Sunnah (سُنَّة) means a way or path. In Islam it is the way of the Prophet ﷺ: what he said, did and approved. In fiqh, a sunnah is a recommended act, and a sunnah muakkadah is one he did regularly and rarely left.
The term
The word sunnah has three meanings, depending on who is speaking. To a hadith scholar, the sunnah is everything reported from the Prophet ﷺ: his words, his actions, what he approved when he saw it, and his description. To a scholar of usul, the sunnah is the second source of Islam after the Quran. To a jurist, "sunnah" is a ruling: an act that is rewarded when done and not punished when left, like the two rakahs before Fajr.
Sunnah comes from sanna, to make a path smooth so that others can walk it. The Quran speaks of sunnat Allah, Allah's way with nations: "and you will not find in the way of Allah any change" (33:62). The plural sunan gives the names of hadith books such as Sunan Abi Dawud.
لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌۭ لِّمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱلْيَوْمَ ٱلْءَاخِرَ وَذَكَرَ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًۭا ﴿٢١﴾
Laqad kaana lakum fee Rasoolil laahi uswatun hasanatul liman kaana yarjul laaha wal yawmal Aakhira wa azkaral laaha kaseeraa
There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.
Quran 33:21 · Sahih International · Read in Surah Al-Ahzab
"Whatever the Messenger has given you, take; and what he has forbidden you, refrain from" (59:7). The sunnah explains the Quran: the Quran says "establish prayer", and the sunnah shows how many rakahs and what to say.
"Hold to my sunnah and the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me; bite onto it with your molar teeth, and beware of newly invented matters" (Sunan Abi Dawud 4607; Jami at-Tirmidhi 2676, from al-Irbad ibn Sariyah, graded hasan sahih). When three men vowed to pray all night, fast every day and never marry, he said: "I fast and break my fast, I pray and I sleep, and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my sunnah is not of me" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5063; Sahih Muslim 1401, from Anas).
Hanafi fiqh grades acts from fard (obligatory by definite proof) and wajib (obligatory by less definite proof, such as witr), through two kinds of sunnah, to mustahabb or nafl (extra and liked), mubah (neutral), makruh and haram.
A sunnah muakkadah (confirmed sunnah) is what the Prophet ﷺ did regularly and left only rarely. Leaving it once is not a sin, but making a habit of leaving it without excuse is blameworthy, and many Hanafi jurists call it close to wajib. A sunnah ghayr muakkadah (unconfirmed sunnah, also called mustahabb or mandub) is what he did sometimes and left sometimes. Doing it brings reward, and leaving it brings no blame. The two rakahs before Fajr are the most stressed of all.
| Prayer | Sunnah muakkadah (Hanafi) | Sunnah ghayr muakkadah |
|---|---|---|
| Fajr | 2 before | |
| Dhuhr | 4 before (one salam), 2 after | 2 more after |
| Asr | 4 before | |
| Maghrib | 2 after | 6 after (awwabin) |
| Isha | 2 after | 4 before, 2 more after |
| Jumuah | 4 before, 4 after | 2 more after |
The twelve rakahs of sunnah muakkadah have a special promise: "Whoever prays twelve rakahs in a day and night, a house will be built for him in Paradise" (Sahih Muslim 728, from Umm Habibah).
"It's sunnah" usually means "the Prophet ﷺ did it, so it's rewarded": eating with the right hand, using a miswak, smiling, sleeping on the right side. "Sunni" Muslims are Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah, the people of the sunnah and the community. In South Asia, sunnat also means circumcision, which is one of the sunnahs of the fitrah.
The rulings on this page are pending review by the scholars on our team.
Questions
The way of the Prophet ﷺ: his words, actions and approvals. In fiqh, it also means a recommended act that is rewarded when done and not punished when left.
A confirmed sunnah: something the Prophet ﷺ did regularly and rarely left, such as the two rakahs before Fajr. Habitually leaving it without excuse is blameworthy.
A hadith is a report of what the Prophet ﷺ said or did. The sunnah is his way, which we know through the hadith. Some hadith are weak and do not establish a sunnah.
In the Hanafi school, sunnah prayers are those the Prophet ﷺ was known to pray regularly or often. Nafl are extra voluntary prayers beyond them.
Twelve rakahs of sunnah muakkadah in the Hanafi school: 2 before Fajr, 4 before and 2 after Dhuhr, 2 after Maghrib and 2 after Isha.