Islam > Glossary > Sna al-āḥad
Discover the meaning of the term Sna al-āḥad (سنة الآحاد) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readAccording to the majority (jumhur): it is the report whose transmitters did not reach the degree of tawatur (mass transmission), whether few or many. According to the Hanafis: it is what is neither mutawatir nor mashhur. The sunan rawatib: these are the supererogatory practices attached to something else, or dependent on it, or dependent on what has a fixed time, such as the two festival prayers, duha and tarawih. The jurists apply the term to the recommended prayers before and after the obligatory ones, because their performance alone, without those obligations, is not prescribed. The Shafi'is did not restrict the sunan rawatib to prayer: they expressly stated that fasting also has sunan rawatib, such as fasting six days of Shawwal. The sunna mashhura: it is the report whose transmitters were individual narrators (ahad) in the first generation, then became massively numerous in the second and the third: for example, that someone relates it from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, from one, or two, or a group who had not reached the degree of tawatur, and then the number of tawatur relates it from them in the second and the third generation. It has been exemplified by the hadith: (the proof is upon the claimant, and the oath upon the denier).