Kutub al-Sittah

The Kutub al-Sittah are six hadith collections regarded as canonical in Sunni Islam: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud, Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Nasaʾi, and Sunan Ibn Majah.

Hadith: Reports describing the sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. The six books collect hadith rather than presenting a single continuous narrative.
Hadith criticism: The scholarly assessment of hadith reports through their transmitters, chains, and textual content. Its methods underpin judgments about the reliability of reports in the six books.
Muhammad al-Bukhari: A ninth-century hadith scholar who compiled Sahih al-Bukhari. His collection became the most widely esteemed member of the Kutub al-Sittah.
Al-Muwatta: A foundational collection of hadith and legal opinions compiled by Malik ibn Anas. It predates the six-book canon and is treated as canonical by some scholars instead of Ibn Majah’s Sunan.
Sahih al-Bukhari: A hadith collection compiled by Muhammad al-Bukhari, widely regarded as Sunni Islam’s most authoritative collection. It is one of the two Sahih collections and a central member of the six.
Jarh wa ta'dil: The evaluation of hadith transmitters through judgments about their reliability and precision. Biographical assessments helped compilers decide which transmission chains to accept.
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj: A ninth-century hadith scholar who compiled Sahih Muslim. His collection joined Bukhari’s as one of the Two Sahihs.
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A large hadith collection arranged by the names of the Prophet’s Companions who transmitted reports. Its scale and arrangement differ from the six collections’ topical organization.
Sahih Muslim: A hadith collection compiled by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and especially valued for its organization and rigorous selection. Alongside Bukhari’s work, it forms the pair known as the Two Sahihs.
Sahih: A hadith classification indicating that a report meets defined standards of sound transmission. The title Sahih marks the distinctive selection claims of Bukhari and Muslim.

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SunnahBroader topic: These collections became especially influential repositories of reports about Muhammad’s example.