Hadith Collections in Arabic | Bukhari, Muslim, Sunan

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The six books, and what sets them apart

The Kutub al-Sitta are not equivalent and do not serve the same purpose:

Sahih al-Bukhari: the most demanding standard of authenticity, arranged by chapters of fiqh, with chapter headings that are a science in themselves.
Sahih Muslim: gathers the routes of transmission of one hadith in one place, which makes it the easiest collection to consult.
Sunan Abu Dawud: focused on the hadiths of practical rulings; the jurist's collection.
Jami' al-Tirmidhi: states the grading of each hadith and reports the positions of the schools, valuable for the student.
Sunan al-Nasa'i: the most rigorous of the four Sunan on the criticism of chains.
Sunan Ibn Majah: the broadest, and the one holding the most weak hadiths, hence the importance of the edition you choose.

Beyond the six

Imam Malik's Muwatta is the oldest of these collections and remains a reference of Maliki fiqh. Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Musnad is arranged by Companion rather than by subject: vast, it is consulted with an index. To these are added the Sahih of Ibn Hibban and Ibn Khuzayma, al-Hakim's Mustadrak and al-Bayhaqi's Sunan, which complete the six on many subjects.

Where to start with your first collection

Not with Ahmad's Musnad. For a first library, take an abridgement of Sahih al-Bukhari with full vowelling, or Al-Lu'lu' wa al-marjan, which gathers the hadiths Bukhari and Muslim agree upon. You move to the complete volumes when reading an isnad no longer stops you. For the basics, see Hadith.

What differs between two editions of the same collection

The text is the same; the book is not. Four points decide its usefulness: the editor and how seriously the manuscripts were handled; the numbering of the hadiths, which varies between publishers and complicates references; the presence of gradings on the chains, indispensable on the Sunan; and the vowelling, which changes everything for continuous reading. Every listing states these four points, the volume count and the size.

Related sections

To understand what you are reading, the commentaries unfold each hadith phrase by phrase. To judge a chain you need the vocabulary of the hadith sciences and the narrator dictionaries. To locate a hadith whose source you do not know, see the encyclopaedias. And for lighter daily reading, the thematic collections.

Ordering and shipping

Quantities shown are stock on the shelf. Sets are wrapped volume by volume and packed in a rigid box. Dispatched within 24 to 48 working hours, shipped across Europe and worldwide. For the total weight and the exact rate to your country before ordering, write to us.

Which collection should I buy first?

Not Ahmad's Musnad. For a first library, a fully vowelled abridgement of Sahih al-Bukhari, or Al-Lu'lu' wa al-marjan, which gathers the hadiths Bukhari and Muslim agree upon. You move to the complete volumes when reading an isnad no longer stops you.

What is the difference between Bukhari and Muslim?

Bukhari applies the most demanding standard of authenticity and arranges by chapters of fiqh, his chapter headings being a science in themselves. Muslim gathers all the routes of one hadith in a single place, which makes his collection the easier one to consult.

What are the Kutub al-Sitta?

The six books: the two Sahih of Bukhari and Muslim, and the four Sunan of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. They are not of equal authenticity: the Sunan contain weak hadiths, hence the importance of an edition with gradings on the chains.

Do your editions include gradings?

It depends on the title and the publisher, and we state it on every listing. On the Sunan it is an important criterion: without gradings on the chains, a non-specialist reader cannot tell the authentic from the weak.

Are the hadiths vowelled?

It depends on the edition. For continuous or spoken reading, take a fully vowelled one; it changes everything. Scholarly multi-volume editions are rarely fully vowelled, which is not a problem for a confident reader. The information is on every listing.

How are sets shipped?

Each volume is wrapped separately then packed in a rigid box. Quantities shown are stock actually on the shelf. For a complete set, write to us before ordering: we weigh the collection and give you the exact rate to your country.

Hadith Collections