Sunnah

Sunnah, the body of traditional social and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community. Along with the Qurʾān (the holy book of Islam) and Hadith (recorded sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), it is a major source of Sharīʿah, or Islamic law. In pre-Islamic Arabia, the term sunnah referred to precedents established by tribal ancestors, accepted as normative and practiced by the entire community. The early Muslims did not immediately concur on what constituted their...