hadiths

Hadiths are reports describing the sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad, collected from his companions and later generations. They form a major source of guidance in Islam alongside the Qur’an, illustrating how Muslims understood and practiced the faith.

Each hadith is structured with an isnad (chain of narrators) and a matn (the text). The isnad records the route by which the report was transmitted, while the matn contains the content. The reliability of a hadith depends on the integrity of the chain and the consistency of the text. Hadiths are classified as sahih (sound), hasan (good), or da'if (weak), among other categories.

In Sunni Islam, the most renowned collections are the six major books commonly referred to as Kutub al-Sittah, especially Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, along with Sunan Abu Dawood, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Nasa'i, and Sunan Ibn Majah. In Shia Islam, hadith literature includes works such as Al-Kafi. The science of hadith criticism (uLum al-hadith) analyzes isnad and matn to determine authenticity.

Hadiths are used to derive Islamic law, ethics, and theological beliefs. Because some reports are weak or fabricated, scholars differentiate between authoritative and non-authoritative narrations and emphasize contextual interpretation with Qur’anic text. Modern scholarship often employs historical, linguistic, and methodological analysis to reassess chains and texts.

Key terms include mutawatir, describing reports transmitted by many narrators through successive generations; and ahad, referring to reports transmitted through a single chain. Other classifications denote whether a report is attributed to the Prophet (marfu'), to a Companion (mawquf), or to the Tabi‘un (maqtu').