Sunan al-Nasai
- Author died
- 303 AH
- Editions
- t al-Misriyya · Dar al-Risala
Sunan al-Nasai (Arabic: سنن النسائي), also known as al-Mujtaba (المجتبى) or al-Sunan al-Sughra (السنن الصغرى), is a major collection of legal hadiths compiled by the hadith scholar Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nasai (215–303 AH / 829–915 CE) . It is universally recognized as one of the six canonical books of Hadith (al-Kutub al-Sittah) .
Composition and Relation to al-Sunan al-Kubra
Al-Nasai initially authored a comprehensive, large collection titled al-Sunan al-Kubra (The Greater Sunan) . According to a narrative recorded by Abu Ali al-Ghassani and others, an emir—identified in some accounts as the governor of Ramla—asked al-Nasai whether all the narrations in his al-Sunan al-Kubra were authentic ( sahih), to which the author replied that it contained sound, good, and comparable reports . When requested to isolate only the authentic traditions, al-Nasai compiled the abridged work titled al-Mujtaba min al-Sunan (The Selected from the Sunan), omitting traditions whose transmission chains he had identified with hidden defects (ilal) .
A variant attribution noted by al-Dhahabi and followed by Ibn Nasir al-Din suggests that al-Mujtaba was selected and arranged by al-Nasai's student Ibn al-Sunni (d. 364 AH), though the majority of scholars maintain that al-Nasai abridged the work himself . When hadith scholars cite a tradition as transmitted by al-Nasai without qualification, it generally denotes al-Mujtaba, although several scholars, including al-Mizzi in Tuhfat al-Ashraf and al-Iraqi, occasionally used the designation to refer to al-Sunan al-Kubra .
Structure and Scope
While al-Sunan al-Kubra is broader in scope and spans around sixty-three books—including subjects such as Quranic exegesis (tafsir), faith (iman), virtues (manaqib), and biography (siyar)—al-Mujtaba focuses almost exclusively on legal rulings (ahkam) across fifty-eight books divided into topical chapters (abwab), totaling 5,761 narrations .
The arrangement combines legal jurisprudence (fiqh) with the science of chains of transmission (isnad) . Al-Nasai structured the chapters under precise thematic headings reflecting legal deductions, and he brought together multiple paths of transmission for a single hadith in one place to elucidate textual and isnad discrepancies without necessarily engaging in overt disparagement (jarh) or quoting regional juridical opinions .
Scholarly Method and Standing
Al-Nasai applied stringent criteria in selecting narrators, avoiding transmitters who were not universally accepted by critics or who suffered from notable defects, and refraining from narrating through several figures utilized in other collections . Sa'd ibn Ali al-Zanjani, Abu Ali al-Nisaburi, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi observed that al-Nasai's conditions regarding narrator integrity were stricter than those of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and comparable to or stricter than those of al-Bukhari .
Consequently, hadith critics such as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani evaluated the collection as containing the fewest weak hadiths and impugned narrators among the four Sunan works, placing its status immediately after the two Sahih compilations of al-Bukhari and Muslim . Several classical scholars, including al-Daraqutni, Ibn Mandah, Abu Ahmad Ibn Adi, Abu Ali Ibn al-Sakan, and Abu Tahir al-Silafi, applied the label of authenticity (sahih) broadly to the collection . Others noted that it retains some individual narrations with weaknesses or obscure narrators, placing it behind the two Sahihs in ranking .
Transmission and Commentaries
The primary transmission of al-Mujtaba was relayed on al-Nasai's authority by his disciple Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sunni . The transmission of al-Nasai's Sunan was brought to al-Andalus by Muhammad ibn Mu'awiya ibn al-Ahmar .
A number of scholars authored commentaries, supercommentaries, and thematic treatments on the text, including:
- Zahr al-Ruba 'ala al-Mujtaba by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH), a concise annotation resolving lexical difficulties without examining chains .
- A marginal commentary (hashiya) by Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hadi al-Sindi (d. 1136 or 1138 AH), addressing vocalization, syntax, and rare vocabulary .
- A single-volume commentary by Siraj al-Din Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804 AH) covering its unique additions (zawa'id) beyond the two Sahihs, Sunan Abi Dawud, and Jami' al-Tirmidhi .
- Dhakhirat al-Uqba fi Sharh al-Mujtaba by Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Adam al-Ityubi, an extensive modern multivolume commentary .
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