SUNNAH

SUNNAH. The Arabic term sunnah since pre-Islamic times has signified established custom, precedent, the conduct of life, and cumulative tradition. In a general sense, such tradition encompasses knowledge and practices believed to have been passed down from previous generations and representing an authoritative, valued, and continuing corpus of beliefs and customs. In the context of early Muslim juridical and theological development, the word sunnah came to connote a more specific notion: that the actions and sayings of the prophet Muhammad complemented the divinely revealed message of the Qur’an and embodied a paradigm and a model, constituting a source for establishing norms for Muslim conduct.
In the Qur’An the term sunnah occurs in several contexts. It is used with reference to the established practice of earlier peoples and of the Arabs (8.38); it is also associated with previous messengers of God and more specifically identified as the sunnah of God, characterized as continuous and unchanging (17.76-77, 33.62, 48.22-23). It is this latter emphasis, grounded in a notion of continuous revelation, that is used in the Qur’an to challenge the idea of an outmoded or collective sense of tradition, valued simply because of its ancestral or local roots. The sunnah of God had primacy over other versions because it was being revealed through Muhammad, who was to be obeyed as the recipient, mediator, and exemplar of this version of the authentic tradition.
Early Muslim scholars further developed and elaborated the concept of the sunnat al-Nabf in their search to recapture as complete a picture of the Prophet’s exemplary life as they could authenticate on the basis of the hadith, accounts of his words and deeds transmitted by his companions and others from the first generation of Muslims. This quest to memorialize the life of the Prophet and ground it in a historically verifiable process also led to a type of literary reconstruction of the narrative of the Prophet’s life called sirah. All these forms of enactment acted as reference points that would subsequently inform and inspire various Muslim communities of interpretation as they sought to ground their own juridical, doctrinal, and historical identities in what they perceive to be the normative sunnah.
In this earlier period of Muslim history and thought, the oral nature of the transmission of hadith, as well as attempts to document it, through isndd (a chain of transmitters) gave rise to several competing versions of the elements that constituted the valid sunnah. The methodology and dialectical mode of argument that shaped the debates and discussion, however, provided a common frame of reference that looked to the Prophet’s example to substantiate a given point of view. Thus the whole process by which thinkers arrived at various forms of understanding and definition of the sunnah must be seen as a dynamic one. It mirrored the diversity and difference prevalent in the intellectual life of the early Muslim community. The concept of the sunnah, however, always retained its overarching importance in shaping Muslim religious discourse, providing a wider field of discussion in which the Qur’an and the Prophet’s paradigmatic behavior were always central to the quest for meaning and certainty in practice and doctrine.
Modern academic studies of the development of Muslim law and jurisprudence have come to focus on how the concept of the sunnah of the Prophet originated and became normative. One of the central theses, emerging from the work of earlier scholars such as Goldziher and Schacht, maintained that the sources of juristic development lay in the practices of the early Muslim community, several generations after the death of the Prophet. This living tradition, the accepted practice of these communities, was systematized by the discursive and consensual experience of Muslim scholars who gave intellectual leadership to a number of such local communities in the expanding Muslim world. The idea of the sunnah of the Prophet, particularly in Schacht’s view, was developed by such Muslim scholars, who in their quest to justify and authenticate existing practices equated the living tradition with the supposed practice of the Prophet and his companions. This theory questions the assumption of the Muslim scholarly tradition that there was a direct and valid link between existing practice and the words and practices of the Prophet. In fact, Schacht argued, much of the hadith tradition related to jurisprudence was invented, and the sunnah of the Prophet was a concept retrospectively imposed on an older idea of sunnah. This thesis has been widely contested by later Western and Muslim scholars alike on methodological and textual grounds. Although details regarding the crystallization of the concept of the sunnah and the reliability of elements of the hadith are still in dispute, consensus has emerged in current scholarship that an emphasis on the merely positivistic aspects of the origin of the hadith unduly reduces the concept of the sunnah to a formal and legal construct and severely limits its wider meaning in Muslim thought and practice.
Recent scholars, building on epistemological and hermeneutical stances prevalent in current comparative studies, have attempted to widen the basis for studying sunnah. They tend to emphasize questions of how oral traditions and written texts are produced, transmitted, and interpreted, and they have further attempted to relate these interpretations to specific communities of scholars, social boundaries, and political contexts. In this wider view the sunnah appears as a multivalent concept, illustrating how different kinds of Muslim orientations and institutions have found literary formulation, expression, and codification in law, ethics, theology, and mysticism. The sunnah serves as a common template for all these Muslim groups and individuals, permitting them to represent a connection with the beginnings of Islam and acting as a common referent in the religious discourse of community formation and identity.
Role and Function in Islamic Thought and Practice. The formative period of Muslim legal thought and practice is marked by pluralism, reflected in the different schools and communities of legal interpretation. The earliest texts that survive from this period also suggest that the development of a discursive and hermeneutic style embraced debate and reflected divergence. However, the expansion of Muslim territory and administrative control, the presence of local tradition and practice in these areas, and the need to create an integrated framework for dealing with emerging legal and administrative problems provided a context for Muslim rulers and scholars to reconcile and synthesize this diversity. One such synthesis, developed in the second century of Islam by al-Shafi’i, reflects the formal incorporation of sunnah as a primary source within a coherent theory of jurisprudence. Dealing with the usul al -fiqh, the foundations of jurisprudence, Shafi’i argued for a much stricter definition of sunnah in order to establish legislative authority. He regarded it as a source as binding as the Qur’an, with the status of indirect revelation-because obedience to the Prophet had been decreed by God. The sunnah complemented and stood alongside the Qur’an, giving precision to its precepts. Its definition thus required greater scrutiny and documentation. Shafi’is insistence on this principle led to a sharp distinction between the authoritative sunnah that was scrupulously documented on the basis of proper isnad (transmission) and less authoritative versions of the sunnah that could not be traced back through a reliable textual link to the Prophet.
In terms of its impact on Muslim jurisprudence and legal practice, Shafi’i’s definition of the sunnah-with its relation to the Qur’an and to other derivative sources such as qiyas (analogical reasoning) and ijma` (consensus)-created a more formal, rigorous, and arguably more coherent and textually grounded framework. This is not to suggest that previous or contemporaneous Muslim scholars and the legal schools associated with them gave no importance to the overriding role of the Qur’an and sunnah. They are equally emphasized in the traditions traced back to Abu Hanifah (702-767), Malik ibn Ands (715-795) and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855), who together with Shafi’i are regarded as the founders of the four established Sunni schools of law (madhhabs). Shafi’is critique did, however, indicate differences pertaining to the question of the authority of individual hadith and to issues of the appropriate textual basis and documentation of the sunnah in deriving legal rules. The four major Sunni schools in time agreed in insisting that the sunnah of the Prophet was best preserved through a legal methodology based on usul al -fiqh, and sustained in the custody of learned scholars and jurists.
According to the other major branch of Islam, Shiism, the ideals embodied in the Prophet’s life could best be implemented through loyalty, devotion, and obedience to the divinely guided and properly designated imams, descended from the Prophet through his son-in-law `Al! and his daughter Fatimah. The imams taught, confirmed, and further interpreted the Qur’an and sunnah. Their authoritative role ensured consistency and continuity, and their guidance and teaching were regarded as congruent and coextensive with the sunnah of the Prophet. These commonly held beliefs, however, was developed and implemented differently among the Shi`i groups that emerged subsequently, such as the Ithna `Ashari, Ismacili and Zayd! sects.
In addition to its significance in legal and theological writings, the sunnah also provided a means for a broader interpretation of the teaching and life of the prophet in the philosophical and spiritual sense. For early Muslim philosophers like al-Kind! (d. 870), al-Farabi (d. 950), and Ibn Sina (d. 1037), the sunnah had profound philosophical implications. Prophecy represented the most perfect activity of which the human representative faculty was capable. The Prophet’s soul was purified and inspired and was not in need of philosophical training. As the perfect ruler, the Prophet was also a lawgiver and the head of a polity, whose goal it was to enable those living in that society to attain happiness in this world and hereafter. The sunnah embraced the practical workings of society as set out by an authoritative legal system, but it also offered the possibility of disciplined intellectual inquiry. Intellectual and theoretical contemplation were to be regarded as an integral part of prophecy. A very similar philosophical conception of sunnah is evident among the esoteric schools of Shiism, for whom the sunnah encompassed the exoteric as well as esoteric pattern reflected in the teachings of the Prophet and imams. This teaching made possible a fuller unfolding of the rational capacity, permitting an integrated understanding of the totality of knowledge in Islam.
In Sufi writings, which reflect an emphasis on the mystical dimension of Muslim thought and practice, the sunnah includes the Prophet’s spirituality and the presence in his life of values such as self-transcendence and the act of personal remembrance of God in the heart.
These values and their practice were believed to have been taught by the Prophet and transmitted through an unbroken line (silsilah) of Sufi teachers. Such a spiritual paradigm provided a concrete example of how Muslims might emulate the Prophet’s night vigils and be inspired to embark upon the path of spiritual self-perfection that had led the Prophet to the divine presence (Qur’an, 1’7.1). Among the Sufis, the hadith or qudsi, narratives of the Prophet containing divine sayings, had special significance in highlighting the mystical dimension of the sunnah and its role in promoting piety, devotion, and spiritual understanding.
Changing Interpretations. The dynamics of Muslim history since the late eighteenth century, including an extended period of interaction, influence, and colonization by European powers, have created dramatically different conditions for the maintenance of inherited Muslim institutions and ideals. In many societies the authoritative role and shared sense of significance associated with the concept of the sunnah, and by the legal and ethical behavior and norms inspired by it, was curtailed or marginalized. New codes appropriated from European models and systems assumed a more prominent role, particularly in the areas of law, public administration, and governance.
This pattern of erosion was challenged by several Muslim intellectual reformers across the Muslim world. Muhammad `Abduh (1849-1905), for instance, in his role as teacher at al-Azhar and mufti of Egypt, challenged the view that Islam could not be reconciled with progress and a scientific worldview. He argued for the renewal of ijtihdd (independent interpretation) and criticized taghd (unthinking acceptance of received tradition). He distinguished between essentials and nonessentials in the body of law and belief and urged Muslims to apply reason to the primary sources of Islam. Such a view influenced scholars in other parts of the Muslim world who were led to develop ideas that related the sources of Islam to changes in society and a newly emerging spirit of nationalism.
Among those whose views have been labeled literalist or fundamentalist, the normative character of the sunnah and its authority were regarded as unchanging and not subject to the vicissitudes of human thought or manipulation. It could only be mediated through the existing system of traditional juristic practice. Others, while according the sources primacy, contended that the vitality of the concept of sunnah was reflected in the historical role it had played as a tool in effecting change for the general benefit of society. Its role was not simply restrictive, but rather enabling.
In the later part of the twentieth century this issue has taken on greater significance because many Muslim countries, as part of policies aimed at islamization, wish to recover and define a role for tradition in sanctioning their codified legal systems. Such has been the case in Egypt, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates, among others. There is in all these instances an increasing recognition of the historical diversity that has existed and the need to reconcile the many strands of influence that have constituted past practice and inherited custom, within the paradigm of the sunnah. As in the past, the narrative force of the sunnah continues to transcend the public and rhetorical uses to which it may be put, fostering self-identity and enhancing the private moral lives of Muslims wherever they live.
[See also Hadith; and Muhammad, articles on Life of the Prophet and Biographies.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Azami, Muhammad Mustafa. On Schaches Origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence. New York, 1985. Critique of the standard thesis in Western scholarship on the origin of concepts such as sunnah, as appropriated in Sunni Muslim jurisprudence.
Burton, John. The Sources of Islamic Law: Islamic Theories of Abrogation. Edinburgh, 1990. Study of early sources dealing with the development of rules pertaining to abrogation in Muslim juristic interpretation as applied to injunctions based on the Qur’an and sunnah.
Calder, Norman. Studies in Early Muslim jurisprudence. Oxford, 1993 Well-documented study that presents an alternative thesis on the constituent elements reflected in the works of early Muslim jurisprudents.
Coulson, Noel. J. Conflicts and Tensions in Islamic jurisprudence. Chicago, 1969. Analysis of how conflicting views and situations arise in Muslim practice, past and present, and how they are dealt with in jurisprudence practice.
Graham, William A. Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam. The Hague, 1977. Building on sound scholarship and a broader understanding of the meaning of foundational religious discourse, this work traces the complex and early relationship between the Qur’anic revelation and Prophetic sayings.
Juynboll, G. H. A. Muslim Tradition: Studies in Chronology, Provenance, and Authorship of Early Hadith. Cambridge, 1983. Mildly revisionist attempt to establish the basis for the authenticity of some of the early hadiths.
Khadduri, Majid, and Herbert J. Liebesny, eds. Law in the Middle East. 2 vols. Washington, D.C., 1955. Though dated in some respects, this work contains a good selection of representative articles on different schools and periods of Muslim law.
Messick, Brinkley. The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and
History in a Muslim Society. Berkeley, 1993. Though focused on Yemen, the work contains many insights into how legal ideals are textualized and institutionalized.
Na’im, `Abd Allah Ahmad. Towards an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law. Syracuse, N.Y., 1990. Sudanese Muslim scholar’s attempt to reinterpret Muslim principles such as sunnah, in the context of human rights issues and international law.
Powers, David S. Studies in Qur’an and Hadith: The Formation of the Islamic Law of Inheritance. Berkeley, 1990. Using one facet of Muslim law, the author traces the interaction between Qur’anic requirements and subsequent developments.
Rahman, Fazlur. Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition. Chicago, 1982. The late noted scholar’s contribution to how modern Muslim thought can revitalize itself, based on the Qur’an and past intellectual tradition.
Sachedina, A. A. The just Ruler (al-Sultan al-`Adil) in Shi’ite Islam. New York, 1988. Comprehensive treatment of the history of Shi’i jurisprudence and the doctrine of custodial authority of the juristtheologians.
Schacht, Joseph. Origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence. Oxford, 1950. Still regarded by many as the standard work of Western scholarship on the origin and legal development of concepts such as sunnah.
Shafi’i, Muhammad ibn Idns al-. Islamic jurisprudence: Al-Shafi’i’s Risala. Translated by Majid Khadduri. Baltimore, 1961. Pioneering work on jurisprudence by the ninth-century founder of one of the Sunni schools of law.
Waldman, Marilyn Robinson. “Sunnah.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 14, pp. 149-153. New York, 1987. Excellent and nuanced summation.
Weiss, Bernard G. The Search for God’s Law: Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf al-Din al-Amidi. Salt Lake City, 1993. Helpful study, focusing on the work of a thirteenth-century scholar.