Sunnah

Sunnah refers to the established traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which serve as a model for Muslims. In the view of believers, it represents what the entire Muslim community during Muhammad’s lifetime supposedly observed, followed, and transmitted to later generations. However, what exactly constitutes the Sunnah, and how it is interpreted, varies considerably depending on the Islamic sect or school of thought. Sunni Muslims rely on six major canonical hadith collections—known as the Kutub al-Sittah—to document the Sunnah. For Shia Muslims, the Sunnah is generally recorded in the Kutub al-'Arba'a, which prioritize hadiths attributed to the Prophet’s family (Ahl al-Bayt) and the Twelve Imams. Ibadis document the Sunnah through two hadith collections: Jami Sahih and Tartib al-Musnad. Sufis hold that Muhammad transmitted his Sunnah, including his spiritual values, through a chain of Sufi teachers.

According to classical Islamic theories, the Sunnah is primarily documented by hadith—the verbally transmitted record of Muhammad’s teachings, actions, deeds, sayings, and silent approvals or disapprovals. Alongside the Qur’an, these hadith are considered divine revelation (wahy) delivered through Muhammad, forming the primary sources of Islamic law, beliefs, and theology. The Sunnah is classified into types based on Muhammad’s actions: his specific words (Sunnah Qawliyyah), his actions such as habits and practices (Sunnah Fiiliyyah), and his silent approvals (Sunnah Taqririyyah). Yet some Muslims, such as the Kharijites and Mu’tazilites, have distinguished between the Sunnah and hadith, accepting the Sunnah as an authoritative practice while questioning the reliability of hadith as a source for Islamic law. The Quranist stance on the Sunnah ranges from outright rejection to an approach that treats external sources as secondary and subject to verification by the Qur’an.

Historically, in pre-Islamic Arabia, the term *sunnah* meant “manner of acting” (urf), whether good or bad, and recording such practices was an Arab tradition. Later, “good traditions” came to be called sunnah, and the concept of “Muhammad’s sunnah” emerged. During the early Islamic period, this included precedents set by both Muhammad and his companions. The sunnah of Muhammad was not necessarily linked to hadith at that time. The strict focus on Muhammad’s example—especially as recorded in hadith—as the only authoritative source of sunnah was established later, particularly by the scholar al-Shafi’i (d. 820 CE) in the late second century of Islam. The term *as-sunnah* eventually became synonymous with the sunnah of Muhammad, based on hadith reports, and distinct from other practices.

The word *sunnah* (Arabic: سنة, pl. سنن) carries several meanings. It can mean “habit” or “usual practice”; “habitual practice, customary procedure or action, norm, usage sanctioned by tradition”; “a body of established customs and beliefs that make up a tradition”; “a path, a way, a manner of life”; or “precedent” or “way of life” (the pre-Islamic definition). Its religious definitions include: “the Sunna of the Prophet, i.e., his sayings and doings, later established as legally binding precedents”; “all of the traditions and practices of the Prophet that have become models to be followed by Muslims”; “the body of traditional social and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community”; and “the actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.” The Shafi’i school, in al-Shafi’i’s book *ar-Risala*, defined it as “Al-Hikma (wisdom),” based on his interpretation of Qur’an chapter Al Imran 3:164. Islam Web gives two slightly different definitions: for legal theorists, it is “the statements, actions and approvals (or disapprovals) of Prophet Muhammad”; for hadith scholars, it is “anything narrated from or about the Prophet... either before or after he became a prophet, of his statements, actions, confirmations, biography, and his physical character and attributes.” The term was first used with the meaning of “law” in the Syro-Roman law book before it became widely used in Islamic jurisprudence.

In biographical records of Muhammad, *sunnah* often stands synonymous with *hadith*, since most of his personality traits are known from descriptions, sayings, and actions recorded in hadith. According to Seyyed Nasr, hadith contains Muhammad’s words, while sunnah includes his words and actions along with pre-Islamic practices he approved. In the context of sharia, Malik ibn Anas and Hanafi scholars are thought to have differentiated between the two; for instance, Malik is said to have rejected some traditions because they conflicted with the “established practice of the people of Medina.”

In addition to meaning “the way” of Islam or traditional social and legal custom, *sunnah* is often used as a synonym for *mustahabb* (encouraged) rather than *wajib/fard* (obligatory), regarding commendable actions—usually the saying of a prayer. An example is offering two extra rakats of prayer after the Maghrib prayer.

Sunni Muslims are also referred to as *Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā’ah* (“people of the tradition and the community [of Muhammad]”) or simply *Ahl as-Sunnah*. Some early Sunni scholars (such as Abu Hanifa, al-Humaydî, Ibn Abî ‘Âsim, Abû Dâwûd, and Abû Nasr al-Marwazî) reportedly used the term “the sunnah” narrowly to refer to Sunni Doctrine, as opposed to the creeds of Shia and other non-Sunni Islamic sects.