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What is the difference between the conditions of Bukhari and Muslim, and those of other Hadith books, in ruling on the authenticity of a Hadith?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The Hadith scholars stipulate five conditions for a Hadith to be classified as authentic (sahih): the continuity of the chain of narration (ittisal al-sanad), the uprightness of the narrator (adalah al-rawi), the precision of the narrator (dabt al-rawi), the absence of anomaly ( عدم الشذوذ), and the absence of any hidden defect (عدم العلة).

The disagreement among them arises in the application of these conditions to the Hadiths, not in the conditions themselves. Al-Bukhari and Muslim distinguished themselves by requiring the highest degrees of authenticity for the Hadiths in their books, unlike others who only stipulated authenticity, or combined authentic and good (hasan) Hadiths, such as the compilers of the Sunan.

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

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