3.3. PRIORITY OF THE QUR’AN OVER THE SUNNAH
As Sunnah is the second source of the Shari’ah next to the Qur’an, the mujtahid is bound to observe an order of priority between the Qur’an and Sunnah. Hence in his search for a solution to a particular problem, the jurist must resort to the Sunnah only when he fails to find any guidance in the Qur’an. Should there be a clear text in the Qur’an, it must be followed and be given priority over any ruling of the Sunnah which may happen to be in conflict with the Qur’an. The priority of the Qur’an over the Sunnah is partly a result of the fact that the Qur’an consists wholly of manifest revelation (wahy zahir) whereas the Sunnah mainly consists of internal revelation (wahy batin) and is largely transmitted in the words of the narrators themselves. The other reason for this order of priority relates to the question of authenticity. The authenticity of the Qur’an is not open to doubt, it is, in other words, qati, or decisive, in respect of authenticity and must therefore take priority over the Sunnah, or at least that part of Sunnah which is speculative (zanni) in respect of authenticity. The third point in favor of establishing an order of priority between the Qur’an and the Sunnah is that the latter is explanatory to the former. Explanation or commentary should naturally occupy a secondary place in relation to the source. Furthermore, the order of priority between the Qur’an and Sunnah is clearly established in the Hadith of Mu’adh b. Jabal which has already been quoted. The purport of this Hadith was also adopted and communicated in writing by ‘Umar b. al-Kattab to two judges, Shurayh b.Harith and Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, who were ordered to resort to the Qur’an first and to the Sunnah only when they could not find no guidance in the Quran.
A practical consequence of this order of priority may be seen in the Hanafi distinction between fard and wajib. The former is founded in the definitive authority of the Qur’an, whereas the latter is founded in the definitive Sunnah, but is one degree weaker because of a possible doubt in its transmission and accuracy of content. These are some of the factors which would explain the general agreement of the ulema to the effect that the authority of Qur’an overrides that of the Sunnah.
There should in principle be no conflict between the Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah. If, however, a conflict is seen to exist between them, they must be reconciled as far as possible and both should be retained. If this is not possible, the Sunnah in question is likely to be of doubtful authenticity and must therefore give way to the Qur’an. No genuine conflict is known to exist between the Mutawatir Hadith and the Qur’an. All instances of conflict between the Sunnah and the Qur’an, in fact, originate in the solitary, or Ahad, Hadith, which is in any case of doubtful authenticity and subordinate to the overriding authority of the Qur’an.
It has, however, been suggested that establishing such an order of priority is anomalous and contrary to the basic role that the Sunnah plays in relation to the Qur’an. As the familiar Arabic phrase, al-Sunnah qadiyah ‘ala al-kitab (Sunnah is the arbiter of the Qur’an) suggests, it is normally the Sunnah which explains the Qur’an, not vice versa. The fact that the Sunnah explains and determines the precise meaning of the Qur’an means that the Qur’an is more dependent on the Sunnah than the Sunnah is on the Quran. In the event, for example, where the text of the Qur’an imparts more than one meaning or when it is conveyed in general terms, it is the Sunnah which specifies the meaning that must prevail. Again, the manifest (Zahir) of the Qur’an may be abandoned by the authority of the Sunnah, just as the Sunnah may qualify the absolute (mutlaq) in the Qur’an. The Qur’an on the other hand does not play the same role with regard to the Sunnah. It is not the declared purpose of the Qur’an to explain or clarify the Sunnah, as this was done by the Prophet himself. Since the Sunnah explains, qualifies, and determines the purport of the Qur’an, it must take priority over the Qur’an. If this is admitted, it would follow that incidents of conflict between the Qur’an and Sunnah must be resolved in favor of the latter. Some ulema have even advanced the view that the Hadith of Mu’adh b. Jabal (which clearly confirms the Qur’an’s priority over the Sunnah) is anomalous in that not everything in the Qur’an is given priority over the Sunnah. For one thing, the Mutawatir Hadith stands on the same footing as the Qur’an itself. Likewise, the manifest (Zahir) of the Qur’an is open to interpretation and ijtihad in the same way as the solitary, or Ahad, Hadith; which means that they are more or less equal in these respects. Furthermore, according to the majority opinion, before implementing a Qur’anic rule one must resort to the Sunnah and ascertain that the ruling in question has not been qualified in any way or given an interpretation on which the text of the Qur’an is not self-evident.
In response to the assertion that the Sunnah is the arbiter of the Qur’an, it will be noted, as al-Shatibi points out, that this need not interfere with the order of priority in favor of the Qur’an. For in all cases where the Sunnah specifies or qualifies the general or the absolute terms of the Qur’an, the Sunnah in effect explains and interprets the Qur’an. In none of such instances is the Qur’an abandoned in favor of the Sunnah. The word qadiyah (arbiter) in the expression quoted above therefore means mubayyinah (explanatory) and does not imply the priority of the Sunnah over the Qur’an. The textual rulings of the Qur’an concerning theft and the obligation of zakah have, for example, been qualified by the Sunnah. However, it is only proper to say that in both these cases, the Sunnah elaborates the general rulings of the Qur’an, and it would hardly be accurate to suggest that the Sunnah has introduced anything new or that it seeks to overrule the Qur’an. When an interpreter explains a particular legal text to us, it would hardly be correct to say that we act upon the words of the interpreter without referring to the legal text itself.
Furthermore, the explanatory role of the Sunnah in relationship to the Qur’an has been determined by the Qur’an itself, where we read in an address to the Prophet in sura al-Nahl (16:44): ‘We have sent down to you the Remembrance so that you may explain to the people what has been revealed to them.’ The correct conclusion drawn from this and similar Qur’anic passages is that the Sunnah, being explanatory to the Qur’an, is subordinate to it.
by M. H. Kamali
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