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Dil
PAKISTAN
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 Topic initiated on Monday, August 11, 2003 - 11:59 AM 
What is Sunnah?
salams,
What is sunnah?what is the difference between Sunnah and Hadith?
My brother |
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aslam
PAKISTAN
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Posted - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 10:50 AM 
Salams,
I hope the following from www.understanding-islam.com would be helpful:
In my opinion, the term, "Sunnah" refers only to those things, which the Prophet (pbuh) generally, promoted among ALL his followers, as a part of God's guidance to man. By the above definition, A particular Hadith[1] may or may not comprise of any Sunnah. Similarly, whatever the Prophet (pbuh) did, ate, wore, ride, etc., because it was never promoted by the Prophet (pbuh) among all his followers, as Deen, is therefore, not included in the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh).
Hadith may refer to any one or more of the Sunnahs of the Prophet, but basically, the Hadith is not the source of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh). The source of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), on the contrary, is the consensus of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh)[2] and the practical perpetuation of the companions as well as all the subsequent generations of Muslims[3]. Even today, there is generally, a complete consensus as well as practical perpetuation of the Muslims all over the world regarding the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh).
Examples of Sunnah, among a number of other things include:
Number of obligatory rak'ah in our daily prayers,
Takbeer e Tehreemah at the beginning of our prayers,
Bathing, takfeen and Jinazah prayers for the dead,
Eid Prayers and their rak'ah, etc. |
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Amatullahi
USA
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Posted - Thursday, August 14, 2003 - 11:12 AM
Assalamu Alaikum,
Sunnah is the actions of the Prophet(PBUH), while Hadith is the sayings of the prophet(PBUH).
Yahoogroup |
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aslam
PAKISTAN
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Posted - Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 9:28 AM
Salams,
Dil,
The following explanation,Taken from www.understanding-islam.com, would,I hope, answer your question about the difference between Hadith and Sunnah.
Question:
Brother, please realize that Hadith that were collected by the most honorable of men, such as Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim, are named Sahih for that reason. They are true, and the Sunni Muslims take them to be accurate reporting of the words of the Prophet (may peace be upon him). The science of the Hadith is vast, and requires a lifetime to truly understand. If we took the Hadith merely to be words that are 'ascribed' to him, then much of the Sharia'h would not exist nor have any background.
Abu Bakr, being an intimate companion of the Prophet (may peace be upon him), narrated few hadith in light of the fact that he was very close to the Prophet (pbuh). He, and as the other narrators of Hadith, were so in fear of misquoting the Prophet (S), that he only narrated those instances where he knew the entire conversation by heart. Many Hadith were not included in the Sahih just because of the fact that the narrators were not sure of a single word.
The Qur'an itself was compiled by the very people who narrate the Hadith, as it was not in written form until the Caliphate of Abu Bakr as-Saddiq. The same people who memorized and narrated the Qur'an word for word, related Hadith word for word. The narrators of hadith were great scholars, who had memorized the entire Qur'an and many other Hadith besides their own. Please take this into account when responding to the Christian.
Answer:
It was the divinely ordained duty of the Prophet (pbuh) to deliver the message of God to all those present. It is a part of the Muslim faith that he fulfilled his duty to the ultimate possible level, under the direct guidance of God.
If we look at the contents of Islam, we can see that all the teachings of the Prophet , that have been transmitted to us can be easily categorized into three groups:
The Oral narrative of those teachings, which were taught and given to all and sundry. This narrative has been transferred to us, without any alteration, through the consensus and oral perpetuation of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh). Even today, with all the differences among the Muslim sects, there is consensus among all Muslims that the Qur'an is the oral narrative of these teachings of the Prophet (pbuh).
Those practical teachings, which were given to all and sundry. These teachings have been transferred to us, without any alteration, through the consensus and practical perpetuation of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh). Even today, there is consensus among Muslims regarding these practical teachings of the Prophet (pbuh) and to a great extent there still exists a practical perpetuation on these issues too. These issues include:
Mentioning God's name and then eating and drinking with the right hand;
Greeting one another with "Assalaam Alaikum"[1] and responding to such greeting with "Wa Alaikum Assalaam"[2];
Saying "Alhamdulillah"[3] after sneezing and responding to it with "YarhamukAllah"[4];
Saying Adhan[5] in the right ear of a new born baby and saying Iqamah[6] in his left ear;
Slaughtering animals in a way that most of the blood is drained from their bodies;
The Nikah (Marriage) ceremony;
Delivering the Nikah sermon;
Trimming moustaches;
Shaving the pubic hair;
Shaving hair from under the armpits;
Circumcising the male offspring;
Clipping nails;
Cleaning the nose, the mouth and the teeth;
Cleaning the body after urination and defecation;
The ceremonial bath (ghusl-e-janabah) after sexual intercourse or orgasm;
Bathing the dead before burial;
Shrouding a dead body;
Burying the dead;
Wudhu (ablution);
Tayammum[7];
Adhan ;
Iqamah[9] before the prayers;
Building and overseeing of mosques for prayers;
The five obligatory prayers;
The Jum`ah congregation;
The Eid Prayers;
The Janazah[10] Prayers;
Fasting;
Aitikaf[11];
Eid al-fitr
Sadqah of Eid al-fitr;
Zaka'h;
Hadi (Sacrificial animals brought to the Ka`bah);
Tawaf (Circumambulating the Ka`bah);
Sanctity of the Ka`bah;
The sacred months;
Hajj and Umrah;
Eid al-Adha;
Sacrificing animals on Eid al-Adha;
Saying Takbirs after prayers during the days of Tashriq[12];
Besides these two sources, because of the extra ordinary importance of the person of the Prophet (pbuh) among the Muslims, people started recording his actions, sayings, responses to questions asked, approvals etc. The Prophet (pbuh) never persuaded or directed the recording of these things. This recording was initiated by the Muslims, themselves. Later on, the same extra-ordinary importance of the person of the Prophet (pbuh) prompted the Muslims to transfer these sayings to the subsequent generations. These recordings of sayings etc. were sometimes oral and sometimes written. However, these narratives were, generally, not a verbal transmission of the sayings (etc.) of the Prophet (pbuh), they were rather the transmission of the meanings perceived and understood by the narrators. These narratives, besides a few other things, constitute what is called "Akhbar-e-ahaad" (i.e. narratives of a few people) and sometimes "Hadith".
On the basis of the above explanation, we may note that the Qur'an , because of its verbal transmission, and the Sunnah, because of its practical transmission, are not dependent on the interpretation of the transmitters. It is, therefore, that in these two spheres there exists no difference among the Muslims and these entail no teachings that are contradictory to each other. On the other hand, hadith, because it is the narrative of the Prophet 's sayings, actions, approvals etc. as perceived and understood by the narrators may sometimes, because of a misperception, misinterpretation, misunderstanding or an errant communication of any one or more of the narrators in the chain that transmits that particular hadith, be incorrect and contradictory with the Qur'an, the Sunnah or other hadiths.
In my opinion, therefore, the total basic content of Islam, which the Prophet (pbuh) was ordained to teach to all those present is completely found in the Qur'an and the Sunnah alone. Hadith, because of its very nature (of transmission), cannot add to, alter or subtract from this basic content of Islam that we have in the shape of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Whatever exists in the body of Hadith, besides a historical account of the life and times of the Prophet (pbuh), is basically related to:
the explanation and clarification of the directives given in the Qur'an and the Sunnah; and
the ideal example set by the Prophet (pbuh) in carrying out the directives of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
In my opinion, therefore, Hadith is of great value as it can, sometimes, teach us how the Prophet (pbuh) understood and explained Islam and what was his excellent example (uswah-e-hasanah) in carrying out the directives of Islam. But, even with this importance, in my opinion, Hadith cannot add to the total basic body of Islam, which is restricted to what has been transmitted to us in the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
As far as your question: "what hadith do you think are fundamental", is concerned, I would like to stress here that all hadith hold equal importance in my eyes.
All those narratives that are not against the directives or any information provided by the Qur'an , the Sunnah, the established scientific or historical facts and have reached us through reliable sources may be considered as accurate narratives of the sayings, actions, approvals etc. of the Prophet (pbuh). |
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Jhangeer Hanif
PAKISTAN
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Posted - Thursday, August 21, 2003 - 4:56 PM
I think it is better to just give a reference to some article, if any of you wish to, instead of pasting the whole article here.
You may summarize the article in three or four lines but it is not good to paste the whole article when you could just give a web address to it. |
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Tariq Hashmi
PAKISTAN
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Posted - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 9:27 AM
salams
People have differed a lot on the issue. Many schoalrs of the past take hadith to mean Sunnah and include every act the prophet (sws) did in the Sunnah. Do not we need to pay heed to their views on the issue. How far can one ignore them? Cannot one understand the basic sources (the Qur;an and the Sunnah) and form an indipendent opinion on an issue? Is Mr Aslam (and the scholar he quotes from) committing a sin by presenting a novel definition of the word Sunnah? |
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