al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah wa Makanatuha - Ruqayyah Niyaz

al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah wa Makanatuha (The Prophetic Sunnah and Its Status) is a legal and jurisprudential treatise authored by Ruqayyah bint Nasr Allah Niyaz, examining the authoritative validity (hujjiyyah), rank, and legislative function of the Sunnah in Islamic jurisprudence al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w….

Purpose and Scope

The work was prepared as an academic research paper for a scholarly symposium to delineate the authoritative role of the Sunnah as an essential source of Islamic legislation and clarify the conditions under which Prophetic acts and statements constitute binding law al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…. The author notes that challenges to the Sunnah emerged from historical and modern groups seeking to cast doubt on its legal authority, reject solitary transmissions (ahad), or advocate reliance solely on the Quran al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…. The book focuses specifically on establishing the evidentiary validity of the Sunnah and classifying its normative authority, setting aside detailed refutations of polemical claims for other dedicated forums al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w….

Structure and Content

The treatise is organized into an introduction, four main chapters (mabahith), and a conclusion al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…:

• Introduction: Details the significance of the topic and examines the definition of the Sunnah both linguistically—as a path or habit—and technically according to the jurists, legal theorists, and hadith scholars al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…+1.
• Chapter One (Authoritative Validity of the Sunnah): Analyzes the proofs establishing the binding authority of the Sunnah through four avenues: Quranic verses commanding obedience and affirming revelation; explicit, admonitory, and implicit hadiths; the historical consensus (ijma) of the Companions, Successors, and leading mujtahid imams; and rational arguments highlighting the impossibility of executing general Quranic injunctions without Prophetic explanation al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…+1.
• Chapter Two (Rank of the Sunnah in Legislation): Examines the position of the Sunnah as the second source of Islamic law after the Quran, providing proofs from scriptural texts, traditional reports such as the dispatch of Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, scholarly consensus, and rational argumentation demonstrating that the definitive nature of the Quran precedes the Sunnah in consideration al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…+1.
• Chapter Three (Function of the Sunnah in Clarifying Legal Rulings): Categorizes the legislative relationship between the Sunnah and the Quran into six functions: corroborating Quranic rulings; explaining succinct or generalized texts (mujmal); specifying general terms ('amm); qualifying absolute declarations (mutlaq); establishing independent rulings concerning issues unmentioned in the Quran (such as the grandmother's inheritance and the prohibition of combining a woman and her paternal aunt in marriage); and abrogating Quranic rulings according to majority juristic views al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…+1.
• Chapter Four (Status of the Sunnah Regarding Practical Implementation): Evaluates the question of whether every matter originating from the Prophet is considered binding legislation al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…. It separates actions into those prior to the prophetic mission and those after it, further subdividing post-mission occurrences into verbal statements, physical acts (distinguishing between natural human impulses, customary acts, worship-linked practices, and exclusive Prophetic prerogatives), tacit approvals (taqrir), and Prophetic personal reasoning (ijtihad) in worldly matters such as agriculture al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w…+1.
• Conclusion: Summarizes the study's central findings, affirming the inseparable relationship between the Quran and the Sunnah, the binding status of authentic Sunnah, and the necessity of applying clear methodological criteria to distinguish between legislative and non-legislative Prophetic actions al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah w….