in to the point at which, by the fourteenth century, no fur-
ther significant variation was anticipated—a situation ex-
pressed by the phrase “the closing of the gate of ijtiha ̄d” (in-
dividual inquiry).
Shar ̄ıEah-oriented Jama ̄E ̄ı-Sunnism came to focus on
the establishment of communal consensus and the mainte-
nance of the public order—in worship, in marketplace be-
havior, or on the highways and frontiers. Judges (qa ̄d: ̄ıs)
judged what was brought to their attention, not what they
ferreted out privately. Books of law focused on ritual obliga-
tions (summarized by the five pillars—confession of faith,
daily prayer, alms, fasting during the month of Ramad:a ̄n,
and pilgrimage to Mecca) as well as on family and personal
status law and economic and political matters. This style of
piety came to accept as ruler (khal ̄ıfah) whomever the great
majority of the community accepted and to define him as
guarantor of physical security and provider of an atmosphere
in which the shar ̄ıEah could prevail.
Some Jama ̄E ̄ı-Sunn ̄ıs also used h:ad ̄ıth and sunnah as the
basis for kala ̄m (speculative discussion about God), although
others viewed kala ̄m itself as bidDah, by virtue of its presump-
tuous attempt to prove what had already been revealed as
true. By the eleventh century, two major h:ad ̄ıth-oriented
schools—the Ma ̄tur ̄ıd ̄ı (named after Abu ̄ Mans:u ̄r
al-Ma ̄tur ̄ıd ̄ı, d. 944) and the AshEar ̄ı (named after Abu ̄
al-H:asan al-AshEar ̄ı, d. 935)—had won out over more ratio-
nalistic groups such as the MuEtazilah. The AshEar ̄ıyah and
Ma ̄tur ̄ıd ̄ıyah emphasized emotional faith as opposed to the
mere assent of intellectualized belief and relied on
Muh:ammad’s own faith and the h:ad ̄ıth that expressed it as
the best guides. They favored an exoteric (z:a ̄hir ̄ı) style of
reading the QurDa ̄n and h:ad ̄ıth. Although they insisted on
the unity of God, they accepted the existence of his attributes
as mentioned in the QurDa ̄n, asserting that those attributes
were not part of his essence. They emphasized that God exer-
cised power over human action through continuous atomis-
tic creation, though they did not remove the power of
human choice altogether. They set limits on speculation by
accepting many difficult QurDanic points outright, without
regard to how they were true.
Sufism. Despite the emphasis of Jama ̄E ̄ı-Sunn ̄ıs on
shar ̄ıEah, they also began by the twelfth century to partake
of mystical piety (Sufism), partly because of the accomplish-
ments of al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı (d. 1111), the kala ̄m teacher and self-
styled S:u ̄f ̄ı. Al-Ghaza ̄l ̄ı managed to make a place in
Jama ̄E ̄ı-Sunn ̄ı legalism for the more spiritualized, ineffable
qualities of the S:u ̄f ̄ıs. Organized groups of S:u ̄f ̄ıs (t:ar ̄ıqahs)
of great scope and variety gradually appeared and expanded
so that by the sixteenth century much if not most of the adult
male Sunn ̄ı population may have belonged to one or the
other of these groups.
Jama ̄E ̄ı-Sunn ̄ısm has been described as the “piety of soli-
darity.” Its emphasis on the universal applicability and acces-
sibility not only of the QurDa ̄n but also of Muh:ammad’s sun-
nah has promoted remarkable cultural homogeneity among
the many diverse peoples who have come under the Islamic
umbrella during the past fourteen centuries.SEE ALSO Caliphate; H:ad ̄ıth; Imamate; Muh:ammad;
Nubu ̄wah.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Two Arabic sources available in English translation give textured
evidence for how the sunnah evolved: Alfred Guillaume’s A
Translation of [Ibn] Ish:a ̄q’s S ̄ırat Rasu ̄l Alla ̄h (1955; reprint,
Lahore, 1967) is an early biography of Muh:ammad that
shows how accounts of his life and portrayal of his sunnah
did not depend on h:ad ̄ıth alone; Islamic Jurisprudence:
Al-Sha ̄fıE ̄ı’s Risa ̄lah, translated by Majid Khadduri (Balti-
more, 1961), offers a classic statement on the role of h:ad ̄ıth
in formulating shar ̄ıEah.
Although many excellent works have been written about sunnah
and h:ad ̄ıth, William A. Graham’s Divine Word and Prophetic
Word in Early Islam (The Hague, 1977) is particularly useful.
In this pathbreaking study, Graham argues that the role of
Muh:ammad’s sunnah as a norm goes back to his own lifetime
and that it developed much more continuously than past
scholars have thought. Ignácz Goldziher’s Muslim Studies, 2
vols., translated by C. R. Barber and S. M. Stern (Chicago,
1967), is an erudite study of various aspects of Islam and a
good example of a legalistic approach to h:ad ̄ıth and sunnah;
Goldziher tends to be skeptical about their reliability, howev-
er. The first chapter of volume 1 is especially useful. Another
important work is Nabia Abbott’s Studies in Arabic Literary
Papyri, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1957–1967), a detailed study of
early Islamic written texts. Professor Abbott includes evi-
dence that h:ad ̄ıth were committed to writing much earlier
than scholars had previously argued. See also A. J. Wen-
sinck’s article “Sunna,” in Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam (Lei-
den, 1974); James Robson’s “Tradition, the Second Founda-
tion of Islam,” Muslim World 41 (1951): 22–33; and Josef
van Ess’s Zwischen H:ad ̄ıth und Thëologie (Berlin, 1975).
For Sh ̄ıE ̄ı developments and approaches to sunnah and h:ad ̄ıth, S.
H. M. Jafri’s The Origins and Development of ShiEa Islam
(London, 1979) is a solid chronological history of Twelver
Shiism, with a good analysis of the Twelver attitude to and
concern for sunnah. Marshall G. S. Hodgson’s “How Did the
Early ShiEa Become Sectarian?” Journal of the American Ori-
ental Society 75 (1955): 1–13, is a seminal article that man-
ages to convey the fluidity of pre-Abbasid politics as well as
the reasons for the consolidation of Twelver Shiism in the
late eighth century.
On bidDah, see D. B. Macdonald’s article “Bid’a” in Shorter Ency-
clopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1974), a brief survey with good
basic information and unfortunately few nuances, and Ber-
nard Lewis’s “Some Observations on the Significance of Her-
esy in Islam,” Studia Islamica 1 (1953): 43–63, a more subtle
interpretation of bidDah than usual, in a nondogmatic con-
text.
MARILYN ROBINSON WALDMAN (1987)S ́U ̄NYAM AND S ́U ̄NYATA ̄. “Empty,” “open,” “de-
void,” “nothing,” and “nonexistent” are words used toS ́U ̄NYAM AND S ́U ̄NYATA ̄ 8855