Imam Muslim

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naysaburi is the second Imam of hadith after al-Bukhari. His Sahih together with Sahih al-Bukhari forms 'the Two Sahihs' — the two highest references for authentic hadith in Sunni Islam. He was an admiring student of al-Bukhari and was distinguished by a remarkable organisation: gathering in one place all chains and versions of the same hadith, making his book a precious tool for the study of isnads.

Muslim was born in Nishapur, one of the great cities of Khorasan scholarship, into a religious family of the Arab tribe of Qushair. According to Ibn Kathir he was born in 204 H — the year Imam al-Shafi'i died. Love of hadith took him young to travel through Iraq, the Hijaz, Syria and Egypt, gathering transmissions from the greatest teachers including Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ishaq ibn Rahawayh.

In Nishapur he met al-Bukhari and was deeply impressed by his knowledge, a loyalty he kept to the end. It is reported that he came to him and kissed his forehead saying: 'Let me kiss your feet, O teacher of teachers, master of hadith scholars and physician of hadith in its defects.' When a dispute arose in Nishapur between al-Bukhari and Sheikh al-Dhuhali, Muslim publicly sided with al-Bukhari, gathered everything he had heard from al-Dhuhali and returned it to him, ceasing to transmit from him.

He compiled his Sahih from three hundred thousand hadiths he had heard, as he said himself. His famous distinction: while al-Bukhari dispersed the parts of the same hadith across different chapters to extract rulings, Muslim gathered in one place all narrations and chains of a single hadith. Ibn Kathir notes that this beautiful organisation does not reach the solidity of al-Bukhari's chains.

He taught students of the first rank including al-Tirmidhi who transmitted from him in his Jami'. He died in Nishapur on a Sunday evening and was buried on Monday morning the 25th of Rajab 261 H / 875 CE, aged 57.

This profile clarifies two expressions that appear often: 'reported by Muslim' and 'agreed upon — reported by both al-Bukhari and Muslim.' When a hadith appears in Sahih Muslim with its own chain, it is authentic according to the consensus of Sunni scholars. When a hadith appears in both al-Bukhari and Muslim, it is at the highest established level of reliability: it is called 'muttafaq 'alayh' (agreed upon). Why do these two enjoy this status? Because each applied extremely strict criteria of scrutiny to hundreds of thousands of transmissions. Together they form 'the Two Sahihs.' An honest note also mentioned in the al-Bukhari profile: a hadith absent from the Two Sahihs is not necessarily weak — other collections (al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, Ibn Maja) also contain authentic hadiths. Absence does not condemn; presence guarantees.

Muslim, like his teacher al-Bukhari, shows that safeguarding the Prophet's ﷺ words from falsehood is work born of love, not only scholarship. His method also recalls the virtue of patience: it is reported that he spent an entire night searching for a single hadith, not stopping until he found it.