Difference between Hadith and Sunnah
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Salam,
What is your opinion about the following explanation regarding Sunnah and Ahadith?
Difference between Hadith and Sunnah
Question
I am an avid reader of your articles and greatly admire your approach towards various Islamic issues. It is in this regard, I have a question concerning the difference between sunnah and hadith. Although you have tried to distinguish between the two, the problem is how to identify and categorize them accordingly. This becomes more difficult when it is said that Islam deals with all spheres of life and not just its religious aspects. This would mean all aspects of prophetic life directly concern Islam, which would mean that all hadith become sunnah. For example, eating habits are sometimes considered to have divine origin where only right handedness is meant to be righteous. Kindly throw some light on this issue.Response
In order to distinguish between sunnah and hadith, we (I mean the school of thought I am representing) tend to highlight a few featuresi) Sunnah is always an act of the prophet, alaihissalaam, while a hadith is a report of his statement, act, silent approval or an incident that took place in his life.
ii) Sunnah has come down to us from generation to generation while hadith has been reported, in most cases, by one individual to another. Thus the act that qualifies as sunnah is undoubtedly authentic -- quite as authentic as the Qur'an itself -- while hadith, at best, carries a strong probability that it may have been correctively reported. This is because God Almighty arranged the two sources to be the way they are He arranged sunnah to remain completed beyond doubt, because it was to be a part of His last message and allowed hadith to be a human effort at preserving information about the prophet.
iii) Sunnah is clear in what it stands for where as the context of a hadith had to be understood (and therefore interpreted) by all the narrators involved in the chain of transmission. The process of interpretation has also got to be done now by whoever is to benefit from a hadith.
iv) Sunnah has to be religious because the prophet, alaihissalaam, like all other prophets, came to give God's message in the form of religion to mankind.
The last point of differentiation is quite clear, but has been made to appear not quite as such by the people who have attempted to present Islam as a way of life. The question is that if it was a way of life in which everything -- including the minute details of practical life -- had to be taken from the prophet's life, then it should have been the prophet himself who should have told people to do so. When he clarifies that he had come only to deliver what is religion from God, who else has the authority to alter that understanding?
As for the question as to how can we distinguish a sunnah from a non-sunnah in the literature of hadith, we'll have to look for practices that are mentioned in hadith which are also being universally followed amongst Muslims as such. Prayers, Jumu'ah prayers, funeral prayers, bathing of the dead and many other practices are the ones that are mentioned in hadith and Muslims have adopted them in their lives as a part of their religion.
Interestingly, this test of universality is the best guide in knowing the antithesis of sunnah -- bid'ah -- as well. If there is a practice that has gotten introduced in the name of religion in a certain region but is on confined to a certain region alone, it is a bid'ah, like the rituals performed in the subcontinent after the death of a dear one.
We know that the prophet, alaihissalaam, travelled on the backs of camels, horses, and donkeys; he advised people to resort to the medicines that were available during his times; he had his own taste for dishes which were different from the tastes of others; and he fought battles with swords and other forms of equipment of warfare that were available during his times. Muslim scholars have never considered any of these acts of him as sunnah, because they have nothing to do with religion.
I agree that at times there can be a difference of opinion on certain acts of his whether they were religious or not. This difference of opinion occurred during the time of the prophet as well. In such cases, it seems that the following criterion would help. Any act that belongs to any of these categories is religious, otherwise it is not
i) Worship, remembrance of God etc.
ii) Physical cleanliness
iii) Cleanliness of edibles
iv) Ethics and morality.I hope I have clarified my point.
Source http//www.khalidzaheer.com/qa/362
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YES!!
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Salam,
Wa Alaykom Asalam
I hope I have clarified my point.
You don't .
As I see from your topic / it is not about defining the difference between the term sunnah and the term hadithn in fact your aim is to say that what people of sunnah did is "bid'ah". So to not make you as a wise man of Gotham, I'll say that the hadith contains sunnah of the prophet .
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6112 And as such, We have permitted the enemies of every prophet
? mankind and Jinn devils ? to inspire each other with fancy
words in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not
have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications.456 These are the revelations of God, We recite them to you with the
truth. So, in which narrative (Hadith) after God and His revelations do
they believe?
457 Woe to every sinful fabricator. -
6112 And as such, We have permitted the enemies of every prophet
? mankind and Jinn devils ? to inspire each other with fancy
words in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not
have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications.456 These are the revelations of God, We recite them to you with the
truth. So, in which narrative (Hadith) after God and His revelations do
they believe?
457 Woe to every sinful fabricator.can I know the relation between these verses and the thread ?
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I didn't expect these responses. This means that you don't reject Sunnah (as a whole)?
so the aim od the thread was first of all to make people reject sunnah, well I think you can fool yourself. Whether you like or not, you obeyed sunnah but you don't know.. hypno
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Could you explain why you think the Sunnah, as explained by Dr. Khalid Zaheer, should be rejected?
Selam Recluse
You assume I reject the sunnah. Have I given any indication of this? First of all before one rejects something I assume they must understand it. What is your version of the sunnah to reject? I say version because everyone on this site seems to have a particular angle on things.
Peace
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can I know the relation between these verses and the thread ?
Selam
Yes. Hadith outside of the Quran are just camp side stories. They are apart of the arabs religion which has seemed to have diverted from Allahs system in many branches.
The wandering Arabs are more hard in disbelief and hypocrisy, and more likely to be ignorant of the limits which Allah hath revealed unto His messenger. And Allah is Knower, Wise. (997)
As for the above claims of sunnah which you are all debating is all based on the fact that Islam is a religion. Religions are man made
Peace
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Selam Recluse
You assume I reject the sunnah. Have I given any indication of this? First of all before one rejects something I assume they must understand it. What is your version of the sunnah to reject? I say version because everyone on this site seems to have a particular angle on things.
Peace
Salam hope4
Do you agree with Dr. Zaheer's position?
Peace
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What the response fails to address is that ?sunnah? is not exclusive to the prophet Mohammed, however today it has only come to mean acts and deeds or way of the prophet mohammed. Shafi affixed the term "sunnah" only to the prophet Mohammed and today it is used this way.
In the quran the word sunnah and its plural sunan is used 16 times and it?s to denote a rule, a mode of life a conduct not ?adhering to the way (sunnah) of prophet Mohammed?
To me point ii) indicates sunnah is just the passing down of practices from generation to generation without the need of hadith? However hadith just solidifies the argument. I don?t think that?s true and lets say it is true, if hadith came after the sunnah practices, hadith could easily be fabricated and manipulated to support current practices. which just leaves us in a circle of "verification" and the weakness of verification just gets weaker.
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Selam
Yes. Hadith outside of the Quran are just camp side stories. They are apart of the arabs religion which has seemed to have diverted from Allahs system in many branches.Salamo Alaykom,
woow , you're so clever , can I know how you came to this conclusion?
The wandering Arabs are more hard in disbelief and hypocrisy, and more likely to be ignorant of the limits which Allah hath revealed unto His messenger. And Allah is Knower, Wise. (997)
There are more than 20 nation of Arabs , do you know what cind of Arabs mentioned in this verse ?
As for the above claims of sunnah which you are all debating is all based on the fact that Islam is a religion. Religions are man made
Peacewho tells you that "a jewish man, or a christian man ????
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To me point ii) indicates sunnah is just the passing down of practices from generation to generation without the need of hadith? However hadith just solidifies the argument. I don?t think that?s true and lets say it is true, if hadith came after the sunnah practices, hadith could easily be fabricated and manipulated to support current practices. which just leaves us in a circle of "verification" and the weakness of verification just gets weaker.
why do you always mention that hadith can be fabricated ? how about the peoms before Islam, I have poems of people before the birth of the prophet , why they didn't fabricated as well ???????????????
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why do you always mention that hadith can be favricated ? hoiw about the peoms before Islam, I have poems of people before the birth of the prophet , why they didn't fabricated as well ???????????????
MashaAllah, good point brother! Thanks
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I didn't expect these responses. This means that you don't reject Sunnah (as a whole)?
I don't reject anything without studying it first. I was listening to a lecture by Dr. Gary Miller and he said the word "Iman" means faith but also means to confirm. You don't believe something blindly, you believe it because you checked it out.
I have done enough study on the Quran to believe it is the word of God. I am still trying to better understand Hadith and Sunnah. I have my opinions, but I don't want to blindly reject or embrace anything without understanding it first.
What I like about your post is it goes well with a hadith I read
"I am a human being like you. When I give you any religious command, accept it. When I express my personal opinion, remember that I am nothing but a human being." (Sahih Muslim, No 2362)
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why do you always mention that hadith can be favricated ? hoiw about the peoms before Islam, I have poems of people before the birth of the prophet , why they didn't fabricated as well ???????????????
because it's true.
cool, you should share the poems
you know the prophet was one influential man it makes the idea of fabrication quite tempting.
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What the response fails to address is that ?sunnah? is not exclusive to the prophet Mohammed, however today it has only come to mean acts and deeds or way of the prophet mohammed. Shafi affixed the term "sunnah" only to the prophet Mohammed and today it is used this way.
In the quran the word sunnah and its plural sunan is used 16 times and it?s to denote a rule, a mode of life a conduct not ?adhering to the way (sunnah) of prophet Mohammed?
To me point ii) indicates sunnah is just the passing down of practices from generation to generation without the need of hadith? However hadith just solidifies the argument. I don?t think that?s true and lets say it is true, if hadith came after the sunnah practices, hadith could easily be fabricated and manipulated to support current practices. which just leaves us in a circle of "verification" and the weakness of verification just gets weaker.
Muslims don't learn to pray by reading hadith, they learn from their parents, who learned from their parents, who learned from their parents, and so on, and so on. These day to day practices (in my opinion) would be difficult to fabricate or insert in to the religion. So to me that would be following the Sunna.
The hadith then expound on the sunna, which I think is what the original post is trying to say. Because they are transmitted orally and not physical day to day actions it is easier for fabrications to slip in. I am not trying to say all hadiths are fabrications, that is not what I personally believe. But we do know from the fact the Bukhari rejected so many that there were people who were fabricating hadith and attributing them to the prophet.