(USC glossary); also "habitual practice, customary procedure or action, norm, usage sanctioned by tradition" (Wehr Dictionary); "a body of established customs and beliefs that make up a tradition" (Oxford Islamic Studies Online); "a path, a way, a manner of life" (M.A.Qazi). "precedent" or "way of life" (pre-Islamic definition, Joseph Schacht and Ignác Goldziher). Its religious definition can be: "the Sunna of the Prophet, i.e., his sayings and doings, later established as legally binding precedents" (along with the Law established by the Quran) (Hans Wehr); "All of the traditions and practices of the Prophet" of Islam, "that have become models to be followed" by Muslims (M.A.Qazi); "the body of traditional social and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community" (Encyclopædia Britannica); "the actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad" (Oxford Islamic Studies Online). Islam Web gives two slightly different definitions: "the statements, actions and approvals (or disapprovals) of Prophet Muhammad", (definition used by "legal theorists"); "anything narrated from or about the Prophet... either before or after he became a prophet, of his statements, actions, confirmations, biography, and his physical character and attributes," (used by scholars of hadith). It was first used with the meaning of "law" in the Syro-Roman law book before it became widely used in Islamic jurisprudence. Sunnah and hadith In the context of biographical records of Muhammad, sunnah often stands synonymous with hadith since most of the personality traits of Muhammad are known from descriptions of him, his sayings and his actions from hadith. According to Seyyed Nasr, the hadith contains the words of Muhammad, while the sunnah contains his words and actions along with pre-Islamic practices of which he approved. In the context of sharia, Malik ibn Anas and the Hanafi scholars are assumed to have differentiated between the two: for example Malik is said to have rejected some traditions that reached him because, according to him, they were against the "established practice of the people of Medina". Sunnah Salat In addition to being "the way" of Islam or the traditional social and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community, sunnah is often used as a synonym for mustahabb (encouraged) rather than wajib/fard (obligatory), regarding some commendable action (usually the saying of a prayer). Ahl as-Sunnah Sunni Muslims are also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa'l-Jamā'ah ("people of the tradition and the community (of Muhammad)") or Ahl as-Sunnah for short. Some early Sunnî Muslim scholars