Editing Sunnah (section)

==Alternatives to classical hadith based sunnah==
Although "most writers agree", including skeptics, that "sunnah and hadith must stand or fall together",<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:82">[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.82</ref> some ([[Fazlur Rahman Malik]], [[Javed Ahmad Ghamidi]]) have attempted to "establish a basis for sunnah independent of hadith",<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:82" /> [[workaround|working around]] problem of hadith authenticity raised by modernist and Western critics,<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.101</ref> while reaching back to pre-al-Shafiʿi meaning of sunnah.<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.101, 103</ref>

==="Living sunnah"===
In the 1960s, [[Fazlur Rahman Malik]], an [[Islamic modernist]] and former head of Pakistan's Central Institute for Islamic Research, advanced another idea for how the (prophetic) sunnah—the normative example of Muhammad—should be understood: as "a general umbrella concept"<ref name="FR-IMiH-11-2">{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Islamic Methodology in History |date=1965 |publisher=Karachi |pages=11–12}}</ref> but not one "filled with absolutely specific content",<ref name="FR-IMiH-11-2" /> or that was static<ref>Brown 103</ref> over the centuries. He argued that Muhammad had come as a "moral reformer" and not a "pan-legit", and that the specifics of the sunnah would be agreed upon community of his followers, evolving with changing times as a "living and on-going process".<ref>{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Islamic Methodology in History |date=1965 |publisher=Karachi |page=75}}</ref> He accepted the criticism of Western and Muslim scholars that the content of many hadith and isnad (chain of transmitters) had been tampered with by Muslims trying to prove the Muhammad had made a specific statement—but this did not make them fraudulent or forgeries, because if "Hadith verbally speaking does not go back to the Prophet, its spirit certainly does".<ref name="FR-IMiH-80">{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Islamic Methodology in History |date=1965 |publisher=Karachi |page=80}}</ref> Instead these collections of ahadith of al-Bukhari and al-Muslim's were ''[[ijma]]'' (consensus or agreement of the Muslim scholars—which is another classical source of Islamic law).<ref name="FR-IMiH-80" /> Doing so, they follow the spirit of Muhammad's mission,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Islamic Methodology in History |date=1965 |publisher=Karachi |pages=6, 8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |jstor=20832617 |journal=Islamic Studies |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Concepts Sunnah, Ijtihād and Ijmā' in the Early Period |date=1 January 1962 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=5–21}}</ref> and "resurrect" the legal methodology of the pre-Shafi'i "Ancient schools". But just as second and third century Muslims could re-formulate hadith and law around a prophetic spirit, so can modern Muslims—redefining ''[[riba]]'' and replacing medieval laws against bank interest with measures that help the poor without harming economic productivity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Fazlur |title=Islamic Methodology in History |date=1965 |publisher=Karachi |page=77}}</ref><ref>Brown, 1996, p.106</ref>

===Sunnah from practice not hadith===
Some of the most basic and important features of the sunnah – worship rituals like ''[[salat]]'' (ritual prayer), ''[[zakat]]'' (ritual tithing), ''[[hajj]]'' (pilgrimage to [[Mecca]]), ''[[sawm]]'' (dawn to dusk fasting during [[Ramadan (calendar month)|Ramadan]]) – are known to Muslim from being passed down 'from the many to the many' (according to scholars of fiqh such as Al-Shafi'i),<ref>[[#JBSILITA1990|Burton, ''Islamic Theories of Abrogation'', 1990]]: p.16</ref> bypassing books of hadith, (which were more often consulted for answers to details not agreed upon or not frequently practiced) and issues of authenticity.

Modernist [[Rashid Rida]] thought this "the only source of sunnah that is beyond dispute".<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.41</ref> S.M. Yusuf argued "practice is best transmitted through practice",<ref>Yusuf, S.M., ''An Essay on the Sunnah'', Lahore, 1966, p.31, quoted in [[#JBSILITA1990|Burton, ''Islamic Theories of Abrogation'', 1990]]: p.101</ref> and a more reliable way to establish sunnah than hadith. He also believed that the passing down of practice from generation to generation independent of hadith explained why early schools of law did not differentiate between sunnah of the caliphate and sunnah of the prophet.<ref>Yusuf, S. M., ''An Essay on the Sunnah'', Lahore, 1966, p. 40, quoted in [[#JBSILITA1990|Burton, ''Islamic Theories of Abrogation'', 1990]]: p.101</ref>
According to [[Javed Ahmad Ghamidi]], another Modernist, this passing down by continuous practice of the Muslim community (which also indicates consensus, ''[[ijma]]'') was similar to how the Qur’ān has been "received by the ''ummah''" (Muslim community) through the consensus of the [[sahabah|Muhammad's companions]] and through their perpetual recitation. Consequently, Ghamidi sees this more limited sunnah of continuous practice as the true sunnah – equally authentic to the Quran, but shedding orthodox sunnah and avoiding problematic basis of the hadith.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ghamidi |first=Javed Ahmad |author-link=Javed Ahmad Ghamidi |title=Mizan |trans-title=Islam: A Comprehensive Introduction |date=1990 |publisher=Al-Mawrid |location=Lahore |url= http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/DownloadContainer.aspx?id=84 |access-date=1 June 2011 |language=ur}}</ref>

==="Inner states"===
Sufi thinkers "emphasized personal spirituality and piety rather than the details of fiqh".<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.33, foot note 38</ref>
According to the view of some [[Sufism|Sufi Muslims]] who incorporate both the outer and inner reality of Muhammad, the deeper and true sunnah are the noble characteristics and inner state of Muhammad – ''Khuluqin Azim'' or "Exalted Character".<ref>{{qref|68|4|b=y}}</ref> To them Muhammad's attitude, his piety, the quality of his character constitute the truer and deeper aspect of what it means by sunnah in Islam, rather than the external aspects alone.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.mysticsaint.info/2012/01/message-rabiul-awwal-milad-nabi.html|title=Mysticsaint.info}}</ref> They argue that the external custom of Muhammad loses its meaning without the inner attitude and also many hadiths are simply custom of the Arabs, not something that is unique to Muhammad.