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The question

What is the view of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah regarding the preservation of the Sunnah? Did they reach a consensus on its preservation? Is the preservation of the Sunnah a probabilistic or a definitive matter? If it is probabilistic, is it possible that there are acts of worship that have not been transmitted to us?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

Allah Almighty has guaranteed the preservation of the Prophet's Sunnah because it is an explanation of the Holy Quran. Were it not for its preservation, the benefit derived from the Quran and most of the Islamic laws would be nullified. This matter is definitive among Muslims, who have established punishments and rulings based on it. As for the scholarly disagreement regarding the definitive nature of some texts, the mutawatir (concurrently reported) ones are definitive, as are ahad (singularly reported) hadiths surrounded by corroborating evidence. The questioner's assertion that some matters might be acts of worship and not innovations, yet were not transmitted by the Companions, is false. The Companions transmitted all states of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, including the most minute details. Therefore, the Sunnah is definitively preserved.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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