«مِنَ السُّنَّةِ»
“This is part of the Sunnah.”
«أُمِرْنَا»
“We were commanded.”
When a Companion uses these formulas, hadith scholars commonly infer a Prophetic source, though the specific wording, context and scholarly qualifications still matter. «نُهِينَا» (“We were forbidden”) raises a related issue.
«كُنَّا نَفْعَلُ فِي عَهْدِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ»
“We used to do this during the Prophet’s lifetime.”
This establishes a temporal relation to the Prophetic period. Whether the Prophet knew of the practice and whether tacit approval follows require additional analysis. These formulas therefore do not have identical implications; the investigator should not assert more than the expression supports.