Difference between Hadeeth and Sunnah - Javed Ahmed Ghamidi
[Hassan Ilyas] The question deals with the difference between Hadith and Sunnah,
If you could briefly clarify it.
[Javed Ahmed Ghamidi] Our entire religion has come to us in two forms.
Allah's book, the Quran - it is the last book of Allah.
The books of Allah which have come before like the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms,
or the Books of the Prophets, as in the Old Testament, they exist even today.
But they are not present in the languages they were revealed in.
We possess only their translations.
The Quran exists in the language it was revealed. It is the last book.
This book is going to set the standards for those books as well, says Allah.
And until the day of judgement, the Quran tells us that this book will
decide what is right and what is wrong.
This is the first aspect.
The second aspect is that,
as I have mentioned earlier,
our religion did not begin about some 1400 years back.
The Quran tells us that this is the religion of all the Messengers.
Allah has said quite clearly that: Inna l deena indallahi l islam
Islam has been one and the only religion of Allah
from Adam to Muhammad (pbuh).
In fact, the Quran tells us that the name 'Muslim' was given by Abraham.
huwa sammaa Kumul muslimeen
So, the religion of Islam and its guidance that we have with us today,
the religion which was given to the Messengers was continued by the last Prophet (pbuh).
And that is referred to as Sunnah.
Salah is being offered since the time of Adam.
Fasting has been in practice since the time of Adam.
The pilgrimage of Hajj and Umrah began with Abraham (pbuh).
Before the last prophet, the people used to perform Hajj and Umrah
in the same way as they do today.
And there are various other things and I have made a list of those things
in the beginning of my book Meezan and I have stated that
these were the things which were issued as a Sunnah.
So, the Sunnah refers to things that are practical.
Some of them deal with the purification of the body.
Some are commands about the ritual of burying the dead.
Some of them are instructions that deal with marriage and divorce.
Some of them are instructions about slaughtering of animals.
All such things are referred to as the Sunnah.
In other words, these are the practices of the Prophets.
The command in this regard was given in a particular way in the Quran:
After taking the names of all the prophet,
Allah said: Fabi hudaahum iqtadih
You should also follow their instructions.
And this is what is referred to as Millat-e Ibrahim.
So, the Sunnah is practiced by Muslims and it was taught to each and every person by the Prophet (pbuh).
Every one of them practiced it.
A great number of companions transmitted this knowledge to the next generations,
and it continues to be transferred from generation to generation.
If someone wants to check its record,
our jurists have already written books on it in the books of jurisprudence.
It is known as Sunnah.
The religion Prophet (pbuh) gave us was based on the Quran and Sunnah.
After that Prophet (pbuh) passed away.
But the Prophet (pbuh) spent an entire life.
He gave answers to their questions.
He clarified certain issues.
If someone asked a question, he (pbuh) satisfied them with answers.
All these things were reported by the people. This is referred to as Hadith.
This is, therefore, a history of the time of the Prophet (pbuh).
Muslims have done extraordinary work in this regard as well.
What was the life of the Prophet (pbuh) like?
How the Prophet (pbuh) practiced the religion he gave to us in the form
of the Quran and the Sunnah?
What circumstances the Prophet (pbuh) faced?
Hadith is the greatest source in that regard.
An extraordinary work was done in this regard and
a lot of books were written as well.
So the entire religion can be found in the Quran and the Sunnah.
The Quran and the Sunnah have reached us with the consensus
and unbroken transmission of the whole Ummah
We have this historical record.
We should treat it as a historical record only.
It is the Quran and the Sunnah which basically make up our religion and
no Muslim should go beyond them.
Hadith will be studied.
They will be researched upon which will give us historical information.
We will familiarize ourselves with the biography of our Prophet (pbuh), and
we will be familiarized with the knowledge he taught.
If we assign a proper place to these things then we'll have no questions
but it is the case with human beings that they turn things upside down
which results in a lot of problems.