Al-Sihah al-Sitta: Difference between revisions

'''Al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-Sitta''' (Arabic: الصحاح الستة, literally: the six “sahih”s, or six reliable books) refers to 6 huge [[Sunni]] collections of [[hadiths]]. They are very reliable for Sunni Muslims and are considered as their most important religious sources after the [[Qur'an]]. Only two of these sources are entitled, “Sahih” (reliable) and the rest are entitled, “Sunan” (traditions), but all of them are called, “Sihah” (plural form of “Sahih”). They include: ''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]'', ''[[Sahih Muslim]]'', ''[[Sunan Abi Dawud]]'', ''[[Sunan ibn Maja]]'', ''[[Sunan al-Tirmidhi]]'', and ''[[Sunan al-Nasa’i]]''.

On the basis of Shiite, and even some Sunni, criteria for the evaluation of hadiths, some hadiths in these sources are unreliable, and even [[Hadith Forgery|fabricated]].

If its repeated hadiths are counted, then the number of its hadiths amounts to, on ibn Salah’s count, to 7,275 hadiths, and if repeated hadiths are set aside, on his and al-Nawawi’s counts, it amounts to 4000 hadiths, but according to ibn Hajar, it amounts to 2,761 hadiths.

* Al-Bukhari was contemporary with [[Imam al-Hadi (a)]] and [[Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari (a)]], but he did not transmit a single hadith from these two [[Imams]] or their preceding Imams (a). Al-Bukhari’s bias was so strong that he did not transmit a hadith from children and companions of the Imams (a) neither, while there were prominent transmitters of hadiths among them. However, he transmits many hadiths from [[Khawarij]] despite his knowledge of their hostility to [[Ahl al-Bayt (a)]].

* There are many distortions in hadiths cited in al-Bukhari’s book. For example, there are hadiths in ''Sahih Muslim'' which are cited in ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' with the same chains of transmitters, though in several different wordings (thus, yielding different hadiths).

* Some hadiths in al-Bukhari’s book are fractionated in a way that brings changes to their meanings.  

* ''Sahih Muslim'' is problematic with respect to chains of transmissions as well as the contents of some of its hadiths. In some hadiths, the transmitters between the author and the main transmitter are not mentioned (which is called “ta'liq” or suspension), and in some cases, the transmitter’s comments are also cited (such a hadith is called “mudarraj” or “maqtu'”). [[Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani]] wrote the book, ''Wuquf 'ala ma fi Sahih Muslim min al-mawquf'' (knowing “mawquf” hadiths in ''Sahih Muslim''), in which he mentioned 192 such hadiths. There are 14 cases of “ta'liq” in this book, as there are cases of “tadlis” in this book as well (that is, cases in which an unreliable transmitter is eliminated from a chain of transmitters or a reliable transmitter is added to it to make the hadith look reliable).

The author of ''Sunan Abi Dawud'' is Sulayman b. Ash'ath, known as [[Abu Dawud al-Sijistani]] (d. 272/885). The book contains 5,274 hadiths of 40 jurisprudential books. Topics such as [[al-Mahdi]], [[al-Malahim]] and the jurisprudential issue of breastfeeding an adult are discussed in this book. Many hadiths which are cited in Abu Dawud’s book, are rejected or called into question by other Sunni scholars. Some prominent Sunni scholars believe that there are many unreliable, and even fabricated, hadiths in ''Sunan Abi Dawud''. In his book, ''al-Mawdu'at'' (fabricated hadiths), in Jawzi has mentioned some fabricated hadiths in this book. Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani wrote a book called ''Da'if Sunan Abi Dawud'' (unreliable hadiths in ''Sunan Abi Dawud''). He holds that there are over 800 unreliable hadiths in this book. Moreover, he believes that there are about 50 “munkar” or denounced hadiths (hadiths whose contents are not accepted by the majority of Muslims) and about 50 “shadhdh” or irregular hadiths (ones which are transmitted by a reliable person but goes against another hadith which is transmitted by a more reliable person).

[[Hadith al-Thiqlayn]], the occasion of the revelation of [[al-Tathir Verse]], as well as virtues of [[Imam 'Ali (a)]], [[Imam al-Hasan (a)]] and [[Imam al-Husayn (a)]] are cited in al-Tirmidhi’s book. The citation of such hadiths in the book led [[ibn Taymiyya]] to attack the book. Thus, the book is not considered as reliable by [[Wahhabis]] and advocates of ibn Taymiyya.

Some distortions seem to have occurred in hadiths regarding the virtues of Imam 'Ali (a) cited in ''Sunan al-Tirmidhi''. For example, the [[Hdith Madinat al-'Ilm]] which is cited in ''Jami' al-usul'' by reference to ''Sunan al-Tirmidhi'' cannot be found in the present version of al-Tirmidhi’s book.

There are many unreliable hadiths in al-Nasa'i’s book. In his ''Zahd al-ma'ad fi huda khayr al-'ibad'', ibn Qayyim has mentioned hadiths from al-Nasa'i’s book which were rejected by prominent Sunni scholars with respect to their chains of transmitters, contents, or both.

According to Sandi, a commentator of ''Sunan ibn Maja'', there are about 400 hadiths in this book which are unreliable with respect to their chains of transmitters. There are so many unreliable and fabricated hadiths in ibn Maja’s book that some prominent Sunni scholars held that the book should be excluded from “al-Sihah al-Sitta”. They believed that ibn Maja’s book does not deserve to be one of the “Sihah”. They included [[Malik b. Anas]]’s ''al-Muwatta’'' in al-Sihah al-Sitta, instead.

Many Sunni scholars believe that ibn Maja’s book is rife with fabricated and unreliable hadiths. Al-Albani in his book, ''Da'if Sunan ibn Maja'', and 'Abd al-Baqi in his ''Miftah al-Sunan'', have criticized ''Sunan ibn Maja''.