al-Sunna al-Nabawiya fi Muwajahat Shubuhat al-Istishraq - Anwar al-Jundi
- Author died
- 1422 AH
- Editions
- Al-Maktabah al-Asriyyah
al-Sunna al-Nabawiya fi Muwajahat Shubuhat al-Istishraq (The Prophetic Sunna in Confronting the Doubts of Orientalism) is a treatise by the Egyptian Islamic thinker Anwar al-Jundi (d. 1422 AH / 2002 CE) that defends the authority, transmission, and early codification of the Sunna against Orientalist critiques and Westernizing intellectual currents.
Background and Publication
The work was originally prepared as a research paper submitted to the Third International Conference on the Prophetic Sirah and Sunna held in Doha, Qatar, in Muharram 1400 AH (November 1979 CE). It was published in the second volume of the conference's collected proceedings, edited and prepared for print by Abdullah ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari, and issued in a single volume by al-Maktaba al-Asriyya in Sidon and Beirut in 1401 AH / 1981 CE.
Themes and Arguments
Al-Jundi frames Orientalist criticism of the Sunna as part of a broader cultural and intellectual offensive (al-ghazw al-fikri) against Islamic scripture, law, and history. He argues that modern Western scholars did not originate these arguments, but rather revived historical criticisms found among sectarian groups such as the Mu'tazilah, extreme Shi'a currents, and the Shu'ubiyya.
Methodological Critique of Orientalism
Al-Jundi argues that Orientalists and their adherents relied on flawed source material, extracting claims from popular storytelling (qisas), literary anthologies, and anecdotal compilations—such as Kitab al-Aghani, Alf Layla wa-Layla, Hayat al-Hayawan by al-Damiri, Thimar al-Qulub by al-Tha'alibi, and the Maqamat of Badi' al-Zaman—rather than authentic Hadith collections and legal sources. He criticizes prominent Orientalists—including Ignaz Goldziher, Reinhart Dozy, Aloys Sprenger, Carl Brockelmann, Philip Hitti, Gerlof van Vloten, Alfred von Kremer, and Henri Lammens—as well as the Encyclopaedia of Islam, for ideological bias and text manipulation. As an example of deliberate distortion, he notes Goldziher's misquotation of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and his claim that al-Zuhri fabricated a hadith concerning al-Aqsa Mosque for Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, noting that al-Zuhri did not meet the Caliph until seven years after the death of Ibn al-Zubayr. He also examines modern Arab writers who transmitted Goldziher's arguments, such as Mahmoud Abu Rayya, Ahmad Amin, Ali Abdel Raziq, Jurji Zaydan, and Ali Hasan Abd al-Qadir.
Early Codification of Hadith
Responding to the assertion that Hadith was not written down until the second century AH—leaving it susceptible to fabrication—al-Jundi cites arguments by Mustafa al-Siba'i and Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi demonstrating that written recording began during the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime. He lists early written records (sahifas) kept by Companions, including:
- al-Sahifah al-Sadiqah of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As
- The scrolls of Ali ibn Abi Talib, Anas ibn Malik, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and Jabir ibn Abd Allah
- The Sahifah of Hammam ibn Munabbih
He explains that while modern critics conflate multiple chains of transmission (turuq) with inflated numbers of distinct reports, the core corpus of non-repeated authentic narrations (around 2,602 in Sahih al-Bukhari and 4,000 in Sahih Muslim) corresponds directly to the early collections written in the first century AH. He also highlights the rigor of biographical evaluation (ilm asma' al-rijal) and travels undertaken by Hadith scholars.
The Necessity of the Sunna
Al-Jundi refutes contemporary calls to rely solely on the Quran and abandon the Sunna, citing passages from Muhammad Asad, al-Shafi'i, Muhammad Abd Allah Draz, and Abd al-Halim Mahmud. He emphasizes that the Sunna serves as the practical implementation and detailed explanation of Quranic generalities, such as the specific rules and forms of prayer (salah), almsgiving (zakat), and pilgrimage (hajj), without which the Quranic text cannot be fully understood or applied.
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