بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
* This is part of a series on the lives, works, and methodologies of ḥadīth scholars. It is an adapted translation of Al-Ta‘rīf al-Wajīz bi Manāhij Ashhur al-Muṣannifīn fī al-Ḥadīth by Shaykh Syed Abdul Majid Ghouri, faculty of Qur’an and Sunnah Studies, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). *
This book focuses on three areas: methodologies, famous compilers, and ḥadīth.
Manāhij (methodologies; sing. Manhaj) literally means the ‘clear path’. Technically, it is the method a muḥaddith uses to gather, write, classify, apply selection criteria, present, divide according to isnād, grade, and compose their works on ḥadīth.
They are the individuals who collected ḥadīth and arranged them in chapters and sections that display their analysis, such as the imams of the major ḥadīth works:
A Ḥadīth (statement; plural aḥadīth) is a statement, action, tacit approval, description, character trait, or biographical detail of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the definition according to some of the scholars of ḥadīth; according to others, it also includes what is attributed to the Companion or the Successor.
Other synonyms for ḥadīth are sunnah, khabar, and athar. The word sunnah is only used when the action performed was transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions. The word ḥadīth, on the other hand, is used for what is narrated from the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, in terms of their sayings, actions, and other than them. The words khabar and athar are used to denote Marfūʿ narrations, or both Marfu‘ and Mawqūf narrations.[6] Some have said that khabar is for Marfū‘ narrations and athar is for Mawqūf narrations.
The benefit of learning the methodologies of the ḥadīth compilers is that students develop an understanding of their philosophies on narrating, narrators, and narrations, their approaches to classifying ḥadīth, and their specialized terminologies. Students also explore a significant number of ḥadīth books and gain a thorough understanding of ḥadīth sources, methods, and the goals of the compilers.
Ṣiḥāḥ is the plural of Ṣaḥīḥ (meaning sound or authentic), indicating freedom from defects. In ḥadīth sciences, it refers to books where the authors aimed to compile only authentic ḥadīth. Although many collections of authentic ḥadīth exist, only a few meet the standards of Imam al-Bukhārī and Imam Muslim, as they also include some ḍa‘īf (weak), ḥasan (good), and other types of ḥadīth. Some of the most renowned Ṣiḥāḥ books are the following (in sequential order):
Some of these important and famous works will be expanded on later in the series, InshaAllah.
His name is Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah al-Juʿfī al-Bukhārī, ‘Leader of the Faithful’ in ḥadīth, and one of the most outstanding experts in the science. He was born in 194 AH in Bukhārā (modern-day Uzbekistan) and grew up as an orphan. He traveled in pursuit of knowledge to Shām, Miṣr, Jazīrah (Upper Mesopotamia), Baṣrah, and the Ḥijāz, gathering more than 600,000 ḥadīth. He passed away in the year 256 AH and is buried in Khartank (near the city of Bukhārā).
Great imams of ḥadīth, such as Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī (the author of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim) and Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī (the author of Sunan al-Tirmidhī), narrated from Imam al-Bukhārī. Other great ḥadīth scholars acknowledged his preeminence and knowledge. Imām Ibn Khuzaymah said: “I did not see under the sky anyone more knowledgeable and with more memorization of the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ than Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl.”[7] Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalanī said: “Were I to open the doors of praise for Imam al-Bukhārī by those who followed him, the pen and paper would finish, I would run out of breath, for it is an ocean that has no shore.”[8]
The most famous of his works are: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, al-Adab al-Mufrad, al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, al-Tārīkh al-Awsaṭ, and al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr.
Imam al-Bukhārī named his book الجامع المسند الصحيح المختصر من أمور رسول الله ﷺ وسننه وأيامه (The Comprehensive, Musnad, Authentic, Abridged, from the Matters of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Sunan and his Days).” It is part of the Jāmi‘ genre, a book that contains ḥadīth from eight topics (not exhaustively, but rather a selection):
1. Beliefs (ʿaqāʾid) 5. Exegesis (tafsīr)
2. Rulings (aḥkām) 6. History (tārīkh)
3. ‘Heart Softeners’ (raqāi’q) 7. Trials (fitan)
4. Etiquettes (ādāb) 8. Virtues (manāqib)
This book is considered the first work solely authored with authentic ḥadīth. Imam al-Bukhārī began compiling his Ṣaḥīḥ in Masjid al-Nabawī and continued working on it for 16 years. After completing it, he presented it to the scholars of his era, who agreed upon its authenticity and considered his book the most authentic after the Qur’an itself. The Ummah also received it with acceptance, generation after generation. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) said: “The recitation of this book gives the clouds water, and the Ummah has consensus upon its authenticity and acceptance.”[9]
The Ṣaḥīḥ contains 7563 ḥadīth with repetition; 2607 ḥadīth without repetition. It has 98 ‘Books’ (kutub), the first of which is the ‘Book of the Beginning of Revelation’ and the last is the ‘Book of Tawḥīd’ and comprises 3,451 individual chapters.
Condition of Accepting Hadīth
Arrangement of ‘Books’
The chapter headings are of three types:
where the ḥadīth clearly matches the chapter heading without requiring explanation, and the reader can easily understand the relation between them without contemplation.
Example: Chapter: The Signs of Faith, where Imām al-Bukhārī brings the ḥadīth of Anas (R): “The sign of faith is love of the Anṣār, and the sign of hypocrisy is hatred of the Anṣār.”
where the ḥadīth is connected to the chapter heading through inference, and the reader can discern the relation between them only through contemplation.
Example: Chapter: The People of Knowledge and Virtue are More Rightful to be the Imam, where Imām al-Bukhārī brings multiple narrations about the illness of the Prophet ﷺ and his appointing of Abū Bakr (R) to lead the prayer. He mentions the statement of ‘Āisha (R), where she said that her father was a gentle person and would be unable to lead the people in prayer from his place, yet the Prophet ﷺ still put him forward. He did so despite the availability of other Companions who had louder voices or were stronger, and Imām al-Bukhārī infers through this that precedence in leading the prayer should be given to those of knowledge and virtue.
where Imām al-Bukhārī says “Chapter” without any qualification or explanation, and he deploys this category for two reasons:
The Muʿallaq is a ḥadīth where one or more narrators are omitted by the author, meaning the author omits their direct link and begins the chain from the next transmitter.
The Muʿallaqāt in this book are 1,341, with many of them ‘connected’ in other places in the Ṣaḥīḥ. As for their ruling: if the (narration) wording is decisive, then it is considered authentic. But if the (narration) wording is uncertain, it will not be regarded as authentic, as Imām al-Bukhārī did not stipulate the same conditions for the Muʿallaq as he did for the Musnad. The Muʿallaq are not the primary focus of his book, but he includes them for additional benefits.
The Mursal is a ḥadīth that a Tābiʿī narrates from the Prophet ﷺ without mentioning the intermediary (i.e., the companion) between them.
Now, one of the conditions of the isnād for Imām al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ is connectivity. Therefore, the Mursal ḥadīth which he brings is not based on his conditions, but as supporting evidence, testimony, and corroboration.
His method of presenting the Mursal ḥadīth is as follows: he presents the ḥadīth in both forms, the Mawṣūl (connected) and the Mursal (interrupted), or the Mawqūf (stopped) and the Marfū‘ (elevated). He brings the ḥadīth with a complete authentic chain first, then mentions the Mursal ḥadīth as corroboration and support, which serves as a detailed proof for the first report.
The Mawqūf is a ḥadīth attributed to the companion only, from his statement, action, tacit approval, or description, and it is not ‘raised’ (i.e., connected) to the Prophet ﷺ.
Imām al-Bukhārī presents the Mawqūf ḥadīth from the fatāwā of the Companions (R) and Successors, and their exegesis of many verses, as a means of familiarizing and strengthening what Imām al-Bukhārī prefers in cases of disagreement among the scholars. He rules definitively on what he considers authentic from the Mawqūf ḥadīth, even if it is not based on his (usual) conditions.
Takrār is the re-mentioning of a ḥadīth in one chapter or more, either with the exact wording, with an addition, or with a reduction, in one way or more.
Imām al-Bukhārī repeats a ḥadīth many times for academic purposes. He divides a single ḥadīth among multiple chapters and derives benefits, explicit or subtle rulings, through each mention, and repeats the ḥadīth based on its appropriateness with a chapter.
The repetition may seem like mere repetition at first, but it is not. Because each time Imām al-Bukhārī brings a (repeated) ḥadīth in a chapter, he does not mention the complete chain or text; instead, he mentions a new benefit about the chain, text, or both. If there is a need for repetition but no new benefit to add, then he suffices by referring to it. The repeated ḥādīth, with both the chain and text, are only 23.
When the authors of ḥādīth works wish to reference a ḥādīth through multiple chains, they group their teachers sometimes through ‘atf with the conjunction letter wāw. They then mention the shared part of the isnād fully, so two or more chains are gathered in a single sequence.
Imam al-Bukhārī uses this method in his book. For example, he said: “Aḥmad ibn Yūnus and Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, (and) they both said: Ibrāhīm ibn Sa‘d related to us, who said: Ibn Shihāb related to us, from Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah (R), who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said…” So, Imām al-Bukhārī grouped at the beginning of the chain Aḥmad ibn Yūnus and Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl with the conjunction letter wāw.
When the authors of ḥādīth works wish to group various transmission chains, they do so through the letter ḥā to indicate Taḥwīl, i.e., to indicate transition from one chain to another. It aims to shorten all the isnād that meet at a specific narrator without repeating the shared chain between them. They do so by placing the letter ḥā next to the name of the narrator, where the transmission chains meet.
Imām al-Bukhārī uses this method in several places throughout his book, and the number of ḥadīth where he does Taḥwīl is 151. For example, he said: “Muḥammad ibn ‘Ubayd ibn Maymūn narrated to us, ‘Īsā ibn Yūnus narrated to us, from ‘Ubayd Allah, from Nāfi‘, from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar (R): ‘The Prophet ﷺ authorized…’”
Another narration: “Yaḥyā ibn Mūsā narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn Bakr narrated to us, Ibn Jurayj informed us, ‘Ubayd Allah informed me, from Nāfi‘, from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar (R): ‘The Prophet ﷺ permitted…’”
Another narration: “Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Numayr narrated to us, my father narrated to us, ʿUbayd Allah narrated to us, who said: Nāfi‘ narrated to me, from Ibn ‘Umar (R): “‘Abbas (R) asked for permission from the Prophet ﷺ to spend the nights of Mina in Makkah because of his camel, so the Prophet ﷺ permitted him.”
So, the common narrator in all three chains is ‘Ubayd Allah, and the three who narrate from him are ‘Īsā ibn Yūnus, Ibn Jurayj, and Ibn Numayr. They all narrate using different terminologies, so Imām al-Bukhārī combines them and places a ḥā before the common narrator to indicate Taḥwīl.
If the ḥadīth has more than one isnād or matn, then Imām al-Bukhārī may mention some of them and indicate the rest without mentioning them entirely. For example, he will say “and so-and-so also narrated it from so-and-so”, or “it was narrated in another way from so-and-so”, or “like it” (mithlihī), or “similar to it” (naḥwihī), or “with this isnād”, or “like the ḥadīth of so-and-so”, or “he added to the ḥadīth like so”, or “with its meaning”, or “so-and-so said in such-and-such place”, or “so-and-so corroborated (agreed with) him”, or with other phrasing.
Example: Imām al-Bukhārī states in this book: “Qabīṣah ibn ʿUqbah narrated to us, he said: Sufyān narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from ‘Abd Allah ibn Murrah, from Masrūq, from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr (R) that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever has the following four will be a pure hypocrite, and whoever has one of them will have a characteristic of hypocrisy until he gives it up: when he is entrusted, he betrays; when he speaks, he tells a lie; when he makes a covenant, he is treacherous; when he argues, he behaves in an imprudent manner.” And Shu‘bah (also) narrates it from al-A‘mash.
Imām al-Bukhārī in another ḥadīth said: “ʿUthmān al-Mu’addhin corroborated him and said: ‘Auf narrated to us, from Muḥammad, from Abū Hurayrah (R) from the Prophet ﷺ similar to it.”
Some ḥadīth authors use technical terms in their books with precision, which students must be familiar with to understand their intended meanings. Imām al-Bukhārī uses a term that is not found elsewhere, and it is his saying: “qāla baʿḍ al-nās” (‘some people said’). He repeats it about 25 times after the chapter heading, responding to views other than his own on those issues or chapters. Some baseless opinions suggest that Imām al-Bukhārī was reacting only to Imām Abū Ḥanīfah with this phrase, which is incorrect; instead, he was also responding to Imām al-Shāfi‘ī, Imām Muḥammad, and others.
Other well-known methodology features are the following:
Some ḥadīth authors use technical terms in their books with precision, which students must be familiar with to understand their intended meanings. Imām al-Bukhārī uses a term that is not found elsewhere, and it is his saying: “qāla baʿḍ al-nās” (‘some people said’). He repeats it about 25 times after the chapter heading, responding to views other than his own on those issues or chapters. Some baseless opinions suggest that Imām al-Bukhārī was reacting only to Imām Abū Ḥanīfah with this phrase, which is incorrect; instead, he was also responding to Imām al-Shāfi‘ī, Imām Muḥammad, and others.
The most important transmission of this book is by Imām Abū ‘Abd Allah Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar al-Farabrī (d. 320 AH), who heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from Imām al-Bukhārī himself twice. Abū al-Haytham Muḥammad ibn Makkī ibn Muḥammad al-Marwazī al-Kushmīhanī (d. 389 AH) and Abū Zayd al-Marwazī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ‘Abd Allah (d. 371 AH) heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from Imām al-Farabrī, and the narration of this book spread through them.
Shurūḥ (commentaries; sing. Sharḥ) are books where authors comment on the text (matn) of the ḥādīth, explain its unfamiliar words, clarify its meanings, speak about its chains, and discuss its derived rulings and benefits.
Hāwāshī (marginalia; sing. Hāshiyah) are annotations written on the side of the page or between the lines. They usually clarify unclear words in the text and can also include notes, objections, viewpoints, and additions from the annotator.
Some of the most important commentaries and marginalia of this book are:
Abridgments are books in which scholars summarize and abbreviate the books of ḥadīth to make them accessible to the ummah and to memorize. The summarization is usually limited to the most vital ḥadīth, especially those considered foundational to the Dīn.
A few important abridgments of this book are:
