HADITH
Hadith (or Sunnah) is the collection of commands, sayings, actions, expressed approvals/disapprovals and implicit approvals of Prophet Muhammad. It explains many aspects of the Quran and help us understand it. Hadith were also memorized and recorded meticulously by the Prophet’s companions and passed on to successive generations. There are eight widely used Hadith Collections and of them Six are most famous. Every one us should have some basic knowledge of hadith, the famous collections and classification of hadith. Familiarize yourself with the hadith collections of Iman Bukhari and Muslim.
(1) Sahih Al-Bukhari (ISBN #9789960717319, published by Dar-us-Salam)
Generally regarded as the single most authentic collection of Ahadith. Sahih Al-Bukhari covers almost all aspects of life in providing proper guidance from the messenger of Allah. In Imam Bukhari’s “Al-Jami-al-Sahih” (popularly known as Sahih Al Bukhari) the Imam (born within 180 years of Prophet’s death) recorded all the Sayings of the Prophet which he found to be genuine after thorough examination and scrutiny. He spent sixteen years in research and examined more than sixty thousand Sayings from which he selected only sayings whose genuineness and accuracy he established beyond the slightest doubt. Deducting duplicates, the Imam’s collection contain about four thousand distinct Sayings.
- Access online from www.sunnah.com.
- All active members should skim through this hadith collection.
(2) Sahih Muslim (ISBN#9789960991900, published by Dar-us-Salam)
Sahih Muslim is the most authentic book of Hadith after Sahih Al-Bukhari and contains about 7,500 hadiths. Imam Muslim (born within 190 years of Prophet’s death) is one of the foremost preservers of hadith of the Prophet. His book comes second only to Sahih al Bukhari in terms of authenticity according to majority of scholars
- Access online from www.sunnah.com.
- All active members should skim through this hadith collection.
The other four prominent Hadith collections are:
These four collections contains mostly authentic but also some weak (doubtful or deficient in proof of authenticity) hadiths. Therefore these must be approached with careful consideration. In some of the recent versions of these collections, hadiths are marked with the grade of authenticity for our benefit.
- (3) Sunan Abu Dawood (ISBN #9789960500119) www.sunnah.com.
- (4) Jami At-Tirmidhi (ISBN #9789960996738) www.sunnah.com.
- (5) Sunan An-Nasa’i (ISBN #9789960587608) www.sunnah.com.
- (6) Sunan Ibn Majah (ISBN #9789960988139). www.sunnah.com.
- The two other widely used ones are “Muwatta Imam Malik” and “Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal”.