Sermon's Title: How the Sunnah Was Transmitted to Us
Themes of the Sermon:
1- The Sunnah is revelation from Allah
2- How Allah preserved the Sunnah
3- The unique distinction of this Ummah (Muslim community) with the Isnād (chain of narration)
4- The stage of recording and codification
All praise belongs to Allah, who established and legislated the religion, sent down the Reminder (al-Dhikr), and guaranteed its preservation. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without any partner, and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah bestow upon him abundant peace and blessings.
To proceed: Fear Allah, servants of Allah, with the reverence He is truly owed, and remain mindful of Him in secret and in public.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him].” [SūratĀ l ʿImrān: 102].
Servants of Allah:
One day, Yaʿlā ibn Umayyah said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with them both), “Show me the Prophet ﷺ when he is receiving revelation!” Later, while the Prophet ﷺ was on his way to perform ʿumrah (the lesser pilgrimage), a man came up and asked him, “O Messenger of Allah! What do you say about a man who enters the sacred state of iḥrām for ʿumrah while heavily covered in perfume?”
The Prophet ﷺ remained silent for a while, and then the revelation came to him. ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) gestured to Yaʿlā, who came over and looked under a garment that was shading the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He saw that the Prophet's face was flushed and he was breathing heavily with a snoring sound. Soon, the intensity of the state left him, and he asked, “Where is the person who asked about the ʿumrah?”
The man was brought forward, and the Prophet ﷺ instructed him, “Wash off the perfume that is on you three times, remove your cloak, and do during your ʿumrah what you do during your ḥajj (pilgrimage).” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
Yaʿlā ibn Umayyah wanted to witness the descent of revelation with his own eyes. What he saw was the Prophet ﷺ being asked a question, waiting for revelation, and then answering through his Sunnah (prophetic tradition). This proves that his Sunnah is revelation from Allah the Almighty.
The two forms of revelation—the Qur’ān and the Sunnah—are the ultimate safeguards against misguidance and misery. The Prophet ﷺ said: “I have left among you two things after which you will never go astray as long as you hold fast to them and act upon them: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah. They will never separate until they meet me at the Prophet's Basin (al-Ḥawḍ).” (Narrated by al-Ḥākim).
Both are parts of the Reminder (al-Dhikr) that Allah sent down to His Messenger ﷺ, as He stated:
وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ
“And We revealed to you the message [the Reminder] that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them” [Sūrat al-Naḥl: 44].
And Allah, Glorified be He, has personally guaranteed the preservation of this Reminder, saying:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
“Indeed, it is We who sent down the message [the Reminder] and indeed, We will be its guardian.” [Sūrat al-Ḥijr: 9].
You might wonder: how exactly did Allah preserve the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ for us?
It all began with those definitive verses of the Qur’ān commanding absolute obedience to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Allah said:
قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ
“Say, ‘Obey Allah and obey the Messenger’” [Sūrat al-Nūr: 54].
Furthermore, Allah confirmed that whatever the Prophet speaks is inspiration from Him, declaring:
وَمَا يَنْطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى * إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى
“Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. It is not but a revelation revealed” [Sūrat al-Najm: 3–4].
Because of this, the Prophet ﷺ strongly encouraged his Companions to listen to his Sunnah, memorize it accurately, and pass it on to the generations after them. He stood to deliver a sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage and explicitly told them: “Let those who are present convey it to those who are absent, for perhaps the one to whom it is conveyed will understand it better than the one who heard it directly.” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
He also promised a radiant, joyful life to whoever carries his Sunnah and transmits it, saying ﷺ: “May Allah grant brightness and beauty to a person who hears a ḥadīth (prophetic saying) from us, memorizes it, and conveys it to others. For many a carrier of knowledge carries it to one who is more understanding than himself, and many a carrier of knowledge is not a person of deep understanding.” (Narrated by Abū Dāwūd).
He urged them to memorize it and promised Allah's divine assistance in doing so. One day, he said: “No one will spread out his garment until I finish this speech of mine and then gather it to himself except that he will retain everything I say.” So Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) spread out his woolen cloak. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished speaking, Abū Hurayrah said, “I gathered it to my chest, and I never forgot a single word from that speech of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
At the same time, the Prophet ﷺ issued the sternest warning against fabricating statements about him, saying: “A lie against me is not like a lie against anyone else. Whoever intentionally fabricates a lie against me, let him take his place in the Fire.” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
Driven by this sacred duty, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) rose to the occasion, preserving and recording the Sunnah in the best possible manner. Their eyes were constantly fixed on him, capturing his words, his actions, and his guidance in every aspect of life. Some memorized these details in their hearts, while others wrote them down with their pens.
Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) noted this himself, saying: “None of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ narrated more ḥadīth from him than me, except for ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, because he used to write them down and I did not.” (Narrated by al-Bukhārī).
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (may Allah be pleased with them both) was incredibly dedicated to writing down the sayings of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He related: “I used to write down everything I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, intending to memorize it. However, the Quraysh tribe discouraged me, saying, ‘Do you write down everything you hear, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is a human being who speaks in times of anger and joy?’ So, I stopped writing. Later, I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who pointed to his mouth with his finger and said: ‘Write! For by the One in Whose hand is my soul, nothing comes out of it except the truth!” (Narrated by Abū Dāwūd).
Finally, the Prophet ﷺ informed his Companions that they would be the link transmitting this religion to the next generation, who would then pass it on to those after them, saying: “You hear from me, and people will hear from you, and others will hear from those who heard from you.” (Narrated by Abū Dāwūd).
Hundreds of Companions transmitted knowledge and the Sunnah from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Among them were those who narrated many traditions and those who narrated few. The Companions who narrated the most from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were Abū Hurayrah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, Anas ibn Mālik, ʿĀ’ishah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with them all).
This is how the Companions received the ḥadīth from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Then came the Tābiʿūn (the Successors of the Companions), who received the ḥadīth from them, both by listening and writing. Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: “I used to listen to ḥadīth from ibn ʿUmar and ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) at night, and I would write it down.” (Narrated by al-Dārimī).
Bashīr ibn Nahīk (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “I used to write down what I heard from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). When I intended to leave him, I brought his book to him and read it back to him, and I asked him, ‘Is this what I heard from you?’ He replied, ‘Yes.” (Narrated by al-Dārimī).
Maʿrūf al-Khayyāṭ said: “I saw Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ (may Allah be pleased with him) dictating ḥadīths to the people while they wrote them down in front of him.” (Narrated by al-Bayhaqī).
In this great generation, the generation of the Tābiʿūn, the booklets written by the Successors from the Companions multiplied. The Successors then transmitted what they had memorized of the Sunnah from the Companions to the generations after them, both through memorization in their hearts and in writing from their booklets. Thus, the Sunnah was transmitted through the Isnād (chain of narration)—the Companions took it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Successors took it from the Companions, and the Followers of the Successors took it from the Successors.
So praise be to Allah for this blessing, as He prepared for this Ummah outstanding scholars and brilliant memorizers who carried the trust of knowledge with integrity and delivered it with honesty.
May Allah bless me and you in the magnificent Qur’ān, and benefit me and you from the verses and wise reminders it contains. I seek forgiveness from Allah for me and for you, so seek His forgiveness, for He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
The Second Sermon:
All praise belongs to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and those who follow him. To proceed:
When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz became the Caliph, he wrote to Abū Bakr ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm—who was the governor of Madīnah at the time: “Look for whatever there is of the ḥadīth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, or his Sunnah, and write it down for me, for I fear the fading of knowledge and the passing away of the scholars.” (Narrated by Mālik).
The scholars complied with the command of the Leader of the Believers. Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz commanded us to collect the Sunan (prophetic traditions); so we wrote them down volume by volume, and he sent a volume to every land over which he had authority.” (Narrated by ibn ʿAbd al-Barr).
Following this initial recording came the phase of classification and codification, which took place in the middle of the second century AH. The authors of these books compiled the ḥadīths with their chains of narration so that the Sunnah would not be lost. When people of innovation and desires emerged within the Ummah and deliberately fabricated lies against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the scholars established rules to distinguish authentic ḥadīths from others. They set strict conditions, investigated the reliability of the narrators, developed the sciences of ḥadīth, and formulated the rules of al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (criticism and validation of narrators).
As a result, the chain of narration became an integral part of the religion. No statement attributed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or to anyone else, including the Companions, would be accepted unless it possessed a connected, authentic, and acceptable chain of narration, whose transmitters were characterized by upright character and precise memory.
Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn said: “Indeed, this knowledge is religion, so look to whom you take your religion from.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak said: “The chain of narration is part of the religion; were it not for the Isnād, anyone who wished could say whatever they wanted.”
One of the staunchest orientalist critics of Islam once remarked: “The Muslims are justified in taking pride in their science of ḥadīth.” He spoke the truth, for there is no nation on the face of the earth that cared for the words and actions of its Prophet—even his smiling, his weeping, his laughing, his food, his drink, and even the names of his riding animals ﷺ—like this Ummah did, generation after generation. They transmitted all of this through connected chains of narration preserved in their hearts and recorded in written compilations. Furthermore, they did not stop at transmitting through the chain of narration; rather, they scrutinized and double-checked every single letter, establishing strict rational rules to safeguard the religion from lies and mistakes.
O Allah, all praise belongs to You; You have preserved our religion for us by Your might and mercy. May Allah be pleased with the scholars of this community and reward them on our behalf with the best reward.
O Allah, help us and do not let others overcome us; grant us victory and do not give victory over us; support us with Your planning and let not the plans of others harm us; and grant us victory over those who oppress us.
O Allah, grant security to our homelands, rectify our leaders and those in authority over us, and place our governance under the care of those who fear You, remain mindful of You, and seek Your pleasure.
O Allah, be with our oppressed brothers and sisters in Gaza and in every place, and decree for them a near victory and relief.
Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
