Overview of the Six Canonical Collections

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

Al-Jāmi’ al-Musnad aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar min umūri Rasulillah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa sunanihi wa ayyāmihi, the magnum opus of Imām Bukhārī (raḥimahullāh), known in short as Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, is one of the most important and reliable of all ḥadīth collections. It is said to have been heard by 90,000 of the auhtor’s students. Imām Bukhārī’s notion to compile the Ṣaḥīḥ owed its origin to a remark from Isḥāq ibn Rāhūya, who wished that someone would compile a short but comprehensive book containing only authentic narrations, which Imām Bukhārī took on. He sifted through all the hadiths known to him, and selected 7,275 out of 60,000 aḥadīth. The number of 'suspended' (mu’allaq) and corroborative traditions in his book amounts to 1,725. From this it is clear that his objective was not only to collect authentic aḥadīth, but also to show what doctrinal and legal inferences could be drawn from them. Hence it has been aptly remarked that the chapter headings of the Ṣaḥīḥ constitute the fiqh of Imām Bukhārī, while to others, they are of a narrower significance than the aḥadīth which follow. He divided the whole work into a hundred books, which is subdivided into 3,450 chapters. Every chapter heading serves as a key to the contents of the various traditions which it includes. (Adapted from: Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, Hadith Literature, pp. 65-66).

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim

Al-Musnad aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar min as-Sunani bi Naqlil ‘Adli ‘anil ‘Adli ‘an Rasulillahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, known in short as Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, is the Ṣaḥīḥ compilation of Imām Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj al-Nīsāburī (raḥimahullāh) [d. 261 AH]. Since Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim’s Book of Tafsīr is neither complete nor systematic, this work is not considered a comprehensive collection (Jāmi’) like that of Imām Bukhārī. Imām Muslim draws a distinction between the terms akhbaranā and haddhathanā, and always uses the former in connection with the traditions which had been recited to him by his own teachers, assigning the latter to what he had in turn read out to them. In his Ṣaḥīḥ, he added a long introduction (muqaddima), in which he explained some of the principles which he had followed in the choice of materials for his book and which should be followed in accepting and relaying traditions. Upon completing the Ṣaḥīḥ, Imām Muslim presented it to Abu Zur’a of Rayy, for his comments, and then deleted everything which he thought was defective. Regarding the total number of aḥadīth, with repetition, in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, many numbers have been quoted. However, the most accurate amount of the aḥadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, inclusive of the mutāba'āt (corroborators) and mukarrārat (repetitions) seems to equal between 7,200–7,500 aḥadīth. (Majority adapted from: Muhammad Z. Siddiqi, Hadith Literature, pp. 59-60).

Jāmi' at-Tirmidhī

Al-Jami’ al-Mukhtasar min as-Sunani ‘an Rasūlillāhi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa Ma’rifatu aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ wa al-Ma’luli wa mā’ alaihi al-‘Amal, known in short as “Jāmi' at-Tirmidhī”, is recognized as one of the most important works of ḥadīth literature, and is unanimously included among the six canonical collections of ḥadīth. This work contains the bulk of the traditionas - legal, dogmatic, and historical - which had been accepted by the jurists of the main juridical tendencies as the basis of Islamic law. The author used the principle of only considering those traditions on which the various laws of Islam had been established by the 'ulamā of the various schools. He not only determined the identity, names, titles and the kunya of the narrators of the tradition he cited; he also attempted to state the degree of their reliability, explaining what use had been made of them by the jurists of the schools. He added a note to almost every ḥadīth, prefaced with the words: ‘Abū ‘Īsā says…’ He then proceeds to state a range of points connected with the traditions. The most interesting and important feature of the book is the category of Ḥasan. The term had already been used by Imām Bukhārī, Imām Ibn Hanbal and others, but rather sparingly, and as a non-technical term. Imam Tirmidhī defined the term for the first time in his (Kitab al-‘Ilal of his Jami’), and applied it to those traditions which fulfilled its requirements. (Muhammad Z. Siddiqi, Hadith Literature, pp. 64-66).

Sunan an-Nasāʾī: Al-Mujtabā

Imam Nasāʾī (raḥimahullāh) [215-303] was one of the leading traditionists of his day. He first compiled his Sunan al-Kubrā, a large compilation of ḥadīth which confessed some dubious aḥadīth. Thereafter, at the request of the ruler or his companions, he produced a synopsis of the Sunan al-Kubrā called al-Mujtabā, or as-Sunan as-Sughrā. He claimed that this later work only contained reliable aḥadīth, and it has been accepted as one of the six canonical collections. The number of aḥadīth in al-Mujtaba are 5761. So far, the best printed of the book is by Mu’assasah al-Risālah Nāshirūn, the edition of Shaykh Yāsir Hasan. Imam Nasāʾī, like many traditionists, has not outlined his conditions in the Sunan, but scholars have tried extracting some of them by studying his overall methodology.

Sunan Abi Dāwūd

Imām Abū Dāwūd (raḥimahullāh) [202-275 AH] was a traditionist recognised for his encyclopedic knowledge of traditions, his photographic memory, his upright character and kindliness. One of the most celebrated books on traditions and Sacred Law is his Sunan, which is not only regarded as the first work of its type in the ḥadīth literature, but is generally seen as the best and most reliable in it. He included not only the Ṣaḥīḥ traditions, but also some other accounts that had been classed by other scholars as weak or doubtful. It is said that he examined 500,000 ḥadīths, and selected 4,800 for his Sunan, which occupied him for 20 years. Among the narrators, he relied not only on those who had been unanimously declared acceptable, but also on others who were the subject of criticism from some quarters. This is not necessarily a defect in his book: some critics such as Shu’ba had in fact been overstrict in their criticisms of the narrators. (Adapted from: Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, Hadith Literature, pp. 61-62).

 Sunan Ibn Mājah

Most ḥadīth scholars prefer the Sunan of Ibn Mājah [209-273 AH] to the work of Imām Dārimī, including it in the ‘Sound Six’ collections. Abū ‘Abdillāh Muhammad ibn Yazīd (known as Ibn Mājah, denoting the title of his father, or perhaps his grandfather) was born in Qazwīn. In this work, the author collected four thousand traditions, distributed over 32 books and 1,500 chapters. It is said that after completing the book, Imām Ibn Mājah presented it for criticism to Abū Zur’ah, recognised as the most competent ḥadīth critic of the day. Abū Zur’ah liked the general plan of the book and remarked that he expected it to supersede the ḥadīth works which then enjoyed popular currency. He also said that the number of weak traditions in the book was not large. Despite this approbation, however, it emerges that the book did in fact include a good many forged traditions. Shaykh ‘Abd al-Haqq of Dehli says that the traditions it contains about Qazwīn, the city in Iran to which Ibn Mājah was connected, are forged. (Adapted from: Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, Hadith Literature. 69)