the companions of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to take the ruling on different matters in their lives from the qur’an, which they learned from the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). in many instances, the verses of the qur’an treated a subject in a general manner, without any specific condition and sometimes, the verses would come as an absolute ruling, without any precondition or limitation in terms of time, place, and so on.
as an example of what came in a general way in the qur’an is prayer. the qur’an does not mention how many rak`ahs we should perform, or how to move physically during prayer, or the time for prayer. similarly, the qur’an does not mention the minimum amount of money to have before giving zakah or the conditions by which to pay it. many of our acts of worship cannot be performed without referring to the explanations related to the regulations, pillars, and conditions of nullification. thus, it is necessary to return to the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to know the rules in a comprehensive and clear manner.
many times, the companions faced incidents in which the qur’an had no ruling, then there was a need to return to the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to know the ruling for such matters. it was the prophet who was ordered by allah almighty to teach humanity, and it was the prophet who was the most knowledgeable of mankind about that which allah expects from us.
allah has told us about the duty of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with respect to the qur’an. allah said:
[and we have sent down unto thee (also) the reminder; that thou mayest explain clearly to men what is sent for them, and that they may give thought.] (an-nahl 16:44)
allah also made it clear to us that the duty of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was to clarify the truth to people when there was a dispute:
[and we have revealed the scripture unto thee only that thou mayst explain unto them that wherein they differ, and (as) a guidance and a mercy for people who believe.] (an-nahl 16:64)
we are obligated to follow any ruling by him in any dispute:
[but no, by your lord! (o muhammad) they cannot be believers until they make you judge in all disputes among them, and find in their souls no resistance against your decisions, but accept them with the fullest submission.] (an-nisaa’ 4:65)
allah also mentioned that the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was given the qur’an and wisdom to teach people the regulations of their religion:
[allah did confer a great favour on the believers when he sent to them a messenger from among themselves, rehearsing unto them the signs of allah, sanctifying them, and instructing them in scripture and wisdom, while, before that, they had been in manifest error.] (aal `imran 3:164)
regarding the last verse, most scholars have said that the wisdom mentioned in it means another thing besides the qur’an. it refers to the knowledge which allah has given the prophet on matters and regulations that the rest of humanity cannot attain. imam ash-shafi`i said:
allah almighty has mentioned the scripture which is the qur’an, and he mentioned wisdom and i have learned from the people of knowledge that the wisdom here is the sunnah of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). it is out of the mercy of allah that he has guided us to the way through which we can practice what is in the qur’an.
to clarify the concept of sunnah and our obligation to follow it, allah said:
[those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures),—in the torah and the gospel;—he commands them what is right and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that have been upon them. so it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper.] (al-a`raf 7: 157)
because this teaching is mentioned in general in this verse, then it includes both the rules in the qur’an and sunnah.
a very strong proof of the obligation to follow the sunnah can be found in the following verse:
[and whatsoever the messenger gives you, take it, and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it), and fear allah. verily, allah is severe in punishment.] (al-hashr 59:7)
allah has also made obedience to the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) a complement with obedience to him:
[and obey allah and the messenger, that ye may obtain mercy.] (aal `imran 3:132)
we are commanded by almighty allah to answer any order by the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
[o ye who believe! give your response to allah and his messenger, when he calleth you to that which will give you life.] (al-anfal 8:24)
allah made the obedience of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) a manifestation of obedience to him, and following the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is an indication of the love of allah:
[he who obeys the messenger, obeys allah.] (an-nisaa’ 4:80)
[say: if ye do love allah, follow me: allah will love you and forgive you your sins.] (aal `imran 3:31)
and he almighty warned us about not following the instructions of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
[then let those beware who withstand the messenger’s order, lest some trial befall them, or a grievous penalty be inflicted on them.] (an-nur 24:63)
it is never allowed by allah for a believer to disobey the prophet’s order:
[it is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by allah and his messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys allah and his messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path.] (al-ahzab 33:36)
further, not following the rulings of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when a dispute occurs is a sign of hypocrisy, allah almighty says:
[they say, we believe in allah and in the messenger, and we obey; but even after that, some of them turn away; they are not (really) believers. when they are summoned to allah and his messenger, in order that he may judge among them, behold some of them decline (to come). but if the right is on their side, they come to him with all submission. is it that there is a disease in their hearts? or do they doubt, or are they in fear, that allah and his messenger will deal unjustly with them? nay, it is they themselves who do wrong. the answer of the believers, when summoned to allah and his messenger, in order that he may judge among them, is no other than this: they say, “we hear and we obey”; and such are the successful (who will live forever in paradise).] (qur'an - surat - an-nur 24:47-51)
the qur'an is the last divine book, which was revealed from allah as a declaration and guidance to mankind. it is an explanation of all things and means for men to be rightly guided. in many verses of the qur'an, it is commanded to obey the prophet of allah. this is quite a significant point because understanding the qur'an fully can only be possible with following the sunnah of the prophet (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam).
the sunnah is the explanation of the qur'an. it is the creed of ahl-i sunnah, which has been constituted with collecting true hadiths of the prophet muhammad (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam), and interpretation of these hadiths by great scholars in later times.
it's worth dwelling upon a point here. the sunnah is not a concept that can be dealt with separately from the qur'an. in the qur'an, it has been mentioned that the prophet removes heavy burdens, makes rules, teaches the ummah (society) the open and hidden meanings of the qur'an. as a matter of fact, when we look at the practices of sunnah, we see that the prophet of allah gave his companions a lot of information about numerous subjects. this information was then interpreted by scholars of the time, continued to be practised in daily lives and has passed on to us generations to generations.
allah has informed in the surah al-e imran that the prophet (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam) had the characteristic of teaching the qur'an and purifying mankind:
certainly allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when he raised among them a messenger from among themselves, reciting to them his communications and purifying them, and teaching them the book and the wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error. (surah al-e imran, 164)
it would be useful to attract attention to the phrase "teaching the book and the wisdom". because, it is not possible to understand the qur'an fully and practise its commands without following the sunnah of the prophet of allah. our religion is a whole only with the qur'an and the sunnah. at that times when the qur'an was revealed, the people around the prophet learned and practised the commands of our religion as required by looking at the examples of the prophet. indeed, the prophet has been an important example with his life, where he practised the commands of the religion, for us to understand the qur'an.
we can give "salat" (ritual prayers) as a clear example to understanding the commands of the religion. as well known, in islam, performing salat 5 times a day is an obligation and there are verses giving general information about how to perform it, how to perform ablution (wash). however, we can understand how exactly we should perform prayers only by looking at sunnah. because there is no detailed information in the verses about the way of praying, what to say in prayer, the way of man and woman's performing the prayer, the degree of importance of the prayers, the details of ablution, what nullifies ablution. we can learn such details only by looking at sunnah of the prophet (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam).
as another example, we can mention the suggestions of the prophet about friday and the things he said about friday prayer. beside the subjects such as speaking that which is best, cleanness, foods, modesty, there are verses in the qur'an about obligations such as fasting, ablution and hajj (pilgrimage). however, there is no detailed information about those worships in the verses. we learn the detail information about how to perform these worships from the interpretations of the scholars about the words and habits of the prophet (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam).
sunnah has ected the lives of muslims throughout the history, of all past scholars of islam, shaping their worships. since the era of our prophet, which has been hundreds of years, the muslims have worshipped in compliance with the sunnah. worships like praying five times a day, fasting, giving charity and sacrificing have not changed until today as they have been always performed according to the sunnah. for this reason, starting discussions upon the worships, which have been practised for hundreds of years without change, and speculating about the subjects like time of the prayers, the number of the rakaats (units) are completely unnecessary. all of them are obligatory worships, whose details are described in the sunnah. as a matter of fact, when we look at the qur'an, we see many verses in the qur'an about following the messenger. in a verse, for example, allah commands us to obey the messenger (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam) as follows:
surely we have sent you as a witness and as a bearer of good news and as a warner, that you may believe in allah and his messenger and may aid him and revere him; and (that) you may declare his glory, morning and evening. surely those who swear allegiance to you do but swear allegiance to allah; the hand of allah is above their hands. therefore whoever breaks (his faith), he breaks it only to the injury of his own soul, and whoever fulfils what he has covenanted with allah, he will grant him a mighty reward. (surah al-fath, 8-10)
whoever obeys the messenger (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam), he indeed obeys allah, and whoever turns back, so we have not sent you as a keeper over them. (surah an-nisa, 80)
the point one needs to pay attention in the verses is that they emphasise on the concept of "obeying the messenger". this point shows us that following the messenger, in other words following his commands and rules is a worship that allah brought as an obligation. when we look at the verses, we again see that our prophet has the authority to enjoin and forbid things. for example, the verse ".... and whatever the messenger gives you, accept it, and from whatever he forbids you, keep back, and be careful of (your duty to) allah. (surah al-hashr, 7) shows that the prophet may forbid certain things for his ummah, apart from those things that are forbidden in the qur'an. besides, it is again informed in the verses that the believers took the matters that they did not understand to the prophet (salla allahu `alayhi wa sallam) and the prophet judged for them.
those conducts, on the other hand, such as opposing the messenger's being a judge, or disrespecting his judgements are described in the verses as "transgression". the certainty of the judgement of our prophet and the need for obeying his judgement is stressed in another verse as follows:
it is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by allah and his messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys allah and his messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path. (surah al-ahzab, 36)
as seen up to here, allah commands in his verses a strict obedience to his prophet. for this reason, islam can only be lived through practising the sunnah along with the qur'an. the explanations made in the verses related to this subject are certain. therefore, putting forward a claim of turning away from the sunnah of the prophet is completely opposite to the essence of the qur'an.
imam malik, one of the greatest islam scholars, compared the sunnah of the prophet to the ark of noah and said : the sunnah of the prophet mohammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) is like the ark of noah. whoever embarks upon it reaches salvation and whoever refuses is drowned.". the true salvation will be realised only when the creed of ahl-i sunnah is understood by everybody and prevails in the society.
