al-Sunna al-Nabawiya Wahi - Abu Lubaba bin al-Tahir Husayn
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- Maṭbaʻat al-Malik Fahd
al-Sunna al-Nabawiya Wahi (Arabic: السنة النبوية وحي من الله محفوظة كالقرآن الكريم, lit. 'The Prophetic Sunnah Is Divine Revelation from God, Preserved Like the Noble Quran') is a theological and hadith treatise by the contemporary scholar Abu Lubaba al-Tahir Husayn, former president of Ez-Zitouna University and professor of hadith studies. The work is dedicated to establishing that the authentic prophetic Sunnah constitutes infallible divine revelation (wahy) protected from error and discrepancy.
Purpose, Scope, and Definitions
The author restricts the inquiry to proving that authentic hadiths meeting the conditions of acceptance are divine revelation, deliberately avoiding broader introductory topics such as the technical definition of the Sunnah, its legislative status, or its general legal authority, except where strictly necessary. The Sunnah under examination is defined as that which is authentically established from the Prophet ﷺ in his statements, actions, and tacit approvals—referred to in early tradition as al-hady (guidance) and al-ʿilm (knowledge, as opposed to subjective opinion, al-raʾy).
Addressing whether all elements of the Sunnah constitute revelation, the work discusses instances where the Prophet ﷺ exercised personal reasoning (ijtihad), such as employing analogy (qiyas) or military strategy during the battles of Badr and Banu al-Nadir. The text demonstrates that such prophetic reasoning takes the ruling of revelation because God never leaves His Messenger upon error, directly approving sound judgments or admonishing and correcting him otherwise. Only routine, worldly experiential matters devoid of religious, doctrinal, or legislative rulings (such as the pollination of date palms) remain outside the sphere of divine revelation.
The Nature and Necessity of Revelation
The treatise defines wahy linguistically as a rapid sign or hidden communication, and legally as the divine law and speech communicated by God to His prophets. Drawing on Surah al-Shura (42:51), it outlines the three primary modes of revelation:
- Direct inspiration or casting of meaning into the prophet's heart, occurring either in wakefulness or through truthful dreams.
- Direct divine speech from behind a veil without visual perception, as occurred with Moses at Mount Tur and Muhammad ﷺ during the Night Journey (al-Miʿraj).
- Communication via the angel Gabriel, who appeared either in his original angelic form (with six hundred wings, witnessed twice), in human form (often resembling the companion Dihyah al-Kalbi), or unobserved while producing physical signs on the Prophet ﷺ, such as intense weight, sweating on cold days, and sounds akin to ringing bells or buzzing bees.
The book defends the rational possibility and necessity of revelation against historical materialists and nineteenth-century positivism, such as the philosophy of Auguste Comte. It argues that human sensory perception and reason are confined to the observable world (ʿalam al-shahadah) and cannot independently comprehend the unseen realm (ʿalam al-ghayb), human purpose, or the afterlife. To illustrate this limitation, the text cites the philosophical tale Hayy ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufayl, noting that even when a solitary intellect ascends to the recognition of higher metaphysical truths, divine revelation through chosen messengers remains indispensable to guide and convince human societies.
Method and Core Arguments
To establish that the Sunnah is divine revelation, the work adopts a fourfold evidential method grounded in scriptural texts, prophetic predictions, and scientific allusions:
Scriptural Proofs
The treatise marshals textual evidence from the Quran and hadith literature:
- Verses stating that divine clarification is bound to the revelation, such as ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا بَيَانَهُ ("Then upon Us is its clarification" [Al-Qiyamah 75:19]), where al-bayan denotes the Sunnah explaining, detailing, and qualifying the Quranic text.
- Quranic passages coupling the Book with al-hikmah (wisdom) (such as Al 'Imran 3:164 and al-Nisa' 4:113), citing authorities like al-Shafi'i, Qatadah ibn Di'amah, Ibn Jurayj, al-Tabari, and Mustafa al-Siba'i to demonstrate that al-hikmah designates the legislative Sunnah.
- Passages identifying revelation as al-dhikr (al-Nahl 16:44), relying on Ibn Hazm's argument that every revealed directive sent down to the Prophet ﷺ is an inspired reminder.
- Explicit hadith statements, primarily the narration of al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib wherein the Prophet ﷺ declared: ألا إني أوتيت الكتاب ومثله معه ("Indeed, I was given the Book and that which is like it with it"), signifying non-recited revelation (al-wahy ghayr al-matluww).
Unseen Prophecies and Scientific Precedence
The author presents fulfilled prophecies and scientific allusions as empirical confirmations of the Sunnah's divine origin:
- Predictions of the unseen (al-ghaybiyyat) that subsequently occurred as foretold, such as the Prophet's promise to Suraqah ibn Malik during the emigration to Medina that he would wear the bracelets of Chosroes (Kisra), which was realized during the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab after the conquest of Persia.
- Examples of scientific precedence (al-i'jaz al-'ilmi) in hadith, such as the narration stating that the human body perishes in the earth except for the coccyx ('ajb al-dhanab), from which creation originates and will be reconstituted, linking it to modern embryological findings regarding the primitive streak.
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