SIX MAJOR HADITH COLLECTIONS

The 'Six major Hadith collections' (Arabic: '''Al-Sihah al-Sittah''') are the works of some individuals from Islamic scholars who by their own initiative started collecting sayings that people attributed to Muhammad approximately 200 years after his death.

Contents

Introduction

Muslim view

See also

References

Introduction

The name "Al-Sihah al-Sittah" translates literarly to "The Six Authentic", even though they are not all considered authentic (''sahih''), except for the first two collections.
All six collectors of these ahadith lived in Persia or Khorasan except Imam Malik who is from Hijaz. Some were ethnically Persian, such as Bukhari ^[1] and Ibn Majah, while others were ethnically Arab, such as Imam Muslim (from the Quraysh tribe ^[2]) and Al-Tirmidhi (from the Banu Sulaym ^[3]).
Due to this, some people state that they were all Persian and not Arabs ^[4].

Muslim view

Sunni Muslims view the 'Six major Hadith collections' as their most important. They are, in order of importance ^[5]:
# Sahih Bukhari, collected by al-Bukhari (d. 870), included 7275 hadiths
# Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875), included 9200
# Sunan al-Sughra, collected by al-Nasa'i (d. 915)
# Sunan Abi Da'ud, collected by Abu Da'ud (d. 888)
# Sunan al-Tirmidhi, collected by al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
# This one is disputed. Sometimes its referred to Al-Muwatta, collected by Imam Malik (d. 796) and sometimes it is referred to Sunan Ibn Majah, collected by Ibn Majah (d. 886). Some people even consider Sunan al-Darami to be the sixth one.
The two first are referred to as the Two Sahihs which indicates that they are authentic.

See also

★ List of Sunni books

★ Hadith of Persians and knowledge

References

1. [1]
2. [2]
3. [3]
4. [4] [5]
5. [6]