Sahih al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuh
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
Sahih al-Jami al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuh (The Authentic Traditions of the Small Collection and Its Addition) is a hadith reference work compiled by the 20th-century scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE), classifying and verifying the authentic and sound narrations from Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's alphabetical hadith compendia .
Background and Origin
The core material originated with al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), who extracted concise traditions from the sayings section of his comprehensive compendium Jam' al-Jawami' (al-Jami' al-Kabir) to compile al-Jami' al-Saghir min Hadith al-Bashir al-Nadhir . Al-Suyuti subsequently produced a supplement containing omitted narrations, titled Ziyadat al-Jami' al-Saghir . Later, Yusuf al-Nabhani merged both collections into a single alphabetical sequence under the title al-Fath al-Kabir fi Damm al-Ziyadah ila al-Jami' al-Saghir, marking additions from the supplement with the Arabic letter zay (ز), totaling 14,471 hadiths .
Noting that scribal corruptions, omissions, and leniency had affected al-Suyuti's original verification markers, and observing that many scholars relied uncritically on those designations, al-Albani critically evaluated every report in the merged corpus . He split the collection into two separate works: Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuh for authentic (sahih) and good (hasan) reports, and Da'if al-Jami' al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuh for weak (da'if), severely weak, and fabricated (mawdu') reports .
Structure and Methodology
The work retains the original alphabetical arrangement based on the opening word of each hadith text . Al-Albani restricted the entry list strictly to narrations judged either authentic or sound .
Each entry reproduces the matn (hadith text), the companion narrator, and the abbreviated code for the primary source compilations . The book employs standard abbreviations, including:
- خ (kha) for Sahih al-Bukhari
- م (mim) for Sahih Muslim
- ق (qaf) for agreed upon (muttafaq 'alayh) by both al-Bukhari and Muslim
- د (dal) for Sunan Abi Dawud
- ت (ta) for Sunan al-Tirmidhi
- ن (nun) for Sunan al-Nasa'i
- هـ (ha) for Sunan Ibn Majah
- ٤ (arba'ah) for the four Sunan compilations
- ٣ (thalathah) for the Sunan compilations excluding Ibn Majah
- حم (ham) for the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
- حب (hub) for Sahih Ibn Hibban
- ك (kaf) for al-Mustadrak by al-Hakim al-Naysaburi
Beneath each text, al-Albani appends his ruling alongside references directing the reader to his other detailed critical works, such as Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah and Irwa' al-Ghalil, where the full chains of transmission and corroborating narrations are examined .
Reception and Subsequent Arrangements
The work was printed by al-Maktab al-Islami in Beirut, undergoing multiple revisions, including its third printing in 1408 AH / 1988 CE . It became a widely consulted reference among contemporary students and researchers of hadith .
Because the book's alphabetical layout makes thematic and juridical retrieval difficult, several scholars restructured it into topical legal (fiqh) chapters:
- Zuhayr al-Shawish prepared a concise topical index listing the hadith numbers under fiqh chapters .
- Awni al-Sharif rearranged the text into legal chapters, published by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh, though he removed the critical rulings and source references .
- 'Isam Musa Hadi compiled al-Siraj al-Munir fi Tartib Ahadith Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir, rearranging the full text into legal chapters while integrating al-Albani's late marginal corrections, adjusted gradings, and cross-references to his other works .
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