al-Sunnah Kulluha Tashri - Musa Shahin Lashin
- Author died
- 1430 AH
- Editions
- بحث بمجلة كلية الشريعة بجامعة قطر العدد العاشر
al-Sunnah Kulluha Tashri (The Entire Sunnah is Legislation) is a legal and theological treatise by the Egyptian hadith scholar and former dean of the Faculty of Usul al-Din at al-Azhar University, Musa Shahin Lashin (d. 1430 AH / 2009 CE) . Written while the author served as senior expert at the Center for Sunnah and Sirah Research at Qatar University, the work argues against the contemporary division of the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ traditions into "legislative" (tashri'iyyah) and "non-legislative" (ghayr tashri'iyyah) categories .
Background and Context
Lashin frames the dispute as stemming largely from ambiguous terminology and an ungrounded departure from classical Islamic legal theory . He asserts that for fourteen centuries, Muslim scholars never divided the Sunnah or Hadith into legislative and non-legislative components . According to Lashin, this dichotomy first emerged in the second half of the fourteenth century AH with Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut in his book al-Islam: 'Aqidah wa-Shari'ah (Islam: Creed and Law) .
Lashin notes that later modern writers adopted and expanded Shaltut's premise, applying the "non-legislative" label beyond practical worldly crafts (such as agriculture and medicine) to areas such as daily human habits (eating, drinking, and clothing) and commercial transactions (mu'amalat) . Lashin contends that such extensions misunderstand the scope of legal rulings and open doors unintended even by earlier proponents of the distinction .
Method and Legal Arguments
The author builds his case upon classical principles of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), differentiating between the terminological usage of jurists (fuqaha'), legal theorists (usuliyyun), and hadith scholars (muhaddithun) . While jurists often use sunnah to designate recommended or non-obligatory acts (mandub), legal theorists define it as the Prophet's ﷺ statements, actions, and tacit approvals .
Lashin defines legislation (tashri') as the assignment of a normative legal ruling (hukm shar'i) to an act, encompassing all five standard categories: obligation (wujub), prohibition (tahrim), recommendation (nadb), dislike (karahah), and permissibility (ibahah) . He emphasizes that even ordinary or customary actions establish legal permissibility (ibahah) or the lifting of liability, citing classical jurists such as Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni, and al-Shatibi to demonstrate that permissibility itself is an established legal ruling derived from the Lawgiver .
Citing the contemporary Azhari jurist Abd al-Ghani Abd al-Khaliq, Lashin maintains that every deliberate or natural act, utterance, or approval emanating from the Prophet ﷺ during his prophetic mission provides legal guidance and establishes a ruling under one of the five legal categories .
Publication
The work was also issued under the title al-Sunnah wa-l-Tashri' (The Sunnah and Legislation), published as a special supplement to Majallat al-Azhar by the Islamic Research Academy in Sha'ban 1411 AH under the editorial supervision of Ali Ahmad al-Khatib .
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