GCIL PODCAST - Javed Ahmed Ghamidi · Ghamidi Center Of Islamic Learning

Response to 23 Questions - Part 132 - What is Sunnah (Sunnat Kya Hai) - Javed Ahmed Ghamidi

·25 min·1 clip

The term “Sunnah” is used differently by usul, fiqh, wa‘z, and hadith scholars.

1. GCIL PODCAST’s “Response to 23 Questions - Part 132 - What is Sunnah (Sunnat Kya Hai)” centers on Javed Ahmed Ghamidi’s definition of Sunnah. 2. The discussion is between Ghamidi and the interviewer, who presses him on why his usage differs from the ulema’s. 3. The episode asks what Sunnah is for: whether it should name only permanent religious commands or a wider set of prophetic practices. 4. Ghamidi says the difference is not in reality but in the use of the word “Sunnah.” 5. He distinguishes Sunnah from Uswa-e Hasana and Tafheem-e Tabeen, saying those should keep their own names. 6. He compares this to the Quran and Tafseer, arguing that the Book of Allah and its explanations should not be collapsed into one label. 7. He says this distinction matters because keeping asal and far‘ under one title creates confusion in status and rank. 8. He cites his 2009 reply in the book “Maqamat,” where he laid out three categories of what the Prophet gave the world as Deen. 9. Those three categories are permanent ahkam and hidayah, sharah and wazahat, and the model of amal on those rulings. 10. He says the ulema often place all three under the single word Sunnah, while he reserves Sunnah for the first category. 11. The interviewer then cites Ibn-ul Abdel Barh in Jami’u Bi’anil Ilm, who says the usul of knowledge are the Book and Sunnah. 12. Ibn-ul Abdel Barh’s quote also says Sunnah is divided into two types, with one transmitted by the whole community and the other made up of akhbar-e ahad from reliable narrators. 13. Ghamidi uses that quote to show that even classical scholars separated what is transmitted by tawatur from what comes through individual reports. 14. He then insists that items received through ahad reports should be named according to their own reality, not placed under Sunnah by default. 15. The interviewer next raises the claim that Sunnah is a shariah term and asks whether Ghamidi is changing a consensus definition. 16. Ghamidi responds that the term was used in many senses before becoming a formal technical word in the hands of the ulema. 17. He cites Amidi from Al-Ihkam fi Usulil Ahkam to show that scholars of usul, fiqh, wa‘z, irshad, and hadith each use Sunnah differently. 18. The tone is explanatory and textual, with long Arabic quotations and repeated appeals to scholarly terminology. 19. People interested in usul al-fiqh, hadith terminology, and Ghamidi’s method will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a light introduction or a short devotional overview will probably find it too technical.

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