Lesson 4: Similarities & Differences Flashcards
Modern Technical definition of: The History of the Sunnah
> تاريخ السنة علم يبحث في مراحل تدوين سنة النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم و عنايت العناء بها من زمن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم إلى وقت الحاضر وانواع مصنفات فى ذالك
“The history of the Sunnah is a science that studies the stages of recording the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the care given to it from the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to the present time, and the various types of compilations in this regard
- The history part is the Stages
- The Sunnah part is this isn’t the history of the Abbasids, but the recording of the Sunnah
- The attention given by the scholars to the Sunnah (Sahaba, Tabieen, and those who followed them)
- The books written on it
so these are 3 core things:
- History of how the Sunnah was recorded and preserved
- History of the care and attention the scholars gave to the Sunnah
- History of Authorship as it relates to the Sunnah
We will also cover others such as responding to doubts related to the Sunnah, etc.
What are 2 alternative terms for Sunnah?
- Hadith
- Athar
We mentioned that the word ‘Hadith’ is an alternative term for ‘Sunnah’. What is the linguistic meaning of Hadith and some evidence for it?
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الجديد من الأشياء، نقيض القديم؛ ويُطلَق على الكلام، قليله وكثيره؛ لأنه يحدث ويتجدَّد شيئًا فشيئًا، وجمعه أحاديث> The new things, opposite of the old; and it is used for speech, whether little or much, because it happens and renews little by little, and its plural is ‘Ahadith-Lisan al ‘Arab by Ibn Mandhur
- It means something new
- Later on came to be used for speech: Speech comes about newly, and new things are being said
We mentioned that the word ‘Hadith’ is an alternative term for ‘Sunnah’. What is the technical meaning of Hadith and what are some important things to know?
Technically
ما أُضيفَ إلى النبيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم مِنْ قَوْلٍ أو فِعْلٍ أو تَقْرِيرٍ أو صِفَةٍ
> “What is attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) from sayings, actions, approvals, or descriptions
- And this is the same definition as Sunnah, so when speaking of Hadeeth and Sunnah in the same context (something about his saying, action, approval or description)
- But when you speak of Sunnah as the complete guidance of the messenger, you can use it to mean Hadeeth as in this case they mean something different
- The same can be for using Hadeeth different than Sunnah
- We also previously discussed how Sunnah can mean other things like the opposite of innovation, here Hadeeth will not fall under it.
- When you speak of Sunnah as the description of his physical self or the Seerah of him it can be used differently.
Can Hadeeth mean other than the definition we gave?
Yes, as the science of Hadith is 2 parts
- the Riwayah- what’s transmitted from the messenger (the 4 things we mentioned above) and how we say it correctly
- This is the actual act of narrating Hadith
- Precisely saying it as the prophet said
- Dirayah- the knowledge taken from it (authenticity, ruling, situation of the narrators)
- Here we separate Sunnah and Hadeeth, we don’t say what the ruling from this Sunnah, what’s the grade of this Sunnah? Rather we say what’s the ruling of this Hadeeth, what’s the grade of this Hadith?
What is the science of Hadith made up of? (repeated question)
- the Riwayah- what’s transmitted from the messenger (the 4 things we mentioned above) and how we say it correctly
- This is the actual act of narrating Hadith
- Precisely saying it as the prophet said
- Dirayah- the knowledge taken from it (authenticity, ruling, situation of the narrators)
- Here we separate Sunnah and Hadeeth, we don’t say what the ruling from this Sunnah, what’s the grade of this Sunnah? Rather we say what’s the ruling of this Hadeeth, what’s the grade of this Hadith?
Statements of the scholars in which they distinguished between Sunnah and Hadith
قال سليمان بن مهران الأعمش لا اعلم لله قوما يطلبون هذا الحديث و يحبون هذه السنة
> “Sulaiman ibn Mehran Al-A’mash said: ‘I do not know of any people for Allah who seek this hadith and love this Sunnah
He makes a distinction. He makes Sunnah general but the specific report here he calls it Hadith
- They go for individual Hadith- they look at the narrator, the chain etc.
- They love the Sunnah- what the messenger said, did etc.
So, Hadith here is a specific report from the sunnah
قال عبد الرحمن بن مهدي: “الناس على وجوه؛ فمنهم من هو إمام في السنة وليس بإمام في الحديث، ومنهم من هو إمام في الحديث؛ وليس بإمام في السنة
> Abdur-Rahman ibn Mahdi said: ‘People are of different kinds; among them are those who are leaders in the Sunnah but not leaders in Hadith, and among them are those who are leaders in Hadith but not leaders in the Sunnah
So he’s using Sunnah as either the complete guidance of the messenger, or Sunnah for the Dirayah and Hadith for the Riwayah
so he means:
- Sunnah- as Knowledge of the Hadith, the Fiqh of the hadith a person could be an Imam
- But the science of Hadith itself (such as the chain of narration, the narrators) he isn’t
OR
- in the narration of it he’s an Imam (what’s authentic what’s not)
- But when calling to the people and implementing the Sunnah and ‘Aqeedah he is not an Imam in the Sunnah, but an Imam in Hadith
You will find great scholars who had issues in ‘Aqeedah, and although this may or may not have been exactly when Abdurahman ibn Mahdi intended, we can infer that.
So, the Sunnah can be used for:
- practical implementation, and the Hadith for the technical knowledge of the narrations
- Sunnah can be used for the general guidance of the Prophet, and we don’t generally use Hadith for that (we don’t usually say a person is upon the hadith)
What is a way to distinguish Sunnah from Hadith? Hint: we wouldn’t say drinking standing up is a ___, but we would say drinking standing up is a ___
Everything that came about that is reported about the prophet is considered Hadith. Even if the prophet did it once, or if it was abrogated. Hadith is purely about the historical accuracy of the statement or action.
Whereas the Sunnah is used for the guidance the prophet left for us to follow.
For instance, the prophet drank water standing up once, we wouldn’t say the Sunnah is to drink it standing. So a Hadith shows him standing up while drinking, while the Sunnah is he used to sit down (his habitual practice he left for us to follow.
This is why we don’t say it’s an authentic Sunnah (we might say this) or weak Sunnah but we say an authentic or Hadith or not, as a Sunnah generally passes the level of authenticity.
What is Athar linguistically, technically, and how is it used?
Linguistically
Ibn Faris says in his Mu’jam Maqaayees al lughah:
“أثر” (plural is أثار)
الْهَمْزَةُ وَالثَّاءُ وَالرَّاءُ، لَهُ ثَلَاثَةُ أُصُولٍ: تَقْدِيمُ الشَّيْءِ، وَذِكْرُ الشَّيْءِ، وَرَسْمُ الشَّيْءِ الْبَاقِي
“The letters hamza (ء), tha (ث), and ra (ر) have three foundational meanings: presenting something, mentioning something, and the remaining trace of something
So we see what’s left behind of the messenger, his statements and actions that he left behind for us as guidance.
Technically
- Many used it to mean Hadith
- In modern times (as well as older times) it became a common terminology to refer to an Athar as:
ما وَرَدَ عَنِ الصَّحَابَةِ وَالتَّابِعِينَ مِنْ أَقْوَالِهِمْ وَأَفْعَالِهِمْ
> What has been reported from the Companions and the Followers, of their sayings and actions
- So we say “there is an Athar from ‘Umar”
So this is what attributed to the companion (and this can apply to the technical definition we gave for Sunnah but instead of it being attributed to the messenger its attributed to a companion, or tabi’)
Despite this there were/are scholars who used athar and Hadith to be the same
“Ahlul Sunnah” or “Ahlul Hadeeth”
“Ahlul Athar” here its used the same as “Ahlul Hadeeth”
However, in a modern terminology, the word Hadith is used in a more technical sense to talk about individual reports in terms of authenticity or otherwise, and Athar is used for the reports which come from the Sahaba, and the generation after, may Allah be pleased with them, even though they can be used as synonyms for the Sunnah.
