Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 3
3 Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him) say or do a particular thing. He is called a “companion. ” To the second category belongs the narrator who heard from a companion and transmitted it further. He is called a T a bi‘ i and the one in the lower category is called a Tab‘a T a bi‘ i. Thence forward runs the whole chain of ordinary narrators. Similarly, the narrators have been classified according to their respective memory, intelligence and integrity. Standard Works of Hadith The A ha d i th were collected and compiled in book form, roughly speaking, from the middle of the second century of the Hijra, to the end of the third century. There is a large number of books on A ha d i th, six of which are considered to be of great reliability and treated as standard works. They are, therefore, known as S i hah Sittah , i. e. , six authentic books of A ha d i th. Their names are as follows: S S S S a hih hih hih hih al-Bukh a a a a r i i i i : Compiled by Imam Muhammad bin Ism a ‘ i l Al-Bukh a r i (A. H. 194 to A. H. 256). This work of Imam Bukh a r i is an authentic book on A ha d i th and Imam Bukh a r i is regarded as the most outstanding figure among the A ha d i th compiling scholars. S a hih al-Bukh a r i has therefore been termed as the most genuinely correct book after the Quran, the Book of Allah. S S S S a hih hih hih hih Muslim: Compiled by Imam Muslim bin Al- H ajj a j An-N i sh a p u r i (A. H. 204 to A. H. 261). His work is considered to be the second best among the six standard books of A ha d i th and is regarded as an