These are the six universally accepted books of ḥadīth1. They are the Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, the Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Sunan al-Nasāʾī, the Sunan Abī Dāwūd, the Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī, and the Sunan Ibn Mājah.
In summary, there are two main aspects which can help to signify the authenticity of a ḥadīth.
We can summarise aḥādīth into five types:
The authors of these six books have conditions on whether to include aḥādīth in their collections. In terms of their accepted authenticity, it will be as follows:
There is ikhtilāf as to the inclusion of Ibn Mājah in the list. ↩
Definitions of majhūl al-ḥāl, majhūl al-ʿayn and mastūr, with the Aḥnāf classification of narrators and the five rulings on aḥādīth from a majhūl narrator.
A short reference to the principal ḥadīth-collection genres: ṣaḥīḥ, jāmiʿ, sunan, musnad, mustakhraj, muṣannaf, mustadrak, aṭrāf, juzʾ, muʿjam and tajrīd.
Ibn Ḥajar's symbol system in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, indicating which of the six major ḥadīth collections (and related works) record each narrator.
A mursal ḥadīth was not rejected by anyone before Imām al-Shāfiʿī; the majority of fuqahāʾ accept it, and the Aḥnāf differ over its scope.
