Following the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad(SAWW)

            Following the Sunnah of Prophet (SAWW)

“Verily you have, in the life of Rasool-Allah(SAWW), the 'Best Model' for him whose hope is in Allah and the Day of the Hereafter, and who engages himself much in the remembrance of Allah.” (Surah Al Aehzaab, 21)

First of all, we have to know what is the Sunnah? 

The word Sunnah means a path one takes from one place to another.

 So one can say Sunnah is a certain path  taken by a person during his or her life time. It includes attitudes, behaviour, reactions, and biography.

l Linguistically, Sunnah is an Arabic word which means a path or a way. However, Islamically, it is a primary source of law taken from the Prophet Muhammad(SAWW)s’ sayings, actions, tacit approvals, personality, physical description, or biography(Seerah).  

The established/authentic Sunnah is as reliable as the Qur’an because it has been transmitted in the same way (i.e. general consensus of generations, i.e. Tawatur). Therefore the Qur’an and the Sunnah remain as our primary sources of understanding Islam.

Allah The Almighty says in Quran:

“Similarly,  We bestowed Our favor upon you When We sent among you a Rasool of your own who recites to you Our revelations(Quarn), sanctifies you, teaches you the Book and wisdom/Hikmah( I.e Sunnah,Islamic laws, Fiqh) and teaches you that which you did not know.” (Surah Al Baqarah. 2;151)

According to the scholars of hadeeth the Sunnah is everything that has been related from the Messenger(SAWW) besides the Qur’an. It explains the details and provides examples of practical application of Shariah and the laws given by the Qur’an.
It is also either direct revelation from God, or a decisions or action taken by the Messenger(SAWW) that were then confirmed by revelation. Therefore, the Sunnah is revelation from God to His Prophet.  God says in the Quran:
“…We have sent down to him the Book and the Wisdom…” (Al- Baqarah 2:231)

Difference between Sunnah and Hadith:

The term Sunnah refers to the actions, statements and way of life of the Prophet Muhammad(SAWW). The fuqaha’ use the word “Sunnah” when explaining the ruling on doing a specific action as being mustahabb (liked or encouraged).

The term Hadith, on the other hand, is used for the sayings of the Prophet(SAWW). Hadith implies the narration of a saying, or of an act, or of an approval (Tasweeb) of the Prophet (SAWW). You can say sunnah is derived from hadith.

“Al-‘Allaamah as-Sayyid Sulaymaan an-Nadwi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “ Hadeeth” refers to every incident that is attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him), even if he only did it once in his life, and even if it was narrated from him by only one person. With regard to the word “Sunnah,” in reality it is used of his actions-  I mean how the Messenger (peace be upon him) did things – that has been transmitted to us via mutawaatir actions, in the sense that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did it, then the Sahaabah did it after him, then the Taabi‘een did it after them, and so on. It does not necessarily mean that there is a narration describing that action; rather this refers to the way in which a particular act was performed and was passed down through the generations by means of tawaatur .