Prophetic Tradition (Sunnah Nabawiyyah)

• Definition:
• Etymology: Sunnah means ‘tradition’ and ‘custom’.
• Terminology: Everything that was said, practiced, or affirmed by the Prophet and afterwards became a custom of the early Muslim community is called ‘prophetic tradition’ (sunnah nabawiyyah).
• A report on a prophetic tradition is called hadith. It consists of two parts: (1) sanad (chain of transmitters) and (2) matn (content).
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Example:
Musaddad told us that Yahya told him on the authority of ‘Ubayd Allah who said that Khubayb ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman told him on the authority of Hafs ibn ‘Asim from Abu Hurayrah from the prophet who said, “Seven types of people will be shaded by God in His shadow on the day on which there will be no shade other than His a just ruler; a young man raised in the worship of God; a man whose heart is attached to mosques; two people united in the love of God who join for Him and separate for Him; a man who is summoned by a noble and beautiful woman to whom he says, ‘I fear God’; a person who give charity secretly such that his left hand does not know that his right hand is giving; and a person who remembers God in seclusion and whose eyes fill with tears.”
Sanad: Musaddad  Yahya  ‘Ubayd Allah  Khubayb ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman  Hafs ibn ‘Asim  Abu Hurayrah  the Prophet
Matn: “Seven types of people …. with tears”.

B. Types of the Sunnah
• In terms of substance: (1) sunnah qawliyyah (something spoken by the prophet), (2) sunnah fi’liyya (something practiced by him), dan sunnah taqririyyah (something affirmed by him).
• In terms of the authenticity of report:
(1) Sahih (healthy report), i.e. the report which fulfils the following criteria: a. the reliability of its transmitters (piety and comprehension), b. the ‘unbroken’ chain of transmitters, and c. the acceptability of its content.
(2) Hasan (good report), i.e. the report which fulfils the afore-mentioned criteria, but one of its transmitters is reported not to be very good in his comprehension
(3) da’if (weak report), i.e. the report in which the criteria is not available.



C. The Importance of the Sunnah
• The Sunna is regarded as the second source for Islamic teachings. If Muslims do not find any explanation of a certain issue in the Qur’an, they search for an answer in a hadith (verbal tradition) in which the sunna (practical tradition) is contained.
• Most of them believe that it is the (second) revelation besides the Qur’an. The difference between both, they mentioned, that the Qur’an was revealed verbally, whereas the sunna was revealed intuitively (in form of inspiration).
• Muhammad ibn Idris al-Syafi’i (d. 150-204/767-819), the founder of the Syafi’i legal school, bases this idea on some Qur’anic verse, among them Q. 4:113 and Q. 59:7

Q. 4:113: “… Allah revealed to you the Scripture and wisdom, and teaches you that which you do not know. The grace of Allah toward you has been infinite.”
The word “wisdom” (hikma) here is interpreted as the sunna of the Prophet.
Q. 59:7: “… And whatever the messenger gives you, take it. And whatever he forbids, abstain (from it) …”
“Whatever the messenger gives you and forbids” is understood as the sunna.

D. The Compilation of hadiths

• As stated before, Muslim scholars mentioned that the hadiths were reported orally.
• The hadiths were then written together with manuscripts on Qur’an interpretation, theology, and law.
• By the middle of the 3rd/9th century the hadith had taken definite form.
• For the purpose of collecting hadiths, a number of Muslim scholars went from place to place, learning from man to man.
• By the end of the 3rd/beginning 10th century several collections had been produced, six of which are regarded as authoritative and known as ‘the six genuine ones’. These are:
1. the Sahih of Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari (d. 256/870), 2. the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 261/875), 3. the Sunan of Abu Dawud (d. 275/888), 4. the Sunan of at-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892), 5. the Sunan of an-Nasa‘i (d. 303/916), and 6. the Sunan of Ibn Majah (d. 273/886).



E. Orientalists on Hadith
• Ignaz Goldziher (in Muhammedanische Studien): The hadith is to be regarded rather as a record of the views and attitudes of early Muslim generations than of the life and teaching of the Prophet or even of his Companions.
• Margoliouth (in Early Developmet of Islam): (1) The prophet had left no religious decisions outside the Qur’an, (2) the Sunna as practiced by the early Muslim community after Muhammad was not the Sunna of the Prophet, but the pre-Islamic tradition which was modified through the Qur’an, (3) later generation developed the concept of the prophetic Sunna to give authority to the tradition.

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