Editing Sunnah (section)

==Types of sunnah==
Sunnah upon which ''fiqh'' is based may be divided into:<ref name="AQTU" />
* ''Sunnah Qawliyyah'' – the sayings of Muhammad, generally synonymous with "[[hadith]]", since the sayings of Muhammad are noted down by the companions and called "hadith".<ref name="AQTU" />
* ''Sunnah Fiiliyyah'' – the actions of Muhammad, including both religious and worldly actions.<ref name="AQTU" />
* ''Sunnah Taqririyyah'' – the approvals of Muhammad regarding the actions of the Companions which occurred in two different ways:
** When Muhammad kept silent for an action and did not oppose it.
** When Muhammad showed his pleasure and smiled for a companion's action.<ref name="AQTU" /><ref>source: al Muwafaqat, Afal al Rasul</ref>

It may be also divided into sunnah that is binding for Muslims and that which is not. [[Ibn Qutaybah]] (213-276 AH) distinguished between:
#sunnah "brought by Gabriel";<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:18">[[#DWBRTMIT1996|Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'', 1996]]: p.18</ref> 
#sunnah from "Muhammad's own ra'y and is binding, but subject to revision";<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:18" />
#"non-binding sunnah", which Muslims are not subject to "penalty for failure to follow".<ref name="DWBRTMIT1996:18" />
In the terminology of ''[[fiqh]]'' (Islamic jurisprudence), sunnah denotes whatever though not obligatory, is "firmly established (''thabata'') as called for (''matlub'')" in Islam "on the basis of a legal proof (''dalîl shar`î'').<ref name="AQTU" />

===Sciences of sunnah===

According to scholar Gibril Fouad Haddad, the "sciences of the Sunnah" ('''ulûm as-Sunna'') refer to:<ref>{{cite web |last=Haddad |first=Gibril Fouad |title=The Meaning of Sunna |url= http://www.livingislam.org/n/ms_e.html |website=Living Islam |access-date=21 June 2015}}</ref><ref>See al-Siba'i, As-Sunna wa Makanatuha fi at-Tashri' al-Islami (p.47).</ref>
{{blockquote|the biography of the Prophet (''as-sîra''), the chronicle of his battles (''al-maghâzî''), his everyday sayings and acts or "ways" (''sunan''), his personal and moral qualities (''ash-shamâ'il''), and the host of the ancillary hadîth sciences such as the circumstances of occurrence (''asbâb al-wurûd''), knowledge of the abrogating and abrogated hadîth, difficult words (''gharîb al-hadîth''), narrator criticism (''al-jarh wat-ta`dîl''), narrator biographies (''al-rijâl''), etc., as discussed in great detail in the authoritative books of al-Khatîb al-Baghdâdî.}}