Six major Hadith collections

The six major Hadith collections (Arabic: al-Kutub al-Sittah) are collections of hadith by Islamic scholars who, approximately 200 years after Muhammad's death and by their own initiative, collected hadith attributed to Muhammad. They are sometimes (erroneously) referred to as Al-Sihah al-Sittah, which translates to "The Authentic Six".

Significance

Sunni Muslims view the Six major Hadith collections as their most important. They are, in order of authenticity ^[1]:

1. Sahih Bukhari, collected by Imam Bukhari (d. 870), includes 7275 hadiths
2. Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875), includes 9200
3. Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i (d. 915)
4. Sunan Abu Dawood, collected by Abu Dawood (d. 888)
5. Sunan al-Tirmidhi, collected by al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
6. This one is disputed. Sometimes referred to as Al-Muwatta, collected by Imam Malik (d. 796) and sometimes, Sunan Ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah (d. 886). Some have even considered Sunan al-Darami to be the sixth.

The first two are referred to as the Two Sahihs as an indication of their authenticity. Combined the Two Sahihs contain approximately seven thousand hadith without repetition according to Ibn Hajar.^[2]

The authors

According to the Cambridge History of Iran^[3]: "After this period commences the age of the authors of the six canonical collections of Sunni hadith, all of whom were Persian. The authors of the six collections are as follows:

1. Muhammad b. Isma'il al-Bukhari, the author of the Sahih Bukhari, which he composed over a period of sixteen years. Traditional sources quote Bukhari as saying that he did not record any hadith before performing ablution and praying. Bukhari died near Samarqand in 256/869-70.

2. Muslim b. Hajjaj al-Naishapuri, who died in Nishapur in 261/ 874-5 and whose Sahih Muslim is second in authenticity only to that of Bukhari.

3. Abu Dawood Sulaiman b. Ash'ath al-Sijistani, a Persian but of Arab descent, who died in 275/888-9.

4. Muhammad b. 'Isa al-Tirmidhi, the author of the well-known as Sunan al-Tirmidhi, who was a student of Bukhari and died in 279/892-3.

5. Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i, who was from Khurasan and died in 303/915-16.

6. Ibn Majah al-Qazwini, who died in 273/886-7."

References

1. ^ Various Issues About Hadiths
2. ^ al-Nukat 'Ala Kitab ibn al-Salah, by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, vol. 1, pg. 153, Maktabah al-Furqan, Ajman, U.A.E., second edition, 2003.
3. ^ S. H. Nasr(1975), "The religious sciences", in R.N. Frye, the Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge University Press