alSunna

Al-Sunna, or Sunnah (Arabic: السنة), refers to the customary practice, example, and tradition of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslim community. In Islamic thought, the Sunnah complements the Qur’an as a primary source of religious guidance and law.

The Sunnah encompasses three main elements: the Prophet’s sayings (akhbar), his actions (af’al), and his tacit approvals or disapprovals of others’ conduct (taqrir). These are transmitted through collections of hadith and through biographical and historical works that record how the Prophet and his companions lived. Hadith literature, compiled by scholars such as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, and others, is a central repository for Sunnah. Jurists and theologians assess the authenticity of reports through chain-of-narrators (isnad) and the text (matn) before using them in legal and ethical rulings.

In jurisprudence, the Sunnah functions as a key source of guidance alongside the Qur’an. It helps explain and apply Qur’anic verses, clarifies aspects of ritual practice, personal conduct, and social law, and provides precedents for matters not explicitly covered in the Qur’an. Classical Islamic legal schools derive much of their rulings from hadith reports and established Sunnah.

The term also survives as a designation for mainstream Islam: Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama’a, meaning the people of the Sunnah and the community. In Shia Islam, the Sunnah is acknowledged but relies on different hadith sources and interpretive traditions. Across traditions, Sunnah is viewed as the model to emulate in daily life and worship, subject to scholarly evaluation and interpretation.