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Sahih Muslim صَحِيح مُسْلِم

In review — pending scholar verification

The second of the Sahihayn — compiled by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 261 AH); contains roughly 7,500 narrations organised by chapter, distinguished by its rigorous attention to variant chains and intact reportage.

Overview

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Arabic: صَحِيح مُسْلِم; full title al-Musnad aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtaṣar min as-Sunan bi-Naql al-ʿAdl ʿan al-ʿAdl ʿan Rasūl Allāh ﷺ) is the second of the aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥān — the two most authentic hadith collections in Sunni Islam. It was compiled by Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj an-Naysābūrī (206–261 AH / 822–875 CE), a student of Imam al-Bukhārī as well as of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and other foremost ḥadīth masters.

The collection contains roughly 7,500 narrations (about 4,000 distinct hadith after removing variants), all judged by Muslim to be ṣaḥīḥ (authentic) by the strict standards he applied. Like Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, it is regarded by Sunni consensus as among the most authentic books after the Quran.

Distinctive features

Several features distinguish Muslim from al-Bukhārī:

  • Variant chains preserved meticulously — Muslim was famous for gathering all the available chains for a single hadith and presenting them with their minute differences. His introduction is a foundational text in the science of ʿilm al-rijāl (narrator criticism).
  • Topical organisation — purely topical, with no juristic chapter-heading commentary (unlike al-Bukhārī, whose chapter heads are juristic claims).
  • Accessibility — many readers find Muslim easier to study because each hadith and its variants are gathered together.
  • Strictness in contemporaneity — Muslim accepted contemporaneity (muʿāṣarah) of teacher and student as sufficient even without verified meeting (liqāʾ); al-Bukhārī required verified meeting. Both criteria are valid; the difference reflects scholarly methodology rather than reliability.

Structure

  • 54 books
  • ~7,500 narrations
  • ~4,000 distinct hadith
  • Opens: a famous introduction on the critical methodology of hadith
  • The book proper opens with the Kitāb al-Imān — including the Hadith of Jibril (Hadith 8)

Major commentaries

  • al-Minhāj Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim by al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) — the standard commentary; concise, juristically clear, indispensable.
  • Ikmāl al-Muʿlim by al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH).
  • al-Mufhim by al-Qurṭubī (d. 656 AH).

Famous hadith

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb narrated the Hadith of Jibril: "Iman is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in divine destiny — both its good and its bad." — Sahih Muslim, Hadith 8
Abu Hurayra reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever lies upon me deliberately, let him take his seat in the Fire." — Sahih Muslim, Hadith 3 (early hadith on the gravity of fabrication)

Significance

The pair al-Bukhārī wa-Muslim (or aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥān) is the gold standard of Islamic citation. Whenever a hadith is in both, it is graded muttafaq ʿalayhi ("agreed upon"), a label of the highest authority. Together they form the empirical foundation of Sunni doctrine and law.

See also

References

  1. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī (Dar Iḥyāʾ at-Turāth); trans. Abdul Hamid Siddiqui (Darussalam).
  2. al-Nawawī, al-Minhāj Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, ed. Khalil Maʾmūn Shīḥā (Dar al-Maʿrifah, 18 vols.).
  3. al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, Ikmāl al-Muʿlim bi-Fawāʾid Muslim.
  4. al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, vol. 12 — life of Muslim.
  5. Jonathan A. C. Brown, The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim (Brill, 2007).