The Qur’an is the law of Islam, and the Sunnah is its application.

The Qur’an is the law of Islam, and the Sunnah is its application. A Muslim is required to respect this application just as they are required to respect the law itself. Allah gave His Prophet the right to be followed in what he commands and forbids because, in doing so, he does not speak of his own accord, but rather from the guidance of his Lord. Therefore, obedience to him is obedience to Allah, not blind submission to a mere human being.

Following in the footsteps of the messengers is absolute goodness. Consequently, the Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ became a source of his divine law alongside the Book with which Allah honored him, a point on which the vast majority of Muslims agree. However, the reported traditions were subjected to circumstances that require vigilance when receiving them: not everything attributed to the Prophet ﷺ is a Sunnah to be accepted, nor is everything that is authentically attributed to him correctly understood or properly applied.

Muslims have not been harmed by fabricated traditions as much as they have been harmed by traditions that were misunderstood or misplaced—to the extent that people eventually emerged who view all traditions with suspicion and accusation, wishing that Muslims would rid themselves of them altogether.

This is an error in two respects:

First, it ignores historical reality. The world has never known a human being whose legacy was recorded, critically examined, and meticulously scrutinized as was done with the legacy of Muhammad bin Abdullah. How, then, can it be cast into the trash heaps of neglect?

Second, the Sunnah contains treasures of high wisdom. If even a fraction of them were attributed to anyone else, that person would be considered among the greatest reformers. Why, then, should their author be denied credit for them, and people be deprived of their goodness?

When we studied the legacy of Muhammad ﷺ regarding ethics, and reviewed his traditions—which number in the thousands across various virtues—it seemed to us that if an army of psychologists and educators gathered to present the world with such moral guidance, they would fail. Yet, ethics is merely one branch of Muhammad’s ﷺ immense message.

— *Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali*

— *From his book: Fiqh al-Sirah*