The Six Books
Hadith library
The Kutub as-Sittah — six canonical Sunni collections of Prophetic narrations. Every hadith cites its collection number, and famous ones are graded.
Collections
- Sahih al-Bukhariصحيح البخاري
The most authentic collection of hadith after the Quran itself. Compiled over 16 years from ~600,000 narrations.
Imam Muhammad al-Bukhari · 846 CE / 232 AH · 7,589 hadith
- Sahih Muslimصحيح مسلم
The second most authentic collection of hadith. Known for its rigorous chain-of-narrator methodology.
Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj · 875 CE / 261 AH · 7,563 hadith
- Sunan Abu Dawudسنن أبي داود
Focused on legal (fiqh) hadiths. Abu Dawud selected from ~500,000 narrations.
Imam Abu Dawud as-Sijistani · 888 CE / 275 AH · 5,274 hadith
- Jami' at-Tirmidhiجامع الترمذي
Notable for grading each hadith (sahih, hasan, da'if) — a first in hadith scholarship.
Imam Abu Isa at-Tirmidhi · 892 CE / 279 AH · 3,956 hadith
- Sunan an-Nasa'iسنن النسائي
The strictest of the four Sunan in narrator criticism. Also called al-Sunan al-Sughra.
Imam an-Nasa'i · 915 CE / 303 AH · 5,761 hadith
- Sunan Ibn Majahسنن ابن ماجه
The last of the Six Books to be widely accepted. Contains ~1,300 unique hadiths not in the others.
Imam Ibn Majah · 887 CE / 273 AH · 4,341 hadith
Text sourced from Fawaz Ahmed's public hadith dataset. All grading follows the compiler's original classification.