Kayfa Nastafid min al-Kutub al-Hadithiyya al-Sitta
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- Dar Al-Mughni
Kayfa Nastafid min al-Kutub al-Hadithiyya al-Sitta (How We Benefit from the Six Hadith Books) is a concise methodological guide authored by the Saudi hadith scholar Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad (b. 1353 AH / 1934 CE) on how students of Islamic knowledge can utilize, navigate, and study the six canonical Sunni collections of hadith.
Background and Composition
The work originated as a public lecture delivered by al-Abbad at the Islamic University of Madinah. Approximately twenty years after its initial oral delivery, the author revised and prepared the text for publication in 1423 AH (2002 CE). The treatise serves as an introductory primer outlining the individual characteristics, structures, and scholarly efforts associated with the six canonical works: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan al-Nasa'i, Jami' al-Tirmidhi, and Sunan Ibn Majah.
The author begins with an exposition on the authority of the Prophet's Sunnah and the levels of authenticity regarding narrations, outlining seven hierarchical tiers of authentic hadiths rooted in whether they were recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim or meet their conditions. In this context, he highlights Muhammad Fu'ad Abd al-Baqi's compilation Al-Lu'lu' wa-l-Marjan fima Ittafaqa 'alayhi al-Shaykhan (The Pearls and Corals in What the Two Shaykhs Agreed Upon), which comprises 1,906 mutually agreed-upon traditions. He also clarifies the terminology of citation, noting that while "agreed upon" (muttafaq 'alayh) usually designates agreement between al-Bukhari and Muslim, Majd al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah uniquely used the term in Muntaqa al-Akhbar to signify agreement among al-Bukhari, Muslim, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Structure and Survey of the Six Books
The treatise systematically examines each of the six collections, providing data regarding book divisions, hadith counts, transmission characteristics, and notable commentaries:
- Sahih al-Bukhari: Described as the most authentic hadith book, comprising 97 books and 7,563 narrations including repetitions according to Abd al-Baqi's numbering, with 22 three-link chains (thulathiyyat). Al-Abbad highlights al-Bukhari's methodology of dispersing hadiths across multiple thematic chapters for legal deduction, his interpretation of unusual vocabulary (gharib), and his principal commentary, Fath al-Bari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, including the edition printed at al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya with marginal notes by Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz.
- Sahih Muslim: Comprising 54 books and 3,033 core numbered narrations, with four-link chains (ruba'iyyat) representing its highest isnads. The author emphasizes Muslim's approach of gathering all variants and chains of a hadith in a single place without repeating them, noting that the chapter titles were not written by Muslim himself but were supplied by al-Nawawi.
- Sunan Abi Dawud: Comprising 35 books and 5,274 hadiths, focusing primarily on legal traditions (ahkam). The author discusses its praise by Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi, its abridgment by Abd al-Azim al-Mundhiri alongside annotations by Ibn al-Qayyim, and the commentary Awn al-Ma'bud by Shams al-Haqq al-Azimabadi.
- Sunan al-Nasa'i: Specifically the abridged version (al-Sunan al-Sughra or al-Mujtaba), comprising 51 books and 5,774 hadiths, noted for the precision of its chapter headings and legal inferences. Al-Abbad recommends the Beirut edition published by Dar al-Ma'rifah due to its cross-referencing and indexing.
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi: Comprising 50 books and 3,956 hadiths, characterized by its exposition of differing juristic opinions, hadith grading, and references to companion narrations (wa fi al-bab). It contains one three-link isnad, and its recommended commentary is Abd al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri's Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi.
- Sunan Ibn Majah: Ranked as the sixth collection due to its numerous unique additions (zawa'id) to the other five books (1,339 additions according to Abd al-Baqi). It contains 37 books, 4,341 hadiths, five three-link chains (all transmitted via the weak narrators Jubarah ibn al-Mughallis and Kathir ibn Sulaym), and is the subject of Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Busiri's Misbah al-Zujajah.
Auxiliary Literature and Research Methods
The latter section of the treatise guides researchers on how to locate narrations and verify biographical data of transmitters (rijal) through auxiliary works. For narrator biographies, al-Abbad highlights al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, its abridgments by al-Dhahabi (Tadhhib Tahdhib al-Kamal and al-Kashif), Ibn Hajar's Tahdhib al-Tahdhib and Taqrib al-Tahdhib, and al-Khazraji's Khulasat Tadhhib al-Tahdhib. He also mentions specialized narrator dictionaries, including those by Abu Nasr al-Kalabadhi, Abu Bakr Ibn Manjuwayh, and Ibn al-Qaysarani's al-Jam' bayna Rijal al-Sahihayn.
For finding specific hadiths across the six collections, al-Abbad directs students to use thematic retrieval according to chapter subjects, narrator-indexed works such as al-Mizzi's Tuhfat al-Ashraf bi-Ma'rifat al-Atraf and Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi's Dhakha'ir al-Mawarith, or keyword concordances such as al-Mu'jam al-Mufahras li-Alfaz al-Hadith al-Nabawi. He also surveys compendiums that merged the texts of these collections, notably Majd al-Din Ibn al-Athir's Jami' al-Usul.
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