly learned skill of writing. Many Companions had recorded these Sunnah for their personal references and to supplement their memorised Hadith. The existence of these personal references has been the subject of numerous treatises by old and contemporary scholars, both Muslims and non-Muslims.

There are, however, two points, which are mentioned by those who believe that the Sunnah was not recorded by the Companions and they need to be clarified. The first is the claim that some of the well-known Companions were reported to have refused to write the Sunnah and have ordered others not to write it. Obviously, this is cited in support of the claim that no written record was made of the Sunnah until that point in time.

Eventually this objective was achieved and all of the Sunnah was put together in the well-known books, which represent a tradition of care and preservation unmatched by any religion or nation.

It is an undisputable fact that the Companions used their writing skills to preserve the Sunnah and convey it to their Followers. An extremely important way the Companions used to preserve the Sunnah was their efforts to bring the Sunnah into their practice and shape their life according to it.

They truly understood that the emphasis Islam places on knowledge goes beyond the mere theoretical understanding and intellectual exercise. Their atmosphere was one of following the Sunnah at all levels, an environment that was produced by a widespread reverence and a constant practice of the Sunnah. This environment provided the best situation for them to teach and train those who followed them the whole religion as they learned it and practiced it thus preserving it for all the time to come.

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Sign up. Community Islam. Bravmann, M. The Spiritual Background of Early Islam. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, Chapter 3 of this work a reprint of a book provides a fascinating discussion of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic understanding of the term Sunna. Goldziher, Ignaz. Muslim Studies. Translated and edited by S. Stern and G. Chicago: Aldine Atherton, This translation of Goldziher's German original, Mohammedanische Studien — , remains one of the most lucid and perspicacious studies of early Islamic civilization.

It contains a useful discussion of pre-Islamic Arab understandings of Sunna as tradition. Hallaq, Wael B. A History of Islamic Legal Theories. This is the most clear and useful introduction to Islamic legal theory, including the place of the Sunna. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law.