Sunnah vs. Qur’an

Who Really Wears the Crown?

In public, Islam declares the Qur’an to be the ultimate authority — God’s literal, final word, unchanging and unchallengeable. But scratch beneath the surface, and the Sunnah quietly assumes the throne. Islamic theology has long flipped the script: the Sunnah doesn’t orbit the Qur’an; the Qur’an is chained to the Sunnah.

What the Scholars Themselves Admit

Early Islamic jurists, including figures from all four Sunni madhhabs, left no ambiguity:

"The Qur’an does not rule over the Sunnah; the Sunnah rules over the Qur’an." — Al-Shāfiʿī (founder of the Shāfiʿī school)

"The Qur’an is in need of the Sunnah more than the Sunnah is in need of the Qur’an." — Classical legal maxim attributed to Hanbali scholars

These are not fringe views. This is the heart of Sunni orthodoxy. The Qur’an is not the primary source — it is the secondary subject to be interpreted, contextualized, and often overruled by prophetic tradition.

Jonathan Brown’s Academic Clarification

Muslim scholar Jonathan A.C. Brown affirms this in his academic works:

• Ontologically, the Qur’an is superior — it is God’s direct speech.

• But hermeneutically, the Sunnah has higher authority — it defines how the Qur’an is understood and applied.

Brown even uses an analogy:

"The Sunnah is the window through which Muslims view the Qur’an."

But that’s not a window. That’s a filter. And filters don't just reveal — they block, tint, and distort.

What This Really Means

This inversion renders the Qur’an functionally dependent on a sprawling body of post-Qur’anic material:

• Without the Sunnah, Muslims are told they cannot know how to:

  • Pray (number and format of daily prayers)

  • Fast properly

  • Perform pilgrimage

  • Apply any laws

  • Even interpret entire verses

• The Qur’an, they claim, is like raw code — unusable without the compiled Sunnah to make it executable.

This isn’t a minor theological tweak. It’s a methodological coup. The Qur’an is cited to sanctify the faith, but the Sunnah defines it.

Implications: Islam is Sunnah-Based, Not Qur’an-Based

If we follow this logic to its conclusion:

1. The Qur’an without the Sunnah is called incomplete, ambiguous, and unusable.

2. The Sunnah interprets, limits, or modifies the Qur’an wherever it sees fit.

3. The actual daily life, legal rulings, and theology of Islam come almost entirely from the Sunnah and its orbit (hadith, sīrah, ijmāʿ).

Then the only honest conclusion is:

Islam, as practiced today, is not Qur’an-based. It is Sunnah-based — with Qur’anic verses selectively employed to decorate what the Sunnah already dictates.

Rebutting the "Qur’an-Only" Position

This doctrinal setup directly attacks Qur’an-only Muslims (those who reject hadith and follow the Qur’an alone):

• Their belief that the Qur’an is self-sufficient is rejected by tradition.

• Their use of Arabic grammar, context, and logic is dismissed as insufficient without prophetic precedent.

• Their attempt to practice Islam from the Qur’an alone is labeled deviance, even apostasy.

This reveals the real stance of Sunni orthodoxy:

The Qur’an is not the foundation of Islam. It is the canvas upon which the Sunnah paints.

The so-called “Qur’an-only” position is not extreme — it is simply what the Qur’an itself claims. It is the institutional religion that has redefined revelation to be subordinate to tradition.

Final Thought: When the Lens Becomes a Cage

A lens helps you focus. But when the lens is cemented in place, unremovable and unquestionable, it becomes a prison for the eyes. The Sunnah was meant to reflect the Prophet’s practice — but over time, it became an authoritative cage that no Qur’anic verse could escape.

So when scholars say the Sunnah “rules over” the Qur’an, they are not just describing a method of interpretation. They are confessing that Islam no longer trusts its own scripture to speak clearly without human scaffolding.

And a religion that requires its divine text to be translated, filtered, and reinterpreted by fallible men at every turn... is not a religion of revelation. It’s a religion of interpretive control.