THE NOTION OF SUNNA IN PRE - ISLAMIC PERIOD Cover Image

ПОJAM СУНЕ У ПРЕДИСЛАМСКО ДОБА
THE NOTION OF SUNNA IN PRE - ISLAMIC PERIOD

Author(s): Vojislav Stanimirović
Subject(s): History of Law, Sharia Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Београду
Keywords: Sunna; Custom; Arabs; Islam

Summary/Abstract: The notion of pre - Islamic sunna has for a long time been in the shadow of the much more known sunna of the prophet Mohammed. However, Goldziecher and, later on, Schacht have contributed to discovery in the dzahiliet surma of the contents which may be qualified as one of the most significant sources of the Islamic law. Treated in the text is the difference between the custom (adet) and the sunna. The sense of binding character of application of a specific sunna comes out of the authority of its founder. Tribial character of the Arabian society before Islam made possible useful and accepted precedents created by some personalities which introduced them into the legend, so that these people became the part of an everlasting tradition of the tribe. Keeping that tradition through generations was the task of poets, while credit for its development has to be granted to elected tribal arbitrators. By establishing the new - Mohammedan sunna and by uniting the tribes into a single Muslim community (ummu), the pre - Islamic sunnas gradually were forgotten as far as their origin is concerned. They, in fact, were transformed into customs (adet).

  • Issue Year: 39/1991
  • Issue No: 1-3
  • Page Range: 271-276
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Serbian