Qur'an, Hadith and Sunnah

Qur’an, Hadith and Sunnah

Compiled by M. Rashid Hai

Qur’an is the words of Allah - Allah, `azza wa jall- and unchallengeable base of Islamic shariah. It provides the basic principles; how to worship Allah, what good deeds are to be done to please Allah and what are to be avoided to get rid of hell fire. But it is a hard fact that one can’t understand and catch the real essence of Qur’an without any support or guidance.

Now the question is what sort of support or guidance is required to understand holy Qur’an. The answer is provided in Qur’an itself in which Allah says:
Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves reciting to you Our verses and purifying you and teaching you’ The Book’ and The Hikmah (Wisdom) and teaching you that which you did not know. (2:151)

In this verse ‘The Book’ refers to the Qur’an. The question is what ‘The Hikmah’ (Wisdom) refers to in this verse.

The Hikmah (Wisdom):

All the Mufassir Qur’an (exegists) and the translators are of the firm opinion that in this verse and verses like this, for example 3:164, 4:113, 62:2, ‘The Hikmah’ refers to hadith and sunnah.

Hadith, its literal meanings:

The literal meanings of ‘hadith’ in Arabic dictionary are; (as noun) speech, talk, conversation, report or communication and (as adjective) new, novel, modern or recent.

Hadith, its traditional meanings:

Traditionally ‘hadith’ means the all the sayings, deeds of the Prophet
and the silent approval of the deeds of his ‘sahabah’ ra (companions), meaning that Prophet sws did not object or disapprove to the deeds of his companions ra.

Sunnah:
The literal meanings of sunnah are; law, tradition or practice. But traditionally and generally it implies to the practices and deeds of the Prophet sws.

Difference between hadith and sunnah:

Generally the words hadith and sunnah are used synonymously. This is not a correct impression. The words Hadith and Sunnah have entirely different connotations, and each one holds a different status in the Shari`ah. If we assign the same meaning to both the terms, it would create a lot of complications. For a proper understanding of the science of Hadith, therefore, it is necessary to know precisely the difference between Hadith and Sunnah.

The Hadith (pl. ahadith):

1 - “The term Hadith (literally: ‘a saying’ or ‘something new’) is defined as the individual-to-individual narratives ascribed to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding his sayings, actions, expressed or silent approvals and his personal description.

2 - Hadith is not an independent source of the Shariah as it does not add to the content of the Qur’an and Sunnah but merely “explains” these two, and is totally dependent on them for its survival.

3 - The ahadith help a great deal to understand the directives of the Qur’an.

4 - They are the only source through which we may approach the biography and lifestyle of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

5 - They inform us of the ‘uswa-e-hasana’ of the Prophet (peace be upon him). For example, the way he performed ablution in an ideal manner out of the Qur’anic order for ablution (5:6).

6 - They reveal to us the Holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) understanding and interpretation of the Qur’anic phrases.

7 - They enlighten the background in which the Qur’an was revealed. This background, which includes the geographical circumstances of the Quranic revelations, is extremely important to understand the true essence and meaning of the different Quranic directives.

8 - They inform us of the lives of the Prophet’s companions (peace be upon them all) who, undoubtedly, are the heroes of the Islamic history for committing their lives entirely to Allah’s Religion.

There may be many other reasons to embrace the science of hadith but, we believe, the above are already good enough to prove the point.

Allah swt has entitled the Qur’an as Furqan – something that distinguishes between wrong and right. Therefore, each hadith that was ascribed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) was checked in the light of the Qur’an. No hadith is accepted which contradicted either the Qur’an or Sunnah or established facts.

The fact that the Hadith does not add to the content of the religion, preserved within the Qur’an and sunnah, but only explains it makes it very safe to utilize the hadith as, on its basis, not even a single directive of the Qur’an or practice of the sunnah may be altered.

The Sunnah:

No matter how commonly hadith and sunnah may be used as synonyms, there is a significant distinction between these terms.

1 -Unlike the hadith, the term sunnah does not refer to each saying, action, approval or the personal description of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but only his “religious” actions and strongly instituted among his followers as an essential part of their faith.

2 - The historical record of the facts like the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) spoke Arabic, wore an Arab dress, rode the camel, kept sword etc. would come under the term hadith whereas the way he demonstrated to his followers how to offer salah (prayer), perform Hajj (pilgrimage) and keep fasts during Ramadan would come under the term sunnah – salah, hajj and fasts being the religious acts.

3 - As there is a distinction between the hadith and sunnah, there is a distinction between the Qur’anic orders and sunnah as well.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) punished the thieves and adulterers and raised sword against the deniers of the truth but none of these are sunan as they are purely the Quranic orders that the Prophet (peace be upon him) carried out. Though the sunan like salah, fasting, hajj, zakah and sacrificing of animals are also mentioned in the Qur’an but it is clear from the Qur’an itself that all of these sunan originated from the Prophet Muhammad sws.

4 - More so, sunan are related to the practical aspects of life, therefore, it does not include the basic beliefs (for example, that of oneness of Allah) mentioned in the Qur’an.

5 - Only the Qur’an and sunnah constitute the Shariah - the Islamic law. The hadith does not add to it but merely comes in to explain the Islamic Shariah stated within the Qur’an or demonstrated through the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

For example, the Qur’an orders to cut off a thief’s hands (5:38); the hadith would explain the word sariq (male thief) and sariqah (female thief) used in the Qur’an and warn that these words do not apply to all the thieves but only those who fulfill certain conditions. According to the linguistic principles, the words sariq and sariqah are adjectives and denote the thoroughness in the characteristics of the verb they qualify.

6 - The sunnah enjoys an equal status to the Holy Qur’an in forming the Islamic Shariah because both emanate from the same source i.e. the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) who, by the order of the Almighty, conveyed each one with equal care and eagerness.

Beware; he did not convey the Book alone which leaves out many practical details but sunnah as well which shapes the practical life of a Muslim. For example, the Qur’an orders believers to offer salah but leaves out the details of how to do so. The sunnah, on the other hand, practically demonstrates of how to offer it with all its formalities. In this way, both the Qur’an and sunnah compliment each other to form a complete lifestyle.

7 - The sunan instituted by the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) include the manner in which five daily, Eid and funeral prayers are offered, the mode of fasting in Ramadan, all rituals of Hajj, the rate and ceilings of zakah, the nikah (solemnization of marriage), the circumcision of male children, saying prescribed words in the ears of the newborn, the tradition of burying the dead after bathing and wrapping in coffin cloth, beginning every deed with Allah’s name, greeting each other by saying Assalamo’alaikum (peace be to you) and replying with Wa’alaikumassalam (peace be to you too), saying Alhamdulillah (all gratitude be to Allah) upon sneezing, slaughtering animals in a specific manner with the proclamation of Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great), shortening of nails, cleaning of mouth, nose and teeth, abstaining from intercourse during menstruation and afterbirth, trimming the moustache, removing the undesired hair and washing after urination, defecation and intercourse.
None of these established sunan, as claimed by some, is contrary to the Holy Qur’an.

8. The sunan are as pure and authentic as the Qur’an itself because both, the Qur’an and sunnah, have reached us through the same mode of transmission, i.e. the consensus of each generation of the Ummah.

9. No practice, whether Religious or not, can be accepted as sunnah except for those that the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself explicitly introduced as his sunnah.

To sum up, there is a clear distinction between the hadith and sunnah which must be understood. Hadith is an important “explanatory source” for the Religious understanding, as it explains the Qur’an and Sunnah, but still not the “basic source” of the Religion. The basic sources, which form the Shariah, are only two:
(i) Qur’an (the Book) and (ii) Sunnah . A hadith may be questioned to be more or less authentic but the authenticity of the Sunnah cannot be questioned because it has come down to us through the same mode of transmission by which the Holy Qur’an has come to us, i.e. the consensus of each generation of the Ummah since the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him).


In the words of Amin Ahsan Islahi (a scholar from Pakistan), the relation between the Qur’an and Sunnah is that of soul and body. In other words, the soul or the spirit of the body of Qur’an is in the sunnah of the Prophet sws, a form of its display. Both go together to complete the splendid edifice of Islam. Take away one of them, and the whole structure falls apart.