this is the path to deliverance from painful punishment and to happiness in the abode of bliss. The way to attain this is through narration and transmission, for reason alone does not suffice. Rather, just as the eye’s light requires illumination before it for sight, so the light of reason finds guidance only when the sun of the prophetic message shines upon it. Thus, conveying the religion is among the greatest obligations of Islam, and knowing what Allah commanded His Messenger is obligatory upon all people. Allah, glorified is He, sent Muhammad with the Book and the Sunnah, and through them completed His favour upon his community.
He, the Most High, said:
“And so that I may complete My favour upon you, and that you may be guided.”
“Just as We have sent among you a messenger from yourselves, reciting Our verses to you, purifying you, teaching you the Book and wisdom, and teaching you what you did not know.”
“So remember Me; I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and do not be ungrateful to Me.”
He, the Most High, also said:
“Allah has certainly bestowed His favour upon the believers by sending among them a messenger from themselves, reciting His verses to them, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom.”
He, the Most High, also said:
“Remember Allah’s favour upon you, and what He has sent down to you of the Book and wisdom, by which He admonishes you.”
He, the Most High, also said:
“It is He who sent among the unlettered a messenger from themselves, reciting His verses to them, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom.”
He, the Most High, said concerning Abraham, His close friend:
“Our Lord, send among them a messenger from themselves who will recite Your verses to them, teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them.”
He, the Most High, also said:
“Remember what is recited in your homes of Allah’s verses and wisdom.”
A number of scholars—including Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, Qatāda, al-Shāfiʿī, and others—have stated that “wisdom” means the Sunnah. For Allah commanded His Prophet’s wives to remember what was recited in their homes of the Book and wisdom. The Book is the Quran, and whatever else the Messenger recited was the Sunnah.