Sunnah Vs. Hadith Follow Up Discussion
Question:
Salaam,
Why are only physical practices considered as Sunnah? Particularly, aren't things prohibited by the prophet like wearing of silk and gold by men, eating carnivores etc included in the definition of Established Sunnah (since as far as I am aware no generations disagree with these)?
You talked of Established Sunnah in terms of practices performed that are secured through the adherence by successive generations of Muslims. Continuity of practice by Muslims established those acts as Sunnah. How about practices that the prophet tried to establish for us NOT to be performed?
I mean, say He (pbuh) asked his companions to not do something...and the companions adhered to not doing it...how was not doing an act passed on to the next successive generations without verbal communication?
I hope I have made the question complicated beyond understanding.
JazakAllah
Answer:
Salam,
If I have understood you correctly, you have two questions:
1. Why are only physical practices considered as Established Sunnah?
2. Are forbidden acts also considered as the Established Sunnah?
Sunnah in Arabic refers to a path, a way of doing something. In the Qur’an, inline with this usage of the word in Arabic, the word Sunnah has been used for God, prophets and nations in the same way, i.e. practices (35:43, 40:85, 8:38, 4:26, 3:137, 17:77, 33:38, 33:62, 48:23, 15:13, 18:55, 17:77).
It seems to me that you are implying that by saying that Sunnah refers to practices, we are excluding forbidden acts from Sunnah. This is not correct as far as I am concerned. Just as ‘doing something’ can make it Sunnah, ‘the act of not doing something’ can also make it Sunnah. Both refer to an act here. The act of ‘doing something’ or the act of ‘not doing something’.
To give you examples of forbidden acts in the Established Sunnah:
- Forbidden marriages
- Forbiddance of having full sexual relationship with wife when she is in the state of menstrual
- Prohibition of pork, blood, meat of dead animals, and animals slaughtered in the name of deities.
All of the above are part of the Sunnah of Ibrahim (pbuh) that has reached us after some revisions at the time of the prophet (pbuh).
You perhaps may now object that these are actually the instructions of the Qur’an.
Please look at verse 4:26. From beginning of the chapter four some of the directives of marriage (including the forbidden relationships for marriage) are given. Then in verse 26 the Qur’an says that in this way we are guiding you to the Sunnah of those before you (meaning the Sunnah of the nation of Ibrahim and the prophets after him). So as you see although the Qur’an is giving us some instructions, the Qur’an itself categorises these instructions as Sunnah.
Therefore while the original source of the above ‘forbiddance’ directives are the Sunnah of Ibrahim and while they have reached us through the Established Sunnah of our prophet (pbuh), due to their importance they have also been listed and clarified in the Qur’an so that no doubt would remain about them.
I hope this answers your question and please do let me know if you have any follow up questions.
As for the two forbidden items that you listed, I do not consider them as the Established Sunnah.
Not eating carnivores is in the nature of the human being and the prophet (pbuh) simply reaffirmed for his followers this requirement of the nature of the human being. There are of course many kinds of strange habits in the diet of people around the world but overall do you not agree that eating carnival animals like lions, tigers and wild birds is not considered as a norm by most nations? does people dislike these due to any religious instructions? Certainly not. They are simply following their instincts.
Forbiddance of wearing certain cloths is simply the prophet’s (pbuh) guidance on how a believer and a servant of God should behave and that itself is based on the directives of the Qur’an. God does not like showing off with arrogance and pride (31:18).
At the end of this writing, I would like to invite your attention to a technical point:
Obviously neither the Qur’an nor any reliable hadith from the prophet (pbuh) has defined in a categorical way that what Sunnah actually means. The definition of ‘Established Sunnah’ in this website (that is the same definition that is given to ‘Sunnah’ by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi) is simply to be able to differentiate between essential religious practices and other practices. One may define the Sunnah in a way that it includes for instance, ‘not eating wild animals’. However one then needs to also clarify that this part of ‘sunnah’ (as he defines it) is not in the category of religious directives but is in the category of the values that are preserved by the human instinct and are therefore also respected by religion. For this reason, I believe the way ‘Established Sunnah’ is defined provides a very clear and helpful platform for both academic and practical purposes.
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March 2014
Salaam,
Why are only physical practices considered as Sunnah? Particularly, aren't things prohibited by the prophet like wearing of silk and gold by men, eating carnivores etc included in the definition of Established Sunnah (since as far as I am aware no generations disagree with these)?
You talked of Established Sunnah in terms of practices performed that are secured through the adherence by successive generations of Muslims. Continuity of practice by Muslims established those acts as Sunnah. How about practices that the prophet tried to establish for us NOT to be performed?
I mean, say He (pbuh) asked his companions to not do something...and the companions adhered to not doing it...how was not doing an act passed on to the next successive generations without verbal communication?
I hope I have made the question complicated beyond understanding.
JazakAllah
Answer:
Salam,
If I have understood you correctly, you have two questions:
1. Why are only physical practices considered as Established Sunnah?
2. Are forbidden acts also considered as the Established Sunnah?
Sunnah in Arabic refers to a path, a way of doing something. In the Qur’an, inline with this usage of the word in Arabic, the word Sunnah has been used for God, prophets and nations in the same way, i.e. practices (35:43, 40:85, 8:38, 4:26, 3:137, 17:77, 33:38, 33:62, 48:23, 15:13, 18:55, 17:77).
It seems to me that you are implying that by saying that Sunnah refers to practices, we are excluding forbidden acts from Sunnah. This is not correct as far as I am concerned. Just as ‘doing something’ can make it Sunnah, ‘the act of not doing something’ can also make it Sunnah. Both refer to an act here. The act of ‘doing something’ or the act of ‘not doing something’.
To give you examples of forbidden acts in the Established Sunnah:
- Forbidden marriages
- Forbiddance of having full sexual relationship with wife when she is in the state of menstrual
- Prohibition of pork, blood, meat of dead animals, and animals slaughtered in the name of deities.
All of the above are part of the Sunnah of Ibrahim (pbuh) that has reached us after some revisions at the time of the prophet (pbuh).
You perhaps may now object that these are actually the instructions of the Qur’an.
Please look at verse 4:26. From beginning of the chapter four some of the directives of marriage (including the forbidden relationships for marriage) are given. Then in verse 26 the Qur’an says that in this way we are guiding you to the Sunnah of those before you (meaning the Sunnah of the nation of Ibrahim and the prophets after him). So as you see although the Qur’an is giving us some instructions, the Qur’an itself categorises these instructions as Sunnah.
Therefore while the original source of the above ‘forbiddance’ directives are the Sunnah of Ibrahim and while they have reached us through the Established Sunnah of our prophet (pbuh), due to their importance they have also been listed and clarified in the Qur’an so that no doubt would remain about them.
I hope this answers your question and please do let me know if you have any follow up questions.
As for the two forbidden items that you listed, I do not consider them as the Established Sunnah.
Not eating carnivores is in the nature of the human being and the prophet (pbuh) simply reaffirmed for his followers this requirement of the nature of the human being. There are of course many kinds of strange habits in the diet of people around the world but overall do you not agree that eating carnival animals like lions, tigers and wild birds is not considered as a norm by most nations? does people dislike these due to any religious instructions? Certainly not. They are simply following their instincts.
Forbiddance of wearing certain cloths is simply the prophet’s (pbuh) guidance on how a believer and a servant of God should behave and that itself is based on the directives of the Qur’an. God does not like showing off with arrogance and pride (31:18).
At the end of this writing, I would like to invite your attention to a technical point:
Obviously neither the Qur’an nor any reliable hadith from the prophet (pbuh) has defined in a categorical way that what Sunnah actually means. The definition of ‘Established Sunnah’ in this website (that is the same definition that is given to ‘Sunnah’ by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi) is simply to be able to differentiate between essential religious practices and other practices. One may define the Sunnah in a way that it includes for instance, ‘not eating wild animals’. However one then needs to also clarify that this part of ‘sunnah’ (as he defines it) is not in the category of religious directives but is in the category of the values that are preserved by the human instinct and are therefore also respected by religion. For this reason, I believe the way ‘Established Sunnah’ is defined provides a very clear and helpful platform for both academic and practical purposes.
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March 2014
