The actions of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace

And its implications for Islamic rulings

Author's name: Dr. Muhammad Suleiman Al-Ashqar

Ancient and modern scholars have written on the subject of statements, and most of them have been devoted to specialized books. They have written on commands and prohibitions, on truth and metaphor, on the interpretation of ambiguous texts, on generality and specificity, and other matters. The prophetic actions have been neglected, except for a few minor efforts. The legal theorists have only briefly touched upon them in their comprehensive legal theological works. Is this the true weight of actions? Have actions been given their full due and what they deserve? A review of the points of disagreement among jurists clearly shows that one of the reasons for disagreement among them is their disagreement over the rulings derived from actions. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that disagreement over these rules of actions is the greatest cause of juristic disagreement. Among the actions are those whose validity is disputed, such as omission, writing, gestures, silence, and acknowledgment. These are called implicit actions in this book. Among the actions are those whose actuality is not hidden, such as prayer, fasting, jihad, bowing, prostration, eating, drinking, and sleeping. These are called explicit actions in this book. The third chapter dealt with the conflict between actions and other evidence. The introduction defined the Sunnah linguistically and technically, and explained the authority of the Sunnah in general, its position in relation to the Qur’an, and clarified the Prophet’s important tasks, explaining the role of actions in performing them in the most perfect manner.