ABSTRACT
The ninth century witnessed important debates around the legal and pietistic roles of the sunna (lit. way) of the prophet and his companions. The sunna formed part of a pietistic discourse that identified what pious Muslims were supposed to do and how they were required to behave. Knowledge about Muḥammad and his companions was to create a pietistic environ structured around the prophet as a moral and pietistic example and, as the Quran put it, “a beau ideal for whosoever fears God” (Q 33:21). This chapter commences by tracing the construction of the prophet’s persona as beau ideal, with the attendant issues related to the authority of hadiths and the connections between hadith and sira. The chapter then focuses on the medical chapters in various early hadith collections to uncover how the prophet’s example was deployed in the medical context.
