The Companions had no doubt that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a role model for his Ummah, and that his words and actions were obligatory to follow, and that he was sent to all people at all times and places. They would only seek clarification from him regarding his commands to understand whether it was his own judgment, in which case they would discuss it with him, or whether it was a revelation, in which case they would comply without hesitation. They understood that obeying the Messenger (peace be upon him) was a part of obeying Allah, as stated in many ayahs.

Urwa ibn Mas'ud, who was a polytheist at the time, expressed this to Quraysh: “O people, I have visited kings, and I have visited Caesar, Khosrow, and the Najashi, but by Allah, I have never seen a king whose companions venerate him as the companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him) venerate him. When he commands them, they hasten to comply, when he performs wudu’, they almost fight over his wudu’ water, when he speaks, they lower their voices in his presence, and they do not gaze at him directly out of respect for him.” ⁽¹⁾

• Political and Intellectual Bias as a Reason for Questioning the Sunnah:

The Companions narrated the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with complete honesty. Scholars of the Sunnah unanimously agreed on the integrity of all the Companions, even those involved in the fitnah (discord) between Ali and Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with them), acknowledging that they were all striving to do their best, and those who erred in their efforts did not lose their integrity or the eligibility of their narrations.

The movement to question the Sunnah began with the Khawarij and Shia, and subsequently by various theological sects. This encouraged anyone with hostility towards Islam to raise further doubts about the authentic Sunnah, despite the efforts of hadith scholars to verify it scientifically, leaving no room for doubt about what they deemed as authentic. Many misconceptions about the Sunnah emerged during the early centuries of the Hijrah to Medina, among the most significant being:

• Attacking the Integrity of the Companions and Their Sunnah Narrations:

The Khawarij's political stance reflected their attitude towards the authentic Sunnah narrated by Companions they disagreed with. They considered all the Companions just before the fitna but declared most of them as unbelievers afterward, rejecting their hadiths and questioning their integrity due to their acceptance of arbitration and following unjust leaders, as they claimed.

The Shia criticized Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Aisha, Talha, Zubair, Muawiya, and Amr ibn al-As, along with those who supported them among the majority of the Companions, whom they accused of usurping the caliphate from Ali, defaming them with inappropriate descriptions. They based their doctrine on rejecting the hadiths of the majority of Companions except for those narrated by the followers of Ali, provided these narrations came through their Imams, whom they considered infallible. They only accepted hadiths from Sunni scholars sources if they agreed with their own narrations, thereby labeling some hadiths as fabricated, which hadith scholars considered highly authentic. ⁽²⁾

The Mu'tazilites took an even more extreme stance, dismissing the integrity of the Companions altogether. Wasil ibn Ata (d. 131 AH) of the Mu'tazilites believed that one of the factions in the battles of Siffin and the Camel was sinful, without specifying which, and therefore rejected their narrations. Amr ibn Ubaid (d. 144 AH) considered both factions and their supporters sinful and refused to accept their narrations. The Mu'tazilites accused hadith scholars of narrating lies, while hadith scholars accused the leaders of the Mu'tazilites of sinfulness, debauchery, heresy, and holding opinions unsupported by divine revelation, even accusing them of disbelief. ⁽³⁾

Thus, the authentic Sunnah faced significant challenges from the Shia, Khawarij, and Mu'tazilites, whose extreme views on the Companions greatly influenced differing opinions and rulings in Islamic Fiqh. Criticizing the narrations of the Companions undermines the Sunnah and leads to abandoning religious laws in favor of personal whims. If the integrity of the Companions is discarded and their hadiths rejected, from whom will we take the hadith of the Messenger of Allah?!

• Attacking Hadiths Proven Authentic:

Opening the door to questioning the Companions' narrations led to doubts about hadiths of the highest authenticity, under the pretense that they were Aahaad hadiths (narrated by not enough narrators) narrated by one or a few Companions. Scholars of the Sunnah responded to these claims, with Imam al-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH) dedicating a lengthy chapter in his book “Al-Risala” to the authority of Aahaad hadiths. Ibn Abdul Barr (d. 463 AH) stated, “Scholars of Jurisprudence and Athar (tradition) across all regions, as far as I know, agree on the acceptability of a single just report and the obligation to act upon it if proven, without it being abrogated by another Athar or consensus by every scholar in all eras from the Companions till this day, except the Khawarij and some small heretical groups, whose disagreement is not considered.” ⁽⁴⁾

• Questioning the Authority of the Sunnah as a Legislative Source:

In the second century AH, a group emerged denying the authority of the Sunnah, advocating for the sufficiency of the Quran alone, claiming that the Quran encompasses everything, thus eliminating the need for any other source. They cited the ayah, “And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things.” (Al-Nahl: 89) Yet these individuals ignored the Quranic ayahs that mandate obedience to the Messenger (peace be upon him), such as, “And obey Allah and His Messenger, if you should be believers.” (Al-Anfal: 1)

Imam al-Shafi'i countered their argument by stating, “I have not heard of anyone, whether attributed to knowledge or claiming it themselves, contradicting the obligation set by Allah to follow His Messenger's commands and accept his judgments, acknowledging that Allah has not given anyone the authority to follow anything other than the Messenger's teachings, and that nothing is obligatory except the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger and everything else is secondary to them. All else follows them, and Allah's command for us and those before and after us to accept the report from the Messenger of Allah is one and the same. There is no difference in the obligation and duty to accept the report from the Messenger of God, except for a group whose opinion I will describe, in Allah’s will. The scholars of theology then diverged in affirming the report from Allah’s Messenger, resulting in various differences, and other groups, whom the public associate with jurisprudence, also diverged in their views.” ⁽⁵⁾

Al-Shafi'i argued with one of them, asserting that Allah obligates us to follow His Messenger, which applies to both his contemporaries and those who come after. Since those who did not witness the Messenger can only follow him through transmitted reports, it is obligatory to accept these reports as necessary to fulfill the obligation, as the Quran's rulings themselves depend on the Sunnah for clarification of abrogated and abrogating verses. ⁽⁶⁾

Scholars have deemed this group heretical, with Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH) stating, “If someone claimed to accept only what is found in the Quran, they would be considered an unbeliever by the consensus of the scholars. They would only be required to perform one prayer from midday to nightfall and another at dawn, as that is the minimum that can be called prayer, with no limit on the maximum. Such a person would be a disbeliever, a polytheist, whose blood and wealth are lawful. Some extreme Rafida (rejectors) groups, whom the Ummah unanimously consider disbelievers, hold this view.”

These same misconceptions about the Sunnah, including questioning the Companions' integrity, rejecting hadiths proven authentic, denying the authority of the Sunnah, and advocating for the sufficiency of the Quran, have been echoed by modern-day deniers of the Sunnah in a different manner.

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1. Fath al-Bari: Book of Conditions, Chapter: Conditions in Jihad and Reconciliation, Volume 5, pg. 388, (2583).
2. Mustafa as-Siba'ee: The Sunnah and Its Role in Islamic Legislation, pg.133.
3. The previous reference, pg.151.
4. Introduction to the Meanings and Chains of Transmission in al-Muwatta, Moroccan Ministry of Endowments Edition, 1387 AH, Introduction, Volume 1, pg.2.
5. Al-Umm, The Book of Knowledge, Dar al-Fikr, Beirut, 2nd edition, 1983, Volume 7, pg.287.
6. The previous reference, Volume 7, pg.288-290.
7. Al-Ihkam fi Usul al-Ahkam, investigated by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida, Beirut, 2nd edition, 1983, Volume 2, pg. 80.

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