Back to search

Which of the two opinions is more correct regarding Imam Muslim's arrangement of hadiths in his Sahih in terms of authenticity, and did he present the more authentic hadiths first or not? What is the justification for that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Imam Muslim declared in the introduction to his Sahih that he divides hadiths into three categories: those narrated by the meticulous preservers (al-huffaz al-mutqinun), those narrated by the average, less-known narrators (al-masturun al-mutawassitun), and those narrated by the weak and abandoned narrators (al-du'afa' wal-matrukun). Scholars have differed regarding the meaning of this classification. The correct understanding is that he intended to arrange the hadiths within each chapter according to their authenticity. He would begin with the first category, then follow it with the second for the purpose of corroboration and continuation, and he would not include the third category at all.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy