📘 সুনানুত তিরমিযী - ত আর-রিসালাহ (আত-তিরমিযী - মৃত্যু 279 হিজরী)

Sunan al-Tirmidhi — Dar al-Risalah Edition (al-Tirmidhi) Section: Books of Sunnah
Book: al-Jami' al-Kabir "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"
Author: Abu 'Isa Muhammad ibn 'Isa ibn Sawrah al-Tirmidhi (209–279 AH)
Edited, with hadiths verified and annotated by: Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut (all volumes), 'Abd al-Latif Harz Allah (vol. 1), Ahmad Barhum (vol. 2), Muhammad Kamil Qarah Balali (vol. 3), Haytham 'Abd al-Ghafur (vol. 4), Jamal 'Abd al-Latif (vol. 5), Sa'id al-Lahham (vol. 6)
Publisher: Dar al-Risalah al-'Alamiyyah
First edition, 1430 AH — 2009 CE
Number of volumes: 6
[Book numbering corresponds to the printed edition]
Date of publication in al-Shamila: 6 Ramadan 1445

In front of Sunan al-Tirmidhi

Al-Qasimi narrated in Qawa'id al-Tahdith from Imam Abu Hanifah, may Allah have mercy on him, that he said: "Were it not for the Sunnah, none of us would have understood the Quran."

Indeed, Allah Almighty prepared for its preservation just as He preserved His Book, for the Companions and those after them from the Followers and their successors rose to convey it, disseminate it, narrate it, preserve it, and compile it, expending their utmost effort in that regard. Their biographies bear witness to the immense exertion they undertook—some traveling to hear it, others devoting themselves to narrating it, and still others dedicating themselves to compiling and authoring works on it.

The authors of the Six Books were at the forefront of these men who advanced to serve the noble Prophetic Sunnah. Among them was Imam al-Tirmidhi, who compiled a comprehensive book and condensed the chains of hadith with a skillful abridgment, mentioning only one chain while signaling to the others. He clarified the status of every hadith—whether it was authentic (sahih), good (hasan), weak (da'if), or rejected (munkar)—and explained the reason for weakness. Thus, his book sufficed the mujtahid and satisfied the muqallid.

As we present it today, after having extensively investigated the narrators and hadith scholars in accordance with what justice requires in the transmission and narration of hadith—namely, that they be trustworthy in themselves, knowledgeable in their religion, people of piety and God-consciousness, possessors of hadith memorization, mastery, and precision, and that they be people of discernment and accomplishment—these are the people of justice ('adalah).

The eagerness to spread "And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it" (Quran 59:7), and "Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example" (Quran 33:21) is a religion we affirm today by publishing one of the books of the "Hadith Encyclopedia" (al-Mawsu'ah al-Hadithiyyah), which is among its most important works. It contains the authentic and good texts from the purified Prophetic Sunnah, and it has been critically edited with a scholarly verification that reassures the researcher and satisfies the reader, within the methodology that achieves the goal we seek and the hope that pleases our Lord.

To everyone who contributed and took the initiative to work on this book, we extend the most beautiful and sweetest thanks, foremost among them His Eminence Shaykh Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut, His Eminence Shaykh Muhammad ibn Nasir al-'Ajmi, and the righteous sons whom I pray Allah grants success in working to serve this religion by spreading beneficial knowledge through (the company of Mu'assasah...).

The Global Message (al-Risālah al-ʿĀlamiyyah), which was established to continue the mission of the Muʾassasat al-Risālah, by the permission of Allah the Exalted.

And praise be to Allah at the beginning and at the end, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.

Riḍwān Daʿbūl

Publisher's Introduction

This book is the first fruit of the production of (The Company of the International Al-Risalah Foundation), a company established upon the pillars of (The Al-Risalah Foundation for Printing, Publishing, and Distribution), which was founded by our revered father, Mr. Radwan Ibrahim Da'bul, forty years ago.

The pillars of the Foundation to which we refer are three:

The first pillar: the books and works that the parent Foundation has previously published, which are numerous publications from which a great multitude of Muslims have benefited. The new company is resolved to renew those publications in order to benefit from the development that has attended the fundamentals of the printing industry, in a manner that may make benefiting from these books easier for students of knowledge.

The second pillar: the methodology that the parent Foundation has followed since its establishment in serving important heritage books, through the verification and scientific research centers affiliated with it. This is an extremely difficult methodology, beset by many material hardships, but we hope that God will grant us sincerity of intention, so that the hardships we shall endure may be placed in the balance of our deeds on the Day of Reckoning.

The third pillar: the spirit of struggle, seriousness, and perseverance possessed by our founding father, for he spares no effort or wealth in the service of publishing books. Despite the immense hardships that confronted him throughout the years of his life, he never ceased for a moment to serve his mission, which he entrusted to his Foundation: The Al-Risalah Foundation. And among the wondrous aspects of this matter—

You would see that he pays no heed to any matter of this world, and you would see no joy or cheer upon his face except when he saw a new book that had been issued by his institution—as if he had been granted a newborn child or had achieved a decisive victory. How excellent he is! He exhausted his very soul for those who would come after him, and left us no excuse to continue the march upon the same path and with the same resolve. We ask Allah to reward him on our behalf and on behalf of the Muslims with the best of rewards, and to inspire us with sincerity and steadfastness.

The Mu'assasat al-Risālah has suffered during the past decade a severe crisis as a result of the upheavals that afflicted our region, in addition to particular circumstances. But during that period, Allah honored this institution by preserving for it its beating heart, which continued to pulse despite the difficulty of the situation. And as we apologize today to the institution's admirers for the shortcomings that befell it during the past period, it delights us to bring them the glad tidings that we have prepared many beneficial books that will be issued successively in the coming days, Allah willing—at the forefront of which are the six books of Sunnah, and this book of ours is one of them—to serve as the hallmark of the coming phase and the banner under which we will complete the blessed march of this institution, Allah Almighty willing.

In conclusion, as we repeat our thanks to our noble father for the great patience and forbearance he expended until he was able to plant in our souls the love of this blessed profession, we pledge to him that we will exert our utmost effort in continuing the march upon the path he charted and approved, so that the fruits of this planting may be a continuous charity whose harvest he reaps for as long as Allah wills.

We ask Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, to accept it from him, to prolong his life in goodness, and to grant us and him sincerity in word and deed. Indeed, He is All-Hearing, All-Answering. And the close of our supplication is that all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Mu'ādh Riḍwān Da'būl
General Director

Introduction: Containing the Methodology Followed in the Critical Edition of the Four Sunan

Verily, all praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His aid, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the wickedness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can lead astray, and whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.

{O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims} [Āl ʿImrān: 102].

{O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah is ever, over you, an Observer} [al-Nisāʾ: 1].

{O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment} [al-Aḥzāb: 70–71].

To proceed:

It is a matter of consensus among the scholars of Islam that the noble Prophetic Sunnah is the second source of Islamic legislation after the Noble Qurʾān. Upon it reliance is placed in elaborating the legal rulings and clarifying the Qurʾānic directives, for it is the practical interpretation of the Qurʾān and the real-world application of Islam.

This is the task that God entrusted to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, for God Almighty made him the one to clarify His Book. He said: {And We sent down to you the Reminder that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them} [al-Naḥl 16:44], and He said: {And We did not send down the Book to you except that you may make clear to them that wherein they differed} [al-Naḥl 16:64]. Thus, the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, was the one who explained God's command on behalf of God, and from His Book the meanings of what people were addressed with and what God Almighty intended by it and meant in it, and the meanings of His religion, His rulings, His obligations, His requirements, His etiquettes, and His recommended acts, and the practices (sunan) that he established, and the judgments that he issued, and the traditions (athar) that he disseminated. He remained, peace and blessings be upon him, in Mecca and Medina for twenty-three years, establishing for the people the landmarks of religion, imposing the obligations, instituting the practices, executing the judgments, forbidding the unlawful, permitting the lawful, and setting people upon the path of truth by word and deed.¹

Thus, his sayings, actions, and tacit approvals were a detailed elaboration of the concise Qur'an, an interpretation of its ambiguous verses, an expansion of its abridged passages, a restriction of its absolute statements, a specification of its general statements, and an explanation of its rulings. All of this was the wisdom that God, glorified and exalted be He, explicitly mentioned when He described the mission of His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in His saying: {And teaches them the Book and the wisdom} [al-Baqarah 2:129].

Imam al-Shāfiʿī, may God Almighty have mercy on him, pointed to this when he said:² "God mentioned the Book, which is the Qur'an, and mentioned the wisdom. I heard from one whose [knowledge] I approve..."

---
¹ Adapted from the introduction to *al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl* by Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī.
² In his book *al-Risālah*, pp. 78–79.

One of the people of knowledge of the Qur'an says: "Al-Hikmah (wisdom) is the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah." This resembles what he said, and Allah knows best, because the Qur'an was mentioned, and al-Hikmah was joined to it, and Allah mentioned His favor upon His creation in teaching them the Book and al-Hikmah. So it is not permissible—and Allah knows best—to say that al-Hikmah here means anything other than the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah. That is because it is coupled with the Book of Allah, and because Allah made obedience to His Messenger obligatory and bound the people to follow his command. Thus, it is not permissible to say of any statement that it is an obligation (farḍ) except the Book of Allah, then the Sunnah of His Messenger, due to what we have described: that Allah made faith in His Messenger coupled with faith in Him, and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah clarifies from Allah the meaning of what He intended, as evidence for its specific and general [rulings]. Then He joined al-Hikmah to His Book, following it with it, and He did not grant this to anyone among His creation other than His Messenger. End of quote.

We say: For this reason, Allah the Exalted has made obedience to His Messenger obligatory upon His servants, because it is part of obedience to Him, Glorified and Exalted be He. Allah clarified this in numerous places in His Book, that acting upon what the Messenger of Allah brought is acting upon what came from Allah. Allah the Exalted said: {O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day} [An-Nisa' 4:59].

And He the Exalted said: {Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah; but whoever turns away—We have not sent you over them as a guardian} [An-Nisa' 4:80].

And He said: {And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it} [Al-Hashr 59:7].

He said: {And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers - We will give him what he has taken and drive him into Hell, and evil it is as a destination} [Al-Nisa' 4:115]. And He said: {But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves, and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, sincere] submission} [Al-Nisa' 4:65].

It was from this profound understanding that the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, and the Followers who succeeded them in excellence, acted in their words, deeds, and all their affairs. For it is narrated that a woman from Banu Asad, called Umm Ya'qub, came to 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and said: "What is this hadith that has reached me that you cursed the women who tattoo, those who have themselves tattooed, those who pluck their eyebrows, and those who file their teeth for beauty, altering the creation of Allah?" 'Abdullah said: "Why should I not curse those whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, cursed, while it is in the Book of Allah?"

The woman said: "I have read everything between the two covers of the Mushaf, and I did not find it." He said: "If you had truly read it, you would have found it. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: {And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it} (1)."

And it was said to Mutarrif ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-Shikhkhir: "Do not narrate to us except from the Qur'an." Mutarrif said to him: "By Allah, we do not seek a substitute for the Qur'an, but we seek one who is more knowledgeable of the Qur'an than us" (2).

--------------------------------------------
(1) Narrated by Ahmad (3945) and (4129), al-Bukhari (5948), and Muslim (2125) (120), and this is the wording of Muslim.
(2) "Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm" 2/191.

Al-Shafi'i said: Abu Hanifah ibn Simak ibn al-Fadl al-Shihabi informed me, he said: Ibn Abi Dhi'b informed me, from al-Maqburi, from Abu Shurayh al-Ka'bi, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said in the Year of the Conquest: "Whoever has a relative killed, he has the better of two options: if he wishes, he may take the blood money, and if he wishes, he may have retaliation." Abu Hanifah said: So I said to Ibn Abi Dhi'b: "Do you adopt this, O Abu al-Harith?" He struck my chest, shouted at me loudly, and reproached me, saying: "I narrate to you from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and you say: 'Do you adopt it?' Yes, I adopt it, and that is an obligation upon me and upon whoever has heard it. Indeed, Allah chose Muhammad from among mankind, guided them through him and at his hands, and chose for them what He chose for him and upon his tongue. So it is upon creation to follow him, willingly or unwillingly; there is no escape for a Muslim from that."

Al-Shafi'i also said: Muslim and 'Abd al-Majid informed us, from Ibn Jurayj, that Tawus informed him that he asked Ibn 'Abbas about the two rak'ahs after the afternoon prayer, and he forbade him from them. Tawus said: So I said to him: "I will not abandon them." Ibn 'Abbas said: {It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should have any choice in their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error} [Al-Ahzab: 36]. Then al-Shafi'i said: So Ibn 'Abbas saw that the proof stood against Tawus through his narration from the Prophet, peace be upon him, and he indicated to him by reciting the Book of Allah that it is an obligation upon him that he should have no choice when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter.

Al-Qasimi (1) narrated from Imam Abu Hanifah, may Allah have mercy on him, that a man from the people of Kufah once entered upon him while a hadith was being recited in his presence. The man said, "Leave us alone from these hadiths." The Imam rebuked him with the severest rebuke and said to him, "Were it not for the Sunnah, none of us would have understood the Qur'an." Then he said to the man, "What do you say about the meat of a monkey, and where is its proof from the Qur'an?" So the man was silenced.

And since the Sunnah holds this rank with respect to the Qur'an, Allah Almighty prepared for its preservation just as He preserved His Book. The Companions, and those after them from the Followers and their successors, rose to convey it and disseminate it, to transmit it, preserve it, and compile it, expending their utmost effort in that. Their biographies bear witness to the immense exertion they devoted, among them one who traveled to hear it, one who stood devoted to narrating it, and one who applied himself to compiling it and composing works on it, until they were able to encompass it, gather its scattered parts, collect its dispersed elements, and attain full mastery over it—so much so that it is valid for us to say: not a single hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, escaped them.

In the stage of its compilation and classification, they followed various approaches, each according to the goal he sought from it. Among them were those who arranged it according to musnads, by mentioning the hadiths of each Companion separately. The most famous of these musnads is the Musnad of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, which Allah Almighty honored us to serve and edit, and we have expanded the discussion on this type of authorship in our introduction to it.

--------------------------------------------
(1) In "Qawa'id al-Tahdith," p. 307.

Some of them arranged it according to its subjects and chapters, as Imam Malik ibn Anas did in his *Muwatta'*. After him came those who followed his path and pursued his approach among the great memorizers of hadith and traditionists, foremost among them the imam of the craft, the Commander of the Faithful in hadith, al-Bukhari, and his student Imam Muslim, the authors of the two *Sahih*s, then the authors of the *Sunan*: Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah.¹

These six books encompassed the rulings of Islam, its etiquettes, its laws, and its directives. This is what explains to us the great attention and profound reverence these books received, for the scholars accepted them, the traditionists and jurists took care of them generation after generation, they became famous among the people, and the scholars devoted themselves to them—explaining their obscure terms, examining their transmitters, deriving their jurisprudence, compiling their texts, and refining them.

Yet the two *Sahih*s possess merits that the four *Sunan* do not have. Al-Bukhari and Muslim did not include in their two books any hadith except those whose authenticity they were certain of and whose transmission was confirmed to them. The authors of the *Sunan* did not impose this condition, although for the most part—apart from Ibn Majah—they did point out many of the defects that affected some of the chains of transmission in their works. Each of these imams had a purpose in his compilation, a methodology in his authorship, and an objective—

---
¹ Among them were those who arranged them according to the alphabetical dictionary method and other methods. See the detailed discussion of this in *al-Hittah fi dhikr al-Sihah al-Sittah* by Siddiq Hasan Khan, pp. 118–128.

He aimed for it, and it distinguishes him from all others. We can mention very briefly what distinguishes each of these six books and what its author intended, with the promise to expand on each book in its own introduction.

As for al-Bukhārī(1): his purpose was to isolate the sound, connected hadiths from others, and to derive jurisprudence, biography (sīrah), and exegesis (tafsīr) from them. He fulfilled what he stipulated, and his book attained a degree of fame and acceptance beyond which none is sought.

As for Muslim: he aimed to isolate the sound hadiths agreed upon among the hadith scholars—those connected and raised (marfūʿ)—from which the Sunnah is derived. He wanted to bring them closer to minds and facilitate derivation from them, so he arranged them in an excellent order, gathered the chains of each hadith in one place, to make clear the differences in texts and the branching of chains in the clearest possible way. He reconciled the divergent versions, leaving no excuse for anyone with knowledge of the Arabic language to turn away from the Sunnah to something else.

As for Abū Dāwūd: his concern was to collect the hadiths that jurists used as evidence, which circulated among them, and upon which the scholars of the regions built their legal rulings. He compiled his Sunan, gathering in it the sound (ṣaḥīḥ), the good (ḥasan), the weak (layyin), and what was fit for practice in his view. Abū Dāwūd said: "I have not mentioned in my book any hadith upon which the people have unanimously agreed to abandon."

Whatever among them was weak, he explicitly stated its weakness, and whatever had a defect, he explained it in a manner...

--------------------------------------------
(1) We have transmitted what pertains to the books of al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī from the book "Al-Inṣāf fī Bayān Asbāb al-Ikhtilāf" by al-Dihlawī, pp. 54–55.

Anyone who delves into this matter knows him, and he provided an explanation for every hadith based on what a scholar had derived from it and what an authority had adopted regarding it. For this reason, al-Ghazali and others explicitly stated that his book is sufficient for the mujtahid.

As for al-Tirmidhi, it seems he admired the method of the two Shaykhs in clarifying what they clarified and leaving ambiguous what they left ambiguous, and the method of Abu Dawud in compiling everything that any authority had adopted. So he combined both methods and added to them the clarification of the positions of the Companions, the Successors, and the jurists of the various regions. Thus he produced a comprehensive book, and he condensed the chains of transmission of hadith in a subtle manner, mentioning one of them and signaling the rest. He clarified the status of every hadith—whether it was authentic, good, weak, or rejected—and explained the reason for its weakness, so that the student might have clear insight into its matter and know what is suitable for consideration and what is not. He also noted whether it was widely transmitted or solitary, mentioned the positions of the Companions and the jurists of the regions, named those who needed naming, and gave kunyas to those who needed kunyas, leaving nothing obscure for anyone among the people of knowledge. For this reason, it is said that it is sufficient for the mujtahid and dispenses with need for the muqallid.

As for al-Nasa'i, he devoted great attention to the multiplicity of chains and the variations among transmitters. Abu Abdullah ibn Rushayd said of him: "The book of al-Nasa'i is the most innovative of the books compiled in..."

The Sunan, in terms of classification, and the finest of them in arrangement—his book is as if it combines the methods of al-Bukhari and Muslim, with a great share of explaining the defects (al-ʿilal). In sum, al-Nasaʾi's book is, after the two Sahihs, the least of the books in containing weak hadiths and criticized narrators.

Ibn Khaldun said in his History (1/793): People made corrections to al-Bukhari and Muslim, then Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, Abu ʿIsa al-Tirmidhi, and Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Nasaʾi wrote their Sunan with a broader scope than the Sahih, intending what fulfilled the conditions for practical application—either from the high rank in chains of transmission, which is the sahih as is well known, or from what is below it, such as the hasan and others—so that it might serve as an authority for the Sunna and for practice. These are the well-known chains in the community, and they are the mother-books of hadith in the Sunna, for although they are numerous, they return in most cases to these.

Abu Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr(1) said in comparing these five books: The foremost thing to which I am guided is what the Muslims have agreed upon relying on, namely the five books, and the Muwattaʾ, which preceded them in composition and did not fall behind them in rank. Their purposes in them have differed: the two Sahihs hold the highest distinction among them; al-Bukhari has noble purposes for whoever seeks jurisprudential understanding; Abu Dawud has what no one else has in confining and encompassing the hadiths of legal rulings; al-Tirmidhi has what no one else shares with him in the arts of hadith craftsmanship; and al-Nasaʾi has traversed the most obscure and most sublime of those issues.

--------------------------------------------
(1) As quoted from him by al-Suyuti in the introduction to "Zahr al-Ruba ʿala al-Mujtaba." Abu Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr is the author of "Silat al-Sila," whose biography is found in "Tabaqat ʿUlamaʾ al-Hadith" (4/267).

As for Ibn Mājah, his book is useful and highly beneficial in jurisprudence, as Ibn al-Athīr mentioned, but it contains ḥadīths that are extremely weak, even munkar (rejected). Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Rushayd said: Ibn Mājah's book is unique in including ḥadīths transmitted from men accused of lying and stealing ḥadīths, and some of those ḥadīths are only known through them, such as Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb, the scribe of Mālik, al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zayd, Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Ismāʿīl ibn Ziyād al-Sakūnī, ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Abī al-Janūb, and others. Abū Zurʿah ruled that many of its ḥadīths are false, defective, or munkar, and this is related in the book al-ʿIlal by Ibn Abī Ḥātim.

We say: Because of the weakness that is unique to it, more than one scholar did not include it among the five books previously mentioned. Indeed, al-Ḥāfiẓ Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-ʿAlāʾī said: The book of al-Dārimī should be counted as the sixth of the five books instead of the book of Ibn Mājah, for it has few weak narrators and rare munkar and shādhdh (irregular) ḥadīths. Even though it contains mursal and mawqūf ḥadīths, it is nonetheless more deserving than the book of Ibn Mājah.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: Some scholars do not count the sixth [book] except "al-Muwaṭṭaʾ," as Razīn al-Saraqusṭī did, and al-Majd Ibn al-Athīr followed him in "Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl."

We say: Neither Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ nor al-Nawawī counted the book of Ibn Mājah among the foundational sources of Islam. For al-Nawawī said: The imams stated that the foundational sources of Islam among the books of ḥadīth are five: the two Ṣaḥīḥs, and these three.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned that the first to add the book of Ibn Mājah to the foundational sources was Abū al-Faḍl Ibn Ṭāhir, as he included it in his "Aṭrāf," and likewise in "Shurūṭ al-Aʾimmah al-Sittah." Then al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī did so in his book "al-Kamāl fī Asmāʾ al-Rijāl," which al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī refined, and he mentioned it among them.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: Ibn Ṭāhir and those who followed him only turned from counting "al-Muwaṭṭaʾ" to counting Ibn Mājah because the additional marfūʿ ḥadīths in "al-Muwaṭṭaʾ" beyond the five books are very few, unlike Ibn Mājah, whose additions are many times greater than those of "al-Muwaṭṭaʾ." They thus intended, by joining the book of Ibn Mājah to the five, to increase the number of marfūʿ ḥadīths. And God knows best.

These Sunan [books]—some people have taken to calling them "the Ṣaḥīḥs," and they were objected to in that regard. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ mentioned that al-Khaṭīb applied the name "Ṣaḥīḥ" to the books of al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī, and that al-Ḥākim named the book—

Al-Tirmidhi, "Al-Jami' al-Sahih" (1), and that Abu Tahir al-Silafi said regarding the five books: the scholars of the East and the West have agreed upon their authenticity. Ibn al-Salah said: This is leniency, because among them there are [hadiths] which they explicitly declared to be weak, or rejected (munkar), or similar descriptions of weakness.

Ibn al-Salah was seconded in this by al-'Iraqi, who said in his "Alfiyyah":
"Whoever absolutely calls them 'Sahih' … has indeed committed clear leniency."

Some scholars have undertaken to justify the application of the designation "Sahih" (sound) to them on the basis that it is according to the predominant [portion]. Al-Zarkashi said in his notes on Ibn al-Salah (2): The naming of the three books as "Sahih" is according to the predominant, because the majority of their contents are sound (sahih) and good (hasan), and these are attached to the sound, and whatever weak [hadiths] are in them may perhaps be elevated to the level of hasan. Thus, applying the term "sound" to them is by way of predominance.

Al-Hafiz (3) said in explaining the statement of al-Hakim: He ruled for all of them as sound by virtue of predominance.

Al-Nawawi likewise explained it, saying following the statement of al-Silafi (4): His intent is that most of it—

--------------------------------------------
(1) Al-Hafiz mentioned in "Al-Nukat 'ala Ibn al-Salah" 1/481 that al-Hakim also applied the designation "sound" to the books of al-Nasa'i and Abu Dawud, and that Abu 'Ali al-Naysaburi, Ibn 'Adi, al-Daraqutni, Ibn Mandah, 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id, Abu Ya'la al-Khalili, and others applied the designation "sound" to the book of al-Nasa'i.
(2) As transmitted from him by al-Suyuti in the introduction to "Zahr al-Ruba 'ala al-Mujtaba."
(3) In "Al-Nukat 'ala Ibn al-Salah" 1/479.
(4) As transmitted from him by al-Hafiz in "Al-Nukat" 1/489, and by al-Suyuti in the introduction to "Zahr al-Ruba."

The three books are adduced as evidence. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said:(1) That is, worthy of being adduced as evidence, so that his unqualified wording does not admit the objection of an abrogated [report] or one that is outweighed when contradicted. And God knows best.

We say: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ and al-Nawawī(2) rejected what al-Baghawī held in his book *al-Maṣābīḥ* regarding his naming the *Sunan* "the good" (*ḥisān*), and that this is a convention unknown to the practitioners of this discipline, and that the *Sunan* contain the sound, the good, and the weak, so applying the name "good" to them is not correct.

The scholar Tāj al-Dīn al-Tabrīzī responded to them both, as al-Ḥāfiẓ reported from him,(3) mentioning that al-Baghawī, by applying the name "good" to the *Sunan*, intended only a specific convention of his own, not the general convention, because he—that is, al-Baghawī—said: "By 'good' I mean what Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and other imams transmitted." Then he said: "And whatever was weak or odd (*gharīb*), I indicated it, and I refrained from whatever was objectionable (*munkar*) or fabricated (*mawḍūʿ*)." Al-Ḥāfiẓ then said: Among the evidence for the correctness of his intending by his word "good" a specific convention of his own is that he says in places within the section on the good: "This is sound," at times, and "This is weak," at times, according to what appears to him of that.

--------------------------------------------
(1) In *al-Nukat* 1/489.
(2) In their two books *al-Muqaddima*, p. 37, and *al-Taqrīb*, p. 47.
(3) In *al-Nukat ʿalā Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ* 1/445–446.

The Motivation for Verifying the Four Sunan

Since the authors of the four Sunan—as previously mentioned—did not stipulate authenticity [as a condition for inclusion], and since these collections combine the authentic with the weak and the rejected, it became obligatory to distinguish their authentic from their defective, and to clarify what may be cited as evidence from what may not. More than one of the imams called for this, in order to purify the religion of God from what might taint it and is not part of it. Ibn Abī Ḥātim said:¹ Since the religion is that which has come to us from God, Mighty and Majestic, and from His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, through the transmission of narrators, it is incumbent upon us to know them, and it is obligatory to scrutinize the transmitters, to investigate their conditions, and to affirm those whom we know to meet the conditions of integrity and reliability in transmission—as required by the rule of integrity in the transmission and narration of ḥadīth—namely, that they be trustworthy in themselves, knowledgeable in their religion, people of piety and God-consciousness, preservers of ḥadīth, proficient in it, and careful in it; that they be people of discernment and mastery, not beset by frequent lapses, not overcome by delusions regarding what they have memorized and retained, and not confused by deceptive errors; and that those whom the people of integrity have impugned be set aside, having exposed to us their faults in their lying and in what used to afflict them of prevalent negligence, poor memory, frequent error, forgetfulness, and confusion—so that by this the proofs of this religion and its landmarks may be known, and the trustees of God on His earth over His Book.

---
¹ In the introduction to his book *al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl*, 1/5–6.