Sunnah translated from Arabic means custom, practice, law, giving. These are the first written records of the deeds and statements of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Sunnah is the second source of Muslim traditions and foundations after the Koran. It is made up of the so-called hadith - stories that were originally passed from mouth to mouth, and in the 8th-9th centuries were written down and compiled into collections. There are six collections of hadith recognized by Islam. The most authoritative of them is the collection of Abu Abdallah al-Buzari "As-Sahid", written in the 9th century.
Types and structure of hadith
Each of the hadiths includes 2 parts: isnad - a chain of transmitters of information with the help of which it was composed, and matn - the text of the legend itself. All hadiths of the Sunnah are divided into four types. Historical tells about events from the life of Muhammad. In the prophetic hadiths, the preacher gives predictions about various events and future disasters associated with these events. In the hadith about the merits, the prophet lists the merits of the Arab tribes. The most valuable are the sacred hadiths, since Allah himself speaks through them through the mouth of Muhammad.
The Sunnah is meant for the Islamic world to follow the prophet, both in life and in his words. To some extent, the Sunnah can be compared to the Jewish Talmud.
A typical isnad structure is as follows: "Such and such a person told from the words of such and such a person, which he heard from such and such a person to whom the prophet said the following words …". This is followed by the matn, in which Mohammed's speech is written.
Modern interpretation of the Sunnah
During the lifetime of Muhammad's companions, the authenticity of the hadiths collected was never in doubt. However, after their death, new traditions began to emerge, after which a specially Islamic theological discipline appeared, which verified their authenticity, criticizing many sources of information. On the basis of these studies, Arabic philology was subsequently laid.
Collectors and critics of hadiths were called mahadiths. They played the role of ideologues of the Islamic faith. Subsequently, many of them founded their own schools of jurisprudence.
It is quite obvious to a modern historian that many of the Sunnah contradictions are explained by the situational nature of Muhammad's statements. They changed along with changes in the political situation in the Arab world, which was by no means obvious to the prophet's contemporaries. Due to ambiguities in interpretations, a whole science arose that interpreted individual hadiths. And in the Islamic world for many centuries there have been disputes over the interpretation of certain lines.
