Types of Ḥadīth Collections

1. Ṣaḥīfah

   
   

This is a collection of the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ which were written down by one of his Companions during his lifetime or by the successors of the next generation. One such collection was assembled by Abū Hurayrah (raḍī Allahu 'anh) and taught and handed down by him to his student Hammām ibn Munabbih. The most important of them, however, is the ṣaḥīfah, which was collected by ' Abd Allāh ibn ' Amr ibn al-'Āṣ (raḍī Allahu 'anh) [ d.65/684 ], who gave it the title of al-Ṣaḥīfah al-Ṣādiqah. Ibn al-'As's ṣaḥīfah is said to have contained around a thousand traditions.

2. Juz

This is a collection of ḥadīths handed down on the authority of one single individual, be he or she a Companion, or a member of any succeeding generation. The term juz is also applied to collections of Ḥadīths that were compiled on a specific subject, such as Intention, and so forth.

3. Risālah

This is a collection of ḥadīths which deals with one particular topic selected from the eight topics into which the contents of the Jāmi' books of ḥadīth may generally be classified: 1) Belief, 2) Ahkām (laws), 3) Riqāq (piety and asceticism), 4) Ādāb (manners), 5) Tafsīr (Qur'anic commentary), 6) Tārīkh and Siyar (historical and biographical matters), 7) Fitan (Seditions and crises), 8) the virtues (manāqib) and defects (mathālib) of various people, places etc.

4. Musannaf

   
   

This is a more comprehensive collection of ḥadīths in which the traditions relating to most or all of the previous eight topics are assembled and arranged in various 'books' or 'chapters', each dealing with a particular topic. To this class belong the Muwaṭṭa' of Imām Mālik, the Ṣaḥīḥ of Imām Muslim, and similar works.

5. Jāmi'

This is a ḥadīth collection that contains traditions relating to all eight topics listed under Risālah. Thus, the Ṣaḥīḥ of Imām al-Bukhārī and the book of Imām at-Tirmidhi are known as a Jāmi'. The Ṣaḥīḥ of Imām Muslim, by contrast, is not so styled, because although it is comprehensive in most areas, it does not contain traditions relating to all the chapters of the Qur'ān.

6. Musnad

This term, which literally means 'supported', was originally used for such traditions that were supported by a complete, uninterrupted chain of authorities going back to the Prophet ﷺ via a Companion. More technically, however, it is reserved for those collections of ḥadīths whose material is arranged according to the names of their original narrating authorities, irrespective of subject-matter. Such are the Musnads of Abū Daūd al-Tayālisī (d.204/819) and Ahmad bin Hanbal (d.233/847). In some of them, their names are arranged in alphabetical order. In others, they are arranged according to their respective merit in the acceptance of Islam and in taking part in the early important events of the Prophet's mission.

7. Mu'jam

This is generally applied to works on various subjects arranged in alphabetical order. The geographical and biographical dictionaries of Yāqūt are known as Mu'jam al-Buldān and Mu'jam al-Udabā, because they are arranged alphabetically. But according to the ḥadīth specialists, the term is used technically for collections of ḥadīth which are arranged not according to the Companions who reported them, but according to the Traditionists from whom the compiler himself received them. To this class belong two of the collections of at-Tabarani (d. 360/970) and the collections of Ibrahim ibn Isma'il (d.371/981).

8. Sunan

These are collections which only contain aḥadīth al-ahkām (legal-liturgical traditions), and omit material relating to historical, spiritual and other matters. Thus, the ḥadīth collections made by Abū Dāūd, an-Nasā'i and many other traditionists fall into this class.

9. Mustadrak

This is a collection in which the compiler, having accepted the conditions laid down by a previous compiler, collects together such other traditions as fulfil those conditions and were missed by his predecessor. To this class belongs the Mustadrak of al-Hākim an-Nisābūrī, who assembled a large number of ḥadīths which fulfilled the stringent conditions laid down by Bukhāri and Muslim, but were not included by them in their Ṣaḥīḥs.

10. Mustakhraj

This is a collection of ḥadīths in which a later compiler collects fresh and additional isnāds to add to those cited by an original compiler. To this class belongs the Mustakhraj of Abū Nu'aym al-Isfahānī on the Ṣaḥīḥs of Bukhāri and Muslim. In this book, Abū Nu'aym gives new isnāds for some of the traditions included by Bukhārī and Muslim, thereby reinforcing their authority still further.

11. Arba'īniyyāt

As the name indicates, these are collections containing forty ḥadīth related to one or more subjects which may have appeared to be of special interest to the compiler. The best-known example is the Forty Ḥadīth of Imam an-Nawawī.

(Adapted from: Hadith Literature: Its Development, Origin and Special Features by Zubayr Sidiqi)