Dividing the Sunnah into speech, action, and approval

The Shaykh: And it is the path and methodology that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) followed in explaining the Book of his Lord, an explanation that takes three forms: sometimes his explanation (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) is by speech, sometimes by action, and sometimes by his approval (peace and blessings be upon him) of what he sees from some of his noble Companions. This explanation, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) undertook to present to people, was nothing on his part (peace and blessings be upon him) but the execution of a command from among the commands of the Noble Qur'an that his Lord, the Lord of the worlds, directed to him. Among these is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Noble Qur'an: The scholars who followed the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) found that it clarifies the Noble Qur'an in the aspects that require clarification. For example, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified the verse of theft: . He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . If a man had wanted to understand this noble verse relying solely on the Arabic language, its styles, and its literature, he would not have been able to understand from the general use of the words "thief" and "female thief" anything other than that any thief, male or female, regardless of the value of the stolen property, is a thief linguistically. He would interpret the verse accordingly and rule with the cutting off of the hand of every thief, even if he stole an egg, a dirham, or something of little value. So the verbal explanation of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) came as a refutation of this understanding that occurs to any Arab, as his clarification (peace and blessings be upon him) of the Qur'an in execution of the aforementioned command. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This hadith and the authentic hadiths that Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim included in their "Sahih" collections, with the wording belonging to Muslim, as you see, negates the establishment of the hadd punishment for a thief if he steals less than a quarter of a dinar . Likewise, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified this verse from another angle, and his clarification was by action. That is because the word "hand" was used in the mentioned verse, and linguistically it includes the palm, the forearm, and the upper arm. But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified by his action that the intended meaning of "hand" here is the palm. Accordingly, the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was established in cutting off the hand of the thief at the wrist. Meanwhile, the verse used the word "hands" in the verse of ablution: . So this specification clarifies the verse itself on one hand, and the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) on the other. This example, among dozens of others, makes it clear to you that there is no room for any Muslim, no matter how strong he is in the Arabic language and its literature, to make it clear to us that it is impossible in any way for a Muslim to independently understand the Noble Qur'an without relying on the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), whether it is verbal, practical, or by approval. For this reason, many verses in the Noble Qur'an all revolve around one single reality, which is that it is obligatory for Muslims to obey the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) as they obey the Lord of the worlds, to obey His command as they obey the command of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), as in many verses of the Noble Qur'an. Among these is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): , and similar to His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): , and also the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): , and similar to that is also the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): .