The six authentic books of Hadith

The majority of the Darul `Ulooms (Islamic seminaries) around the globe require students to study `the six authentic books` of Hadith in the final year of the [6-8 year] degree programme before graduating as `ulama (Islamic scholars). But what are these `six authentic books` (as-Sihāh as-Sittah)?

The third and the fourth century witnessed the compilation of hundreds of books on Hadith (Prophetic traditions). Some of them gained more popularity than others did. Subsequently, the Hadith scholars began to research and write on the biographies of the narrators who had been mentioned in a certain book [and later on, in a combination of books], so that later scholars could easily determine the status of each Hadith. Nevertheless, Abd al-Ghani ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi (d. 600 AH.) compiled a dictionary of narrators called `al-Kamāl`. This work included all the narrators whose Ahadith (plural of Hadith) were recorded in any of the six books, i.e. Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan al-Nasa`i, Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan Ibn Majah.  This work was remarkable and thus became the basis for other future works on biographies of narrators. Thus we can see that it was not ought to be only `Six Principal Works` but, since their narrators were discussed in a single book, these six books began to seem as a single unit and were began to be mentioned together by later on Hadith scholars.

These `Six Principal Works` are also known as `the Six Authentic Books` of Hadith. It does not mean that every Hadith found in these six books is authentic and unquestionably reliable, but that the majority of them are acceptable and authentic, except for Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in which all are authentic. Hence, each Hadith from the remaining four books is tested based on its own merit and not as a Hadith quoted from one of the authentic six books.

Sahih al-Bukhari

This book is generally considered the most authentic: second only to The Glorious Qur`an. The author selected 9,082 [or excluding the repetitions, 2,062] out of about 600,000 narrations to include in this compilation. The book is arranged according to topics under separate headings, majority of which are extracts from the Qur`an, and some from different Ahadith. The book is also unique in the strict conditions that were laid down to include a Hadith in this book, namely; that each narrator should be of a very high grade of character, accuracy, trustworthiness, memory, literary and academic standard; and that there should be positive evidence of the meetings and learning and teaching between the narrators. The author of this book is Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju`fi al-Bukhari. He was born on 13<sup>th</sup> Shawwal 194 AH. in Bukhara and he died on the night of Eid in 256 AH. He was of Persian origin. He was blind during infancy; however, his eyesight was restored by the virtue of his mother`s supplication. His mother had brought him up after his father, a Hadith scholar himself, who died while Imam al-Bukhari was an infant. He began the study of Hadith even before ten years of age. The likes of Is`haq bin Rahawayh and `Ali ibn al-Madini are amongst the 1080 Hadith scholars from whom Imam al-Bukhari recorded Ahadith. His travels included going to Syria, Egypt, Jazirah, Hijaz, Iraq and Nishapur. He once became penniless and thus had to live for some time eating the leaves of wild plants.

Sahih Muslim

This book is generally considered second to Sahih al-Bukhari [while some even consider it to be its equal or even its superior]. The author tried to record therein only those Ahadith which were unanimously agreed as authentic. The focus of the book is not on legal extraction. But, the book is well known due to its authenticity and careful attention to mutaba`at and shawahid. The author of this book is Abul Hasayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Dawud ibn Kaushad al-Qushayri al-Nishaburi. He was born in the famous Khurasan city of Nishapur in the year 204 AH. (the years 202 AH. and 206 AH. have also been mentioned). He began his studies in Hadith at the age of about 14 and journeyed to Persia, Iraq, Hijaz, Syria and Egypt. From amongst his teachers were Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Bukhari and Is`haq bin Rahawayh. His students included Abu Isa Tirmidhi, Abu Hatim Razi, Abu Bakr Ibn Khuzaymah etc. The cause of his death illustrates a glimpse into his engrossment and obsession in knowledge. He was once asked about a specific Hadith which he could not remember at that time. He returned home and while searching for the Hadith, he didn’t realise he consumed a whole bag of dates. This led to his eventual death. He passed away in 261 AH. and was buried at Nasir Abad, a place outside Nishapur.

Sunan Abi Dawud

This book includes about 4800 Hadiths from a collection of 500,000. The author sufficed on just one or two Hadiths in every chapter to make it easy to use. It is apparently one of the best and most comprehensive on the subject of legal Prophetic traditions. The author`s name was Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn Ash`ath ibn Is`haq al-Sijistani. He was born in Sistan (or known as Sijistan or Sijz). He was born in 202 AH. and passed away in 275 AH. in Basrah.  He began his journeys to acquire Hadith when he was younger than 20 years in age. He travelled to Khurasan, Persia, Iraq, Hijaz, Syria, Egypt, Tarsus and Rayy. He lived a major portion of his life in Baghdad and the last 4 years in Basra. He had more than 300 teachers which included Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and Yahya ibn Ma`in.

Jami` al-Tirmidhi

This book comprises of 50 sub-books (kitab) with altogether, includes 3,956 traditions. It was completed in 270 AH. This book has 3 distinguishing features: 1. The Prophetic traditions are collected systematically; 2. It mentions the legal opinions of early scholars concerning the subject of the Hadith mentioned; 3. It discusses the quality, grading [authentic or good or weak] and defect [if any] of the traditions. It is the famous work of Abu Isa Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Sawra ibn Musa al-Tirmidhi. He was born in 209 A.H and died in 279 AH. He most likely began his foreign travels for study in 235 AH. and returned to his hometown before 250 AH. His teachers included Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Imam Abu Dawud. However, he was greatly influenced by Imam al-Bukhari in particular.

Sunan al-Nasa`i

This book is unique in how it records the divergences between various versions and chains of Hadith and, moreover, how it corrects the mistakes committed by narrators. The author`s name was Abu Abd al-Rahman Ahmad ibn Shu`ayb al-Khurasani al-Nasa`i. He was born in 215 AH. in Nasa`, a city in Khurasan, and died in 303 AH. He was very accurate in his retention of Hadith. He began his foreign travels for study when he was 15 years old and travelled to Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Hijaz and other places. His teachers included Is`haq bin Rahawayh, Imam Abu Dawud, Imam Bukhari and Qutaybah ibn Sa`id.

Sunan Ibn Majah

This book comprises of 32 sub-books, 1,500 chapters and 4,341 narrations (3002 of which have been recorded also by the authors of the other five books). It is of the lowest grade of the six books in its authenticity. However, it is unique in its beautiful arrangement of sub-books and chapters and in containing very little repetition. The author`s name was Abu Abdillah Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Abdillah ibn Majah al-Rib`i al-Qazwini. He was born in 209 AH. in Qazvin, a city in Iran, and died in 273 AH. His travels for study included journeying to Khurasan, Rayy, Iraq, Syria, Hijaz, Egypt and other places. His teachers include Muhammad al-Tanafasi (d. 233 AH.).

Posted in General on 6th Apr 2016 by Our Imam | 104779 Views