al-Jami al-Kamil fi al-Hadith al-Sahih al-Shamil al-Murattab ala Abwab al-Fiqh
- Author died
- 1441 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Salām lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Jami al-Kamil fi al-Hadith al-Sahih al-Shamil al-Murattab ala Abwab al-Fiqh (The Comprehensive Collection of Authentic Hadith Arranged by Jurisprudential Chapters) is an encyclopedic hadith compendium compiled by Muhammad Diya al-Rahman al-Azami (d. 1441 AH / 2020 CE), former Dean of the College of Hadith at the Islamic University of Madinah and teacher at the Prophet's Mosque . The work aims to assemble all authentic (sahih) and good (hasan) hadiths of the Prophet in a single reference work organized systematically by subject matter and legal chapters .
Purpose and Composition
Al-Azami noted that no prior scholar had established an exhaustive methodology to gather all authentic and good prophetic traditions into a single compendium . He composed the work to provide a definitive source of authentic sunnah for both general readers—who might otherwise be misled by unverified narrations circulating in print—and researchers or non-specialist writers who lack training in the sciences of transmitter criticism (al-jarh wa-l-tadil), source attribution (takhrij), and hadith discrepancies . Completing the project took several consecutive years of uninterrupted labor, during which the author withdrew from social engagements, travel, academic conferences, and seminars to dedicate himself entirely to its compilation .
Methodology
Al-Azami established specific criteria for selecting, grading, and organizing narrations across the hadith corpus:
- Primary Canonical Core: He placed three foundational works on an equal tier: Malik ibn Anas's al-Muwatta (in the recension of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi) and the two Sahih collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim . Any hadith found in these three collections—jointly or individually—was included in the work .
- Terminology and Attribution: He applied the designation muttafaq alayh ("agreed upon") to any report transmitted by both al-Bukhari and Muslim through the same Companion, even if only part of the wording matched or the chains differed upstream, adding Malik's name whenever the report was narrated through his route in the Muwatta . When a hadith was recorded solely by al-Bukhari or Muslim, he designated it sahih relying directly on their inclusion rather than issuing an independent evaluation .
- Treatment of Broken Chains: He excluded suspended (muallaq) narrations from Sahih al-Bukhari unless he found them with connected, authentic chains elsewhere, and omitted the unlinked reports (balaghat) and loose chains (murasil) of Malik's Muwatta, incorporating only its connected, attributed (marfu) narrations—amounting to approximately 600 reports—whose authenticity was verified .
- Critical Evaluation: For narrations derived from outside the two Sahihs and the connected core of the Muwatta, al-Azami examined the chains and texts according to the rules of transmission criticism, hidden defects (ilal), and chain continuity . In determining authenticity, he adhered to the judgments of classical master critics—such as Ali ibn al-Madini, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bukhari, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Abu Zurah al-Razi, al-Dhahabi, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani—giving precedence to their strict assessments over the more lenient gradings of scholars such as al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, al-Mundhiri, and Nur al-Din al-Haythami .
Publication
The work was published in Riyadh by Darussalam in twelve volumes (first edition: Rabi al-Thani 1437 AH / January 2016 CE; registered 1436 AH) .
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