In the early decades of Islamic history, the idea
of the sunna had a broad range of meanings that
became narrower with the passage of time and the
consolidation of Islamic belief and tradition. In
the Quran, prophets are represented as exemplary
figures and Muhammad is called the “beautiful
model” (al-uswa al-hasana) for those “who hope
for God and the last day” (Q 33:21). The Quran
also repeatedly urges believers to “obey God and
his messenger” (for example, Q 5:92; 8:20, 46).
However, it does not associate the term sunna with
Muhammad’s words and deeds. Rather, the Quran
uses sunna in two senses: (1) with reference to the
wrongful ways of peoples of earlier generations
(for example, Q 3:137; 8:13; 18:55), and (2) with
the rightful way of God’s judgments (Q 33:60–62;
40:85). After Muhammad’s death, Muslims found
that God’s laws and prohibitions as stated in the
Quran were often too general to give guidance in
real-life situations, even in matters of worship,
such as prayer and almsgiving. While many Mus-
lims continued to follow their own tribal customs
and judges relied on individual legal opinion, the
piety-minded advocated reliance on accounts of
Muhammad’s life (sira) and the good example of
his Companions and their heirs (“the successors”)
in mecca and medina, as well as those who had
migrated with them to the cities and towns of
Syria and Iraq. Contending notions of legal prec-
edent and correct religious practice gave rise to a
variety of living local traditions, or “precedents”
(sunan) to be emulated.
The efforts of arab Muslim rulers to consoli-
date their power and centralize the administration
of the newly conquered lands also prompted
efforts to standardize the diffused community’s
traditions and laws. Some claimed that the “liv-
ing” sunna of Medina was identical with that of
Muhammad, a position that was conveyed in the
teachings of malik ibn anas (d. 795), the eponym
of the maliki legal school. Because Muslims
living elsewhere in Islamdom did not favor elevat-
ing the practice of Medinan Muslims above their
own, they found that reliance on the exemplary
authority of Muhammad and other individuals
in the early Islamic community as transmitted in
the hadith, not the living example of Medinese
Muslims, was an especially suitable alternative.
This led to the creation of a vast body of hadith,
including fabricated ones. Modern scholars have
argued that these hadith embodied not only the
sunna of Muhammad, the early caliphs, and the
Companions, but that they also gave legitimacy
and religious sanction to pre-Islamic Arab prac-
tices (sunan) that continued to be followed in
the broader Muslim community during the first
centuries of Islamic history. The elevation of the
hadith also appealed to newly converted non-Arab
Muslims in Iran and elsewhere who could not
claim to embody the “living” sunna of Muhammad
and his Companions. This may be why so many of
the collectors of hadith, such as al-Bukhari, al-Tir-
midhi (d. 892), and ibn Maja (d. 892), were Per-
sians by heritage. However, it was mUhammad ibn
idris al-shaFii (d. 820), the eponym of the shaFii
legal school, who most forcefully argued that the
sunna be grounded in hadith rather than in the liv-
ing practice of Muslims. Along with the Quran it
became the basis for jurisprudence recognized by
all the major Islamic legal schools (sing. madhhab).
Moreover, both the Quran and the sunna have
come to be seen as forms of revelation from God,
which is analogous to the Jewish rabbinic belief
in both the written and oral Torah of moses. The
Quran embodies God’s word, Muhammad’s sunna
is inspired by God. Any practice or belief that
could not be validated by the Quran and sunna
was liable to be condemned as an unauthorized
“innovation” (bidaa), especially by Muslims with a
highly literalistic understanding of their religion.
The distinction between Sunni and Shii Mus-
lims hinges in part on their different understand-
ings of the sunna. The Shia define it in relation to
Muhammad and his household (the ahl al-bayt),
particularly as embodied in the hadith (or akh-
bar) of ali ibn abi talib (d. 661) and the other
sacred Imams descended from him. Indeed, their
name is a shortened form of the phrase “faction
of Ali” (shiat Ali), the first imam. Starting in the
ninth/10th century, Muslims who followed the
sunna of Muhammad and his Companions instead
of the Shii Imams saw themselves as the People ofsunna 645 J