| Answer:
In order to distinguish between Sunnah and Hadith, we
(I mean the school of thought I am representing) tend to highlight a few
features:
i) Sunnah is always an act of the Prophet (sws) while a
Hadith is a report of his statement, act, silent approval or an incident that
took place in his life.
ii) Sunnah has come down to us from generation to generation
while Hadith has been reported, in most cases, by one individual to another.
Thus the act that qualifies as Sunnah is undoubtedly authentic – quite as
authentic as the Qur’an itself – while Hadith, at best, carries a strong
probability that it may have been correctively reported. This is because God
Almighty arranged the two sources to be the way they are: He arranged Sunnah to
remain completed beyond doubt, because it was to be a part of His last message
and allowed Hadith to be a human effort at preserving information about the
Prophet (sws).
iii) Sunnah is clear in what it stands for where as the
context of a hadith had to be understood (and therefore interpreted) by all the
narrators involved in the chain of transmission. The process of interpretation
has also got to be done now by whoever is to benefit from a Hadith.
iv) Sunnah has to be religious because the Prophet (sws) like
all other Prophets came to give God’s message in the form of religion to
mankind.
The last point of differentiation is quite clear, but has
been made to appear not quite as such by the people who have attempted to
present Islam as a way of life. The question is that if it was a way of life in
which everything – including the minute details of practical life – had to be
taken from the Prophet’s life, then it should have been the Prophet himself who
should have told people to do so. When he clarifies that he had come only to
deliver what is religion from God, who else has the authority to alter that
understanding?
As for the question as to how can we distinguish a Sunnah
from a non- Sunnah in the literature of Hadith, we’ll have to look for practices
that are mentioned in Hadith literature which are also being universally
followed amongst Muslims as such. Prayers, jumu‘ah prayers, funeral prayers,
bathing of the dead and many other practices are the ones that are mentioned in
the Hadith literature, and Muslims have adopted them in their lives as part of
their religion.
Interestingly, this test of universality is the best guide in
knowing the antithesis of Sunnah – bid‘ah – as well. If there is a practice that
has gotten introduced in the name of religion in a certain region but is
confined to a certain region alone, it is a bid‘ah, like the rituals performed
in the subcontinent after the death of a dear one.
We know that the Prophet (sws) travelled on camels, horses,
and donkeys; he advised people to resort to medicines that were available during
his times; he had his own taste for dishes which were different from the tastes
of others; and he fought battles with swords and other forms of equipment of
warfare that were available during his times. Muslim scholars have never
considered any of these acts of him as Sunnah, because they have nothing to do
with religion.
I agree that at times there can be a difference of opinion on
certain acts of his whether they were religious or not. This difference of
opinion occurred during the time of the Prophet (sws) as well. In such cases, it
seems that the following criterion would help. Any act that belongs to any of
these categories is religious, otherwise it is not:
i) Worship, remembrance of God etc.
ii) Physical cleanliness
iii) Cleanliness of edibles
iv) Ethics and morality
Courtesy:
http://www.islamicissues.info/qa_question.php?qid=362
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