Sunna

sunna

Body of traditional social and legal custom and practice that constitutes proper observance of Islam. Early Muslims did not concur on what constituted sunna, because of the wide variety of pre-Islamic practices among converted peoples that had to be assimilated, reconciled, or abandoned. In the 8th century the sunna of Muhammad, as preserved in eyewitness records, was codified as the Hadith by Abu 'Abd Allah Shaf'ii. Later Muslim scholars strengthened the authority of sunna by devising a system for attesting the authenticity of various practices claimed as descending from Muhammad. See also 'ilm al-hadith; isnad; Shari'ah; tafsir.

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Sunna 

(also sunnah; Arabic for “mode of action,” “behavior,” “custom”), the Muslim sacred tradition, expounded in stories (hadiths) about the deeds and sayings of Muhammad. These stories, both factual and legendary, are considered to have come down from Muhammad’s followers and their disciples and elucidate and supplement the Koran. The sunna took form in the seventh to ninth centuries. I. Goldziher and C. Snouck Hurgronje made important scholarly studies of the sunna and showed how the factual material found in the sunna related to the development of Islam in the seventh to ninth centuries.