Editing Sunnah (section)

==Basis of importance==
The Qur'an contains numerous commands to follow Muhammad.<ref name="BCPWAG-2018">{{Cite web |url= https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/sunnah |title=Sunnah |publisher=Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University |website=BerkleyCenter.Georgetown.edu |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180912232503/https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/sunnah |archive-date=12 September 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=12 September 2018}}</ref> Among the Quranic verses quoted as demonstrating the importance of hadith/sunnah to Muslims are:<ref name="WHII" /><ref>Okumus, Fatih. "The Prophet as Example". Studies in Inter religious Dialogue 18 (2008): 82–95. Religion Index. Ebsco. Thomas Tredway Library, Rock Island, IL.</ref>
{{blockquote|Say: Obey Allah and obey the Messenger.}}

Which appears in several verses: {{qref|3|32}}, {{qref|5|92}}, {{qref|24|54}}, {{qref|64|12}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Obey Allah and Obey the Messenger; One or Two Sources? |url=http://www.detailedquran.com/quran_data/Obey%20Allah%20and%20obey%20the%20messenger.htm |website=Detailed Quran |access-date=22 June 2015 |archive-date=13 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613073135/http://www.detailedquran.com/quran_data/Obey%20Allah%20and%20obey%20the%20messenger.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Your fellow man is neither misguided nor astray. Nor does he speak of his own whims.|{{qref|53|2-3|c=y}}<ref>{{cite web |title=The Importance of Hadith |url= https://tasfiyatarbiya.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/the-importance-of-hadith/ |website=Tasfiya Tarbiya |date=6 June 2011 |access-date=22 June 2015}}</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|Since We have sent you a messenger from among yourselves—reciting to you Our revelations, purifying you, teaching you the Book and wisdom, and teaching you what you never knew|{{qref|2|151|c=y}}}}

{{Blockquote|Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example for whoever has hope in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah often.|{{qref|33|21|c=y}}}}

The teachings of "wisdom" (''hikma'') have been declared to be a function of Muhammad along with the teachings of the scripture.<ref>[[Manzur Nu'mani|Muhammad Manzoor Nomani]] "Marif al-Hadith", introductory chapter</ref> Several Quranic verses mention "wisdom" (''hikmah'') coupled with "scripture" or "the book" (i.e. the Quran) – ''al-kitāb wa al-ḥikma''. Mainstream scholars starting with al-Shafi'i believe ''hikma'' refers to the sunnah, and this connection between sunnah and the Quran is evidence of the sunnah's divinity and authority.<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.55</ref>
*{{qref|4|113|pl=y}} – "For Allah hath sent down to thee the Book and wisdom and taught thee what thou Knewest not (before): and great is the Grace of Allah unto thee."<ref>{{qref|4|113|b=y}}</ref> 
*{{qref|2|231|pl=y}} – "...but remember Allah's grace upon you and that which He hath revealed unto you of the Scripture and of wisdom, whereby He doth exhort you."<ref>{{qref|2|231|b=y}}</ref> 
*{{qref|33|34|pl=y}} – "And bear in mind which is recited in your houses of the revelations of God and of wisdom."<ref>{{qref|33|34|b=y}}</ref>

Therefore, along with the Quran, the ''sunnah'' was revealed. Modern Sunni scholars have examined both the ''sira'' and the ''hadith'' in order to justify modifications to jurisprudence (''[[fiqh]]'').{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} Hense, the imitation of Muhammad helps Muslims to know and be loved by God.<ref name="nasr" />

Another piece of evidence for the divinity of the Sunnah—according to its supporters—are verses in the Quran that refer to revelations not found ''in'' the Quran. For example, there is no verse mentioning the original direction of [[Salah|prayer]] (the ''[[qibla]]'') in the Quran, but God in the Quran does say He appointed the original qibla ({{qref|2|143}}).<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p. 56</ref> Other events mentioned in the Quran that already happened without Quranic command or description include a dream in which Muhammad would enter Mecca ({{qref|2|231}}); Muhammad's marriage to Zayd's ex-wife ({{qref|33|37}}); and the dispute over the division of spoils after the [[Battle of Badr]] {{qref|8|7|s=y}}; all "definitive proof that besides the Quran other commands came to the Prophet by the agency of waḥy", according to revivalist [[Abul A'la Maududi]].<ref>Mawdudi, ''Sunnat ki a ini haithiyyat'', 135-139; quoted in [[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p. 56</ref>
Yet another piece of evidence offered is that "Prophet witness" is "the chief guarantee" of what is divine revelation. In other words, "Muslims only know the Quran is revelation because of Muhammad's testimony to this fact. If prophetic word is not to be trusted, then the Quran itself is open to suspicion." Since the Quran is not, the sunnah must be trustworthy.<ref>Mawdūdī, Abū al-ʿAlā, ''Tafhimat'', (16th edition, Lahore), 329, quoted in [[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.50</ref>

===Alternative view===
The minority argument against the sunnah of Muhammad being divine revelation (''waḥy'') goes back to the ''ahl al-Kalam'' who al-Shāfiʿī argued against in the second century of Islam. Their modern "[[Quranist]]s", the modern successors of the ''ahl al-Kalam'', argue that the sunnah falls short of the standard of the Quran in divinity.<ref>[[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p. 52</ref> Specifically because
#with the exception of the ''ḥadīth qudsī'', sunnah was not revealed and transmitted verbatim, as was the Quran; it was often transmitted giving the sense or gist of what was said (known as ''bi'l-maʿnā'');<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:52-3">[[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: pp. 52–53</ref>
#the process of revelation was not "external, entirely independent of the influence of the messenger"; it bares the "personality" or "mentality" (''baṣīrat'') of Muhammad;<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:52-3" />
#unlike the Quran, it was not "preserved in writing" until over a century after Muhammad's death, which opens the question of how much corruption and/or error entered the writings and why, if it was divinely revealed, eternal truth, orders were not given to the earliest Muslims to write it down as they were for the Quran.<ref name=44-Mawdudi>Abu al-ʿAlā Mawdūdī, ''Tarjumaān al-Qurʾān'' 56, 6 Manṣib-i-risālat nambar (1961): 193; quoted in [[#DWBRTMIT1996|D. W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p. 53</ref><ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:52-3" />

===Providing examples===
According to John Burton, paraphrasing [[Al-Shafi'i]], "it must be remembered that the Quran text are couched in very general terms which it is the function of the sunnah to expand and elucidate, to make God's meaning absolutely clear."<ref>{{Cite book| first1=John |last1=Burton |title=The Sources of Islamic Law: Islamic Theories of Abrogation |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=1990 |isbn=9780748601080 |url= http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Burton,%20J%20-%20The%20Sources%20of%20Islamic%20Law.pdf |access-date=21 July 2018 |page=34 |ref=JBSILITA1990}}</ref>
There are a number of verses in the Quran where "to understand the context, as well as the meaning", Muslims need to refer to the record of the life and example of Muhammad.<ref name="WHII" />

It is thought that verses 16:44 and 64 indicate that Muhammed's mission "is not merely that of a deliveryman who simply delivers the revelation from Allah to us, rather, he has been entrusted with the most important task of explaining and illustrating" the Quran.

{{Blockquote|˹We sent them˺ with clear proofs and divine Books. And We have sent down to you ˹O Prophet˺ the Reminder, so that you may explain to people what has been revealed for them, and perhaps they will reflect.|{{qref|16|64|c=y}}<ref name="kutty-hadith">{{cite web |last1=Kutty |first1=Ahmad |title=What Is the Significance of Hadith in Islam? |url= http://www.islamicity.com/forum/printer_friendly_posts.asp?TID=3547 |publisher=Islamicity.com |access-date=22 June 2015 |date=6 March 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Prophet Muhammed (p) Was Sent to Teach & Explain the Quran |url= http://discover-the-truth.com/2013/05/07/prophet-was-sent-to-teach-to-explain-the-quran/ |website=Discover the Truth |access-date=22 June 2015 |date=7 May 2013}}</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|We have revealed to you the Book only to clarify for them what they differed about, and as a guide and mercy for those who believe.|{{qref|16|64|c=y}}}}

For example, while the Quran presents the general principles of praying, fasting, paying zakat, or making pilgrimage, they are presented "without the illustration found in Hadith, for these acts of worship remain as abstract imperatives in the Qur'an".<ref name="kutty-hadith" />