Title: Is Sunnah really Independent of Hadith ? Question/Comments: Thanks for your responses. Few questions are raised when your response is seen in perspective of your definition of Sunnah . You wrote that making a general routine of offering congregational supplications at the end of Sala'h , celebrating Sabeh-Barat are bid`ahs . They are Bidahs because Prophet never practiced nor authorized that. This information we get only from Hadith . But according to your definition of Sunnah which is independent of Hadith , the referred action should have been as "neither Bidah nor Sunnah " since there is no consensus [just as you told for pronouncing Aameen ]. Furthermore, you wrote in your earlier response that Sunnah is "complete consensus of Muslims all over the world emanating from the companions of the Prophet". The practices of the companions can also be known only from Hadith . So your definition of Sunnah as well as your method of determining Sunnah / Bidah doesn't seem to be completely independent of Hadith . Regards, Ameen Answer: When I say that the transmission of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh) is not dependent on Hadith or when I say that Hadith is not a primary source of the Shari`ah , it should not be construed as refuting the significance of Hadith as one of the primary sources of the life and times of the Prophet (pbuh), his Seerah and a number of historical events during and immediately following the Prophet's (pbuh) times. Seen from this perspective, Hadith can provide invaluable information to substantiate and to refute the position of a particular ritual. This, however, neither makes Hadith a primary source of the Shari`ah nor does it make the transmission of the Sunnah dependent on the transmission of Hadith . Keeping the foregoing clarification in mind, it should be clear that in the case of the various rituals, which you had mentioned in your previous question, I do not consider them as Sunnah simply because they do not meet the requirements stipulated in my definition of Sunnah . However, once we have categorized a ritual as 'not being a Sunnah ', the very nature of the action, the historical record of its initiation and other related factors will help us decide whether or not it should be placed in the category of " Bid`ah " or "neither Sunnah nor Bid`ah " (that is, falling within the category of Jayiz ). I do agree that compilations of Hadith , in combination with a few other works of the Muslim scholars can help in these steps. However, this help, if you would closely examine is of the nature of either substantiating something as a Sunnah of the Prophet or of categorizing something as a Bid`ah or as Jayiz (i.e. allowed). It neither makes Hadith a source of the Sunnah or the Shari`ah nor does it make the transmission of Sunnah dependent on the transmission of Hadith . I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad January 1, 2002