“ISLAMIAT ASSIGNMENT”
Topic: The major compilers of hadith
The six authentic books of hadith
Name: Muhammad Usman Gaya
Class: IX-E
Roll no: 30
THE MAJOR COMPILERS OF HADITH
[Link] bin Ismail Al-Bukhari (194-256 A.H.):
His full name was Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim
ibn Mugira ibn Bardizba Al-Ju’fi bin Al-Bukhari. He travelled to Syria,
Egypt and Algeria twice, for seeking knowledge. He stayed in Makkah
and Madinah for about six years and went to Kufah several times. He
also visited Basra four times. Muhammad ibn Ismail Al-Bukhari
collected the most authentic Ahadith he could, and named this
collection as “Al-Jami Al-Sahih Al-Musnad Al-Mukhtasar min Umuri
Rasooli-Ilahi wa Sunanihi wa Ayyaamihi”. This book is considered
among the scholars as the most authentic of the As-Sihah As-Sittah
(Six Authentic Collections). It tok him sixteen years to write the Sahih
Al-Bukhari. Imam Bukhari had over 90,000 students including the
great Muhaddith, Imam Muslim. Ibn Hajar, in his “Muqadimah Fath-
ul-Bari”, states that when Iman Al-Bukhari was a young boy, he had
memorized 70,000 Ahadith.
Imam Bukhari always kept himself so busy with acquiring
knowledge, research and compilation of Ahadith that he ate
whatever little he had, which would usually be hay or almonds, and
then carry on with his daily routine.
Some books written by Imam Bukhari are:
Al-jami Al-Sahih Masboot
Asma-e As Sahabah Kitabul Hibah
Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Kitabul Wuhdan
[Link] bin Al-Hajjaj (204-261 A.H.):
His full name was Abul Hussain Muslim Ibn Al-Hajjaj Ibn Muslim Ibn
Al-Qushayri Al-Nisaburi. Hafiz Dhahabee states that he was born in
Nishapur 204 A.H., while ibn Kathir and Ibn Khalikaan consider his
birth in 206 A.H. He is called Qushayri as his roots reached the
famous Arab tribe of Bani Qushayr.
He travelled to several places such as Baghdad, Hijaz and Egypt for
the pursuit of Knowledge. He was a student of Al-Bukhari and the
compiler of Sahih Muslim. The general body of scholars consider
Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as the two most authentic Ahadith
compilations among the As-Sihah As-Sittah. Therefore, whenever
any scholar quotes a Hadith which is mentioned in both the books,
he will write Sahihain (in the two Sahih) or Muttafiqain Alayh (the
agreed upon). Imam Muslim died in 261 A.H.
3. Abu Dawood (202-275 A.H.):
His full name was Abu Dawood Sulaiman ibn Ash’ath ibn Ishaq As-
Sijistani. He was the compiler of Sunan Abu Dawood, His other works
include:
a) Kitab Al-Radd Ala’Ahl Al Qadar
b) Kitab Al-Masa’il
c) Musnad Malik
d) Kitab Al-Marasil
Abu Dawood travelled to many places such as Egypt, Algiers, Nishapur,
Syria and Baghdad for seeking knowledge. He heard Ahadith from
about three hundred people. A number of scholars consider this
compilation as the third most authentic book among the As-Sihah As-
Sittah. Imam Tirmizi, Imam Nasai, Imam Abi Dunya, Abu Uwanah and
Ibrahim Ibn Hamdan were among his students. Imam Abu Dawood died
in 275 A.H.
[Link] Isa At-Tirmizi(205-279 A.H.)
His full name was Abu Isa Muhammad bin Isa Ibn Sawarah Ibn Musa
Ibn Al-Dahhak Al-Sulami Al-Tirmizi. He is known as At-Tirmizi because
he was born in Tirmiz (Uzbekistan), in 205 A.H. He belonged to the
tribe of Banu Saleem. He was the compiler of Jami-At-Tirmizi. Ibn
Hajar records that he went to khurasan, Iraq and Hijaz in search of
Ahadith. His teachers were Qutaiba bin Sa’eed, Imam Al-Bukhari,
Imam Muslim and Abu Dawood. His works include:
a) Al-Jami-At-Tirmizi
b) Tawarikh
c) Al-‘Ilal
d) Al-‘Ilal Al-Kabir
e) Al-Athar Al-Mauqafa
f) Tasmiya Ashab Rasul Allah and Al-Zuhd
Unfortunately all his works perished except “Jami-At-Tirmizi and Al-‘Ilal
Al-Jmai Tasmiya Ashab Rasul Allah”. He passed away in 279 A.H.
5. An-Nasai (215-303 A.H.):
His full name was Abu Abdur Rahman Ahmad ibn Shuaib ibn Ali ibn
Sunan An- Narai. He was born in 215 A.H., in Nasa (Khurasan), hence
he is known as An-Nasai He was the compiler Algiers and Syria to
gain pilons of Ahadith, Sunan An-Na He travelled to Iraq, Algiers and
Syria to gain knowledge. His works include:
a) Sunan Al-Kubra
b) Sunan Al-Sughra/Al-Mujtana/Al-Mujtaba
c) Amul Yawmi Wallaylah
d) Kitaby Dufai wal Matrookeen
e) Khasais Ali
f) Al-Jarah was Ta'deel
g) Sunan An-Nasai
[Link] Majah (209-273 A.H.):
His full name was Muhammad Ibn Yazid Ibn Abdullah Ibri Majah Al-
Qazwini. He was born in 209 A.H. in Qazwin (Iran). At the age of
twenty one, he started travelling for the pursuit of knowledge. Ibn
Khalikaan recorded that he studied in Khurasan, Iraq, Hijaz, Egypt,
Syria and other places. One of his teachers was Abu Bakr Ibn Al-
Shaybah. His works include:
a) Sunan-Ibn Majah
b) Kitabat-Tafseer
According to his student, Al-Dhahabi, he passed away in 273 A.H. in
Qazwin.
7. Ahmad bin Hanbal (164-241 A.H.)
He was a celebrated theologian, jurist and a Hadith scholar. He is
also one of the Imams whose school of thought is followed. He was
born in Baghdad in 164 A.H. There he studied Hadith and Fiqh
together with other Islamic disciplines and then travelled to Ash-
Sham and Hijaz for further studies. He was persecuted during the
rule of Al-Ma'mun bin Harun ar-Rashid for refusing to acknowledge
the Bidd's (innovation), a claim that the Qur'an was the Creation of
Allah He howeve stood firm against all the trials and saved the
Sunnah from this innovation. He was the most badly persecuted yet
the most firm one among the four Imams. He is famous for collecting
30,000 authentic Ahadith of the Holy Prophetall compiled in the
Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal. It is said that Ibn Hanbal memorised one
million Ahadith. He died in Baghdad in 241 A.Η.
[Link] bin Anas (93-179 A.H.):
His full name was Malik bin Anas bin Amir He was born in Madinah
and memorised the Qur'an in his youth. He studied under various
famed scholars, and along with Abu Hanifa under the household of
the Holy Prophet's lineage, Jafar al-Sadiq and rose to become one of
the most prominent scholar of Hadith, He is the founder of one of
the four legal schools of Sunni law, the Maliki school of thought
Referred to as the Knowledgeable scholar of Madinah' by his
contemporaries. Malik bin Anas rose to become the most prominent
Hadith traditionist of his time. His compilation 'Al Muwatta' (which
means a smoothed patj is one of the oldest and most revered Sunni
Hadith collections. Malik's most notable student, Al-Shafa'l who also
became the founder of one of the four legal schools of Sunni law,
said about his teacher
"No one constitutes as great a favour to me in the religion of Allah as
Malik”
[Link]-Darimi (181-255 A.H.):
His full name was Abu Muhammad Abdullah bin Abdur Rahman Al-
Darimi. He was born in Persia and was a student of many expert
scholars of Hadith and Fiqah He frequently travelled to many places
for knowledge and collecting of Ahadith. His works include.
a) Sunan Al-Darimi
b) Tafsir Al-Darimi
c) Al-Jamia
THE SIX AUTHENTIC BOOKS OF HADITH
(As-Sihah As-Sittah)
[Link] Al-Bukhari:
There are a number of books compiled by Al-Bukhari, however
Sahih Al-Bukhari Ras gained great esteem and a high status in the
learning of Ahadith. The complete title of Sahih-Al-Bukhari is Al-
Jami- Al-Sahih Al-Musnad Al-Mukhtasar min Umuri Rasooli-llahi
wa Sunanihi wa Ayyaamihi, which means, "An epitome containing
all types of authentic musnad Ahadith concerning the Holy
Prophet, his sunnah and his ways."
Imam Bukhari made the framework for his compilation when he
was in Makkah, in the Masjid al-Haram, and worked on it
continuously for sixteen years. The final draft of the book was
made in Madinah, in Masjid-e-Nabwi
No specific date is known as to when he started writing the Sahih
Al-Bukhari However, we do know that after he had finished, he
showed the manuscript to his teachers, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and
Ibn ul-Madani. Before Imam Bukhari started to collect Ahadith,
there had actually been quite a few published books of Ahadith in
which he found traditions of both weak and strong testimonials,
which gave him the ides to compile a book which contained
Ahadith of only strong testimonials.
The number of Ahadith in his book is 7,275 but without repetition, it
goes down to 2,602. This number does not include the Maupaf Ahadith
and sayings of the Tabi'een. The book covers almost all aspects of life in
providing proper guidance of Islam. He edited his work at least three
times and scrutinised all the Ahadith on the basis of Usool-e-Hadith.
2. Sahih Muslim:
Imam Muslim bin Hajjaj was the student of Imam Bukhari and he
wrote many books and treatises on Hadith, but the most
important of his works is the Jami (collection) of the Sahih
Ahadith. Some of the commentators of Ahadith are of the opinion
that in certain aspects it is the best and the most authentic work
on the subject. Imam Muslim took great pains in collecting
traditions, and then after a thorough examination, be retained
only those 4000 Ahadith in his book, the genuineness of which is
fully established.
He prefixed a very illuminating introduction to his compilation in
which he specified some of the principles which he had followed
in the selection of the material. Imam Muslim considered only
those traditions to be genuine and authentic which had been
transmitted to him by an unbroken chain of reliable authorities
and were in perfect harmony with what had been related by other
narrators whose trustworthiness was unanimously accepted.
When his compilation was complete, he presented it to Abu
Zurrah who painted out the defects (if any) in liis narrations, and
Imam Muslim omitted it without any argument. His work on the
book shows that he did not want to record Sahih Ahadith
according to his own criteria but wanted to record only those
whose authenticity was accepted amongst the scholars.
3. Sunan Abu Dawood:
The most famous of all the works of Abu Dawood was his Sunan
which contains 4500 Ahadith. He compiled it while staying in
Tarsus, an ancient city of Turkey, for twenty years. Abu Dawood
presented the completed compilation to his teacher, Imam
Ahmad bin Hanbal who was greatly pleased with his work
Sunan Abu Dawood is an important collection of Ahadith. Most
of the scholars place it on the third position among the six
authentic books of Ahadith, although, not all the narrations
recorded by Abu Dawood in this book are authentic. He himself
pointed out many Za erf Ahadith, and there are other weak
Ahadith as well which are not mentioned by him but other
scholars counted them as weak traditions. The question is, why
did he record some weak narrations in his book? The possible
answer is that in the opinion of Abu Dawood, a Za tef Hadith was
better than the personal opinion of the scholars. Therefore, he
recorded them instead of adding the legal opinions of the early
scholars.
[Link] An-Nasai:
Imam An-Nasai was considered as the leading traditionalist and
the best evaluator of Ahadith, of his time. He was selective in his
material but was very accurate in his recording. He compiled
many works but the most famous is Sunan An-Nasai This famous
work is a selection from As-Sunan al-Kubra with sotne additions.
The reason for this specific collection is that when he compiled
his famous book. As-Sunan al-Kubra and presented it to the
governor of Ramlah, the governor asked him whether or not all
the Ahadith recorded into it were authentic. He replied in the
negative. The governor asked him to select only the authentic
ones Thus in this way, the Sunan An-Nasai was compiled.
However, he did not restrict himself to authentic Ahadith only.
Rather, he recorded even the weak narrations as well, mostly to
show what defect they had.
[Link] Ibn Majah:
It was compiled by Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Yazid bin Majah.
Ibn Majah studied under some of the great traditionalists of his
time and visited important centres of learning, in order to study
and compile the Ahadith. Although Sunan Ibn Majah is counted
among the As-Sihak Ar-Sitta, this book is of the lowest grade in
the collection, the reason being that when Ibn Majah recorded a
false narration, he did not mention it like the other compilers of
the As-Sihah As-Sittah. Ibn Majah did not mention his criteria for
the selection and incorporation of the materials in his
compilation.
His book contains 4,341 Ahadith out of which, 3,002 have been
recorded by the compilers of the other five books. The remaining
1,339 narrations can be classified in the following grades:
a) 428 narrations are authentic
b) 199 narrations are good
c) 613 narrations are of weak Isnad
d) 99 narrations are Mawzu (Fabricated)
Another feature of his compilation is that this book contains very
little repetition and it is one of the best in arrangements of
chapters and sub-chapters; a fact recognised by many scholars.
6. Jami-At-Tirmizi:
Among the works of Abu Isa at-Tirmizi, his most famous work is
"Al-Jami al-Mukhtasar min as-Sunan an Rasulillah", which is also
known as Jami-At-Tirmizi. It is a Sunan and a Jami. Therefore, it
contains Ahadith concerning international law, social behaviour,
exegesis (Tafseer) of the Qur'an, belief, laws of all kinds and
biographies of the Holy Prophet and certain Companions.
In this compilation, only 83 Ahadith are repeated. Tirmizi
omitted the major portion of the Hadith and only mentioned that
part which was relevant to the heading. After mentioning a
Hadith, Tirmizi classified its narrations, whether they were
authentic or weak. He also specified the narrators' names, e.g., if
the narrator's Kunya (honorific name) was mentioned, he would
then mention his proper name, and vice versa.
One Hadith in Jami-At-Tirmizi is a Thulaathiyaat (the
transmitters of the Hadith between Imam Tirmizi and the Holy
Prophet are only three). Every Hadith in Jami-At-Tirmizi is Ma'mul
bihi (practised upon by the jurists).
