Muslim and His Book
His name is Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Qushayri al-Nisaburi. He was born in Nisabur in the year 204 H, and dead in it in 268 H. He has reviewed the Sihah but not interferred in istinbat (deriving of rules) and alike matters. He excelled al-Bukhari in collecting the turuq (means of transmission) and good arrangement. Besides, his book is easily availed of, as he dedicated for every hadith a proper place in which he stated the means he approved of, citing its numerous asanid and various wordings. Also he – contrary to al-Bukhari – was not narrating on the basis of meaning, nor commingling with the traditions any words of the Companions or their followers. And – as Ibn Hajar said in Muqaddimat al-Fath – was characterized with compiling his book in his hometown with existence of its sources in the lifetime of many of chiefs (mashayikh) of hadith, the reason why he was so careful in choosing the words and accurate in the context of hadith. Further he has never followed the same method of al-Bukhari in deducing the rules, on the basis of which he was to classify the traditions, the fact entailing dividing of the hadith according to its chapters (babs), but he brought together all the turuq in one place, abstaining from reporting the mawquf traditions, not referring to them but very rarely, out of imitation not determination.583
It is reported that he compiled his Musnad out of three hundred thousand commonly heard traditions, while the number of traditions constituting his book was four thousand except the repeated ones.
In Sharh Muslim al-Nawawi writes: The Muslim’s statement: “Whatever I stated here – in his book – is not necessarily correct, but I put
____________
583. See p.8.
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here whatever attained the unanimous agreement of all,” is quite dubious, as he cited in it many traditions regarding the veracity of which there was much disagreement since they were taken from unreliable narrators whose traditions were not unanimously accepted. And so also said Ibn al-Salah.
Ibn Taymiyyah, in his interpretation of Surat al-Tawhid, says: The hadith reported by Muslim about creation of earth (turbah) on Saturday584 is a defective hadith, traduced by leaders of hadith like al-Bukhari and others holding that it was taken from Ka’b al-Ahbar. Muslim has reported similar traditions that were known to be incorrect, like the saying of Abu Sufyan when embracing Islam (?): I want to marry you Umm Habibah (i.e. his daughter); while all people know that the Prophet got married to her before Abu Sufyan’s embracing Islam. Also like the hadith on salat al-kusuf (eclipse prayers), in which he claimed that the Prophet performed it with three kneelings (ruku’), while the right thing was that he had performed it only once with two ruku’s.585
Muslim’s traditions that were suspected and criticized amounted to 132 ones, and number of his rijal (transmitters of his traditions) reached to 110 ones.
Abu Zar’ah al-Razi586 – whose name is cited in Sahih Muslim – says: These are people who intended to make early progress, so they made something with which they wanted to trade, inventing that which couldn’t occur to the mind so as to precede others in attaining undue high rank.
One day some man brought him Sahih Muslim, into which he looked, seeing a hadith reported from Asbat ibn Nasr. Then he found in it the name of Qutn ibn Naseer, when he said: This one is worse than the former! Qutn ibn Naseer has reported traditions with a chain going back to Anas while they were ascribed to Thabit. Then he looked and said: It is reported from Ahmad ibn ‘Isa al-Misri in the book of Sahih! saying then: Does he (Muslim) report from such people and leave Muhammad ibn Ajlan and his likes, allowing the heretics to daresay regarding any hadith with which they were argued: This is not taken from the Sahih. Abu Zar’ah used to censure the composition of this
584. This hadith was reported by Abu Hurayrah, declaring that he heard it from the Prophet. Refer to my book Shaykh al-mudirah.
585. See p.16.
586. Al-Imam Ahmad said that he (Abu Zar'ah) memorized 700 thousand traditions. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Umar al-Razi said: Abu Zar'ah learnt by heart 700 thousand traditions, with 140 thousand ones on tafsir (Tawjih al-nazar, p.4).
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book.
Muslim has reported from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir many traditions that were known to be weak. In his regard the traditionists said: Abu al-Zubayr Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Tadrus al-Makki used to defraud in Jabir’s hadith, reporting from Jabir and Ibn Umar during the Farewell Pilgrimage (Hijjat al-Wada’) a hadith with two different narrations, about which Ibn Hazm said: One of them is undoubtedly false, and he related then the hadith “Allah created the soil on Saturday.
The traditionists also said: When Muslim compiled his Sahih he laid it before Abu Zar’ah al-Razi, who disapproved it and turned enraged saying: And you have called it al-Sahih! making it a ladder for men of heresies and others, in a way that when any opponent relating a hadith (to argue with) they would say: This can never be in Sahih Muslim.
On his arrival to the Town of Ray, Muslim went to Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Warah, who treated him rudely and reproached him for his book, reiterating the same words of Abu Zar’ah about him. Thereat Muslim apologized to him saying: I have brought out this book and said it is Sahih, never claiming that all the traditions that I did not cite in this book being weak! But I brought it out from the sahih traditions so as to be kept altogether with whoever reporting them from me, doubting not their veracity … and I never claimed other traditions to be weak. He then accepted his excuse and related hadith to him briefly.587
Muslim has reported traditions of people the hadith of whom al-Bukhari abstained from reporting due to a suspicion he had regarding them,588 since leaders of transmission differ in most of them because of the divergence in their schools and conditions and use of terms. There may be found a narrator who was considered trustworthy by Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, but unreliable by Yahya ibn Sa’id al-Qattan and vice versa, who were both two imams constituting axis of criticism in naql, and from whom most of narrators used to take hadith.589
There was so much talk on criticism against al-Bukhari and Muslim,
587. Al-Hazimi, Shurut al-A'immah al-Khamsah, pp.60,63.
588. Al-Maqdisi, op. cit., pp.10, 11.
589. Al-Hazimi, op. cit., pp.58, 59.
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but I suffice with citing the following.
Views Held about al-Bukhari and Muslim
Al-Hafiz Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi, in exposition of his Alfiyyah fi ulum al-hadith, when stating degrees of correct hadith, reported that Muhammad ibn Tahir said in his book of Shurut al-A’immah: al-Bukhari and Muslim stipulate to report the hadith that unanimous agreement is there regarding reliability of its narrators reaching to a well-known companion. In exposition of his Alfiyyah, al-Iraqi writes: What is uttered by Ibn Tahir is not good as al-Nasa’i has deemed weak some of those from whom the two Shaykhs, or one of them, reported. Al-Badr al-Ayni said: In the Sahih we can find the earlier reporters that were defamed by some of the earlier traditionists.
In al-Ilm al-shamikh, al-Muqbili writes: Among rijal in the two Sahihs some are deemed weak and criticized severely by many leaders of hadith, though they needed not but to act according to their ijtihad.
Ibn al-Salah says: al-Bukhari used for argument some people who were already defamed by others, like Ikrimah, the mawla of Ibn Abbas, Isma’il ibn Abi Awis, Asim ibn Ali and Amr ibn Marzuq and others. While Muslim used Suwayd ibn Sa’id and others who were known of being unreliable and suspected position, and so did Abu Dawud.590
Al-Shaykh Ahmad Muhammad Shakir (may God’s mercy be upon him), in his Sharh Alfiyyat al-Suyuti, writes: In the two Sahihs many traditions are found that were reported by some of the imposters.591 And as is known, tadlis (fraud)592 was considered one of reasons of jarh (sarcasm). The same fact is referred to in the book Sharh Shurut al-A‘immah al-Khamsah of al-Shaykh Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, on the authority of Ibn al-Hammam.593
Muslim reported from a large number of those who were not immune against jarh and vilification, and so also found in Sahih al-Bukhari some narrators of unreliable position. Therefore narration was done through ijtihad
590. Muqaddimat Ibn al-Salah, p.41.
591. See p.36.
592. See my statement about tadlis (fraud) and cheaters in my book Shaykh al-Mudirah.
593. Sharh Shurat al-A'immah al-Khamsah, p.58.
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of the ulama’ regarding them, and also the provisions, even when what is considered a condition by someone is negated by another, that what is narrated by the latter in which that condition is not found would be regarded by him equal to what is narrated by his opponent containing that condition, and so also regarding that who deemed some narrator weak while another one deemed him reliable.
Concerning the criticism levelled at them both in respect of the texts and their inconsistency with the Book (Qur’an) and authentic sunnah and the alike, they have never undertaken this task as it is among the responsibilities of ulama’ of kalam and usul.594
Estrangement of Riwayah of Men of Opinion:
Al-Qasimi is reported to have said: Authors of al-Sihah shunned narration from people of opinion, like al-Imam Abu Yusuf and al-Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, who were deemed as pliable by men of hadith as can be seen in Mizan al-i’tidal. Their works indicate clearly ampleness and profundity of their knowledge, and rather their priority over a large number of huffaz.595 Al-Bukhari has also shunned reporting from the Imams of the Prophet’s Household, and the following is a statement in this regard.
Al-Allamah Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din, in his book al-Fusul al-muhimmah fi ta’lif al-ummah,596 writes: What is even worse than all this, being al-Bukhari’s not referring to Ahl al-Bayt Imams in his Sahih in cases of argument, as he has never reported any hadith from al-Sadiq, al-Kazim, al-Rida, al-Jawad, al-Hadi and al-Zaki al-Askari, though he lived contemporaneously with them, never relating from al-Hasan ibn (al-Imam) al-Hasan, nor from Zayd ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn (al-Imam), nor Yahya ibn Zayd, nor al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Kamil ibn al-Hasan al-Rida ibn al-Hasan al-Sibt or his brother Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah, nor al-Husayn al-Fakhkhi ibn Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan (al-Imam), nor Yahya ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Hasan or his brother Idris ibn Abd Allah, nor
594. Tawjih al-nazar, p.131.
595. Al-Qasimi, al-Jarh wa al-ta'dil, p.24.
596. See 2nd edition, pp. 159, 168.
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Muhammad ibn Ja’far al-Sadiq, nor Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Isma’il ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan, known with name Ibn Tabataba or his brother al-Qasim al-Sharsi, nor Muhammad ibn Zayd ibn Ali, nor Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ibn Ali ibn Umar al-Ashraf ibn Zayn al-Abidin, the author of al-Taliqan and contemporary of al-Bukhari nor from other learned among the pure Itrah (Household) and bushes of the blossomy tree, like Abd Allah ibn al-Hasan and Ali ibn Ja’far al-Aridi and others. He has also never reported any hadith from the Prophet’s elder Sibt and his Rayhanah (aromatic plant) in the world Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Mujtaba the master of youth of paradise people, though he used to refer to chief of Khawarij and the severest in antagonism against Ahl al-Bayt, Imran ibn Hattan, who said in regard of Ibn Muljim and his smite to Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him):
O strike from a pious not intending with it,
But to attain to pleasure of Lord of Throne,
I remember him one day and suppose him to be,
The most faithful of mankind in Allah’s view.
Are Sahihayn Containing Most Correct Traditions?
Al-Imam Kamal al-Din ibn al-Hammam, in Sharh al-Hidayah, said: The utterance of that who said: ‘The most correct traditions are found in the two Sahihs and what al-Bukhari unilaterally reported, and then Muslim, and then what attained their stipulation, and then what attained the stipulation of one of them’, is verily a ruling that it is impermissible to follow, since the veracity can never be attained but only when the traditions containing the conditions they stipulated. When supposing these provisions to be possessed by narrators of a hadith not found in the two books (Sahihayn), wouldn’t judging whatever recorded in the two books to be the most correct be despotism?597
597. Tawjih al-nazar, p.120, Sharh al-Shurut, p.25.
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Amendment on al-Bukhari and Muslim:
In Sharh Muslim, al-Nawawi says: A group of people made up for al-Bukhari and Muslim in respect of some traditions they both breached the provisions they stipulated for them and so they (traditions) becoming lower than what they abided by. In manifesting this matter, al-Imam al-Daraqutni compiled a book under the title al-Istidrakat wa al-tatabbu’, covering two hundred traditions included in the two Sahihs.
Abu Mas’ud al-Dimashqi, the author of al-Atraf, also made up for both of them, and so did Abu Ali al-Ghassani in his book Taqyid al-muhmal. In Sharh Muslim, he (al-Nawawi) says: What people hold that that for whom the two Shaykhs have narrated, has in fact attained a lofty rank, is just for seeking dignity and he is unable to claim so.
An Odd Maxim Narrated by al-Bukhari
and Muslim:
Al-Bukhari reported from Ibn Umar that the Prophet (S) on the Day of Ahzab said: None of you should perform the asr (afternoon) prayer but only with Banu Qurayzah. Ibn Hajar said: It was found in this way throughout all the copies of al-Bukhari (Sahih), while it was zuhr (noon) prayer in all copies of Sahih Muslim, though they both concurred on reporting it from one Shaykh with one isnad from beginning up to the end! He then said: Out of differing of the two words it appears that when Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, the Shaykh of the two Shaykhs, related it he related it with two words, or that al-Bukhari has written it out of his memory without observing the wording, as his school was known of permitting this, contrary to Muslim who used to observe the wording.
In the two Sahihs more than two hundred old traditions, and about this al-Diya’ al-Muqaddasi has compiled a book calling it Ghara’ib al-Sahihayn, citing in it more than two hundred strange and odd traditions, from among those recorded in the Sahihayn.598
598. Al-Hazimi, op, cit., p.31.
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Who Considered al-Bukhari and Muslim
More Authentic?
Ibn Amir al-Hajj, in Sharh al-Tahrir, stated what could mean:599
The point to which good attention should be given is that their authenticity more than others is only in respect of those succeeding them not those who preceded them, as this fact, though being apparent may be unknown by some, or some may swindle and cheat, and Allah the Glorified knows better.
Someone explained this statement thus: That who stated these words intends to say that the two Shaykhs and authors of Sunan constitute a contemporary group of huffaz who emerged after the writing down of the Islamic fiqh, taking care of certain segment of hadith. While the mujtahid imams who preceded them were more plentiful in material and prolific in traditions, having under their hands all kinds of hadith: the marfu’, mawquf and mursal, and fatawa of the Sahabah and Tabi’un. And as is known, the mujtahid’s view can never be restricted to a part of hadith. This can be obviously seen in the comprehensive (jami’) books and compilations (musannafat) which refer to these kinds in every bab (chapter) that were indispensable by every mujtahid and authors of comprehensive (jami’) books and musannafat, before the era of the authors of al-Sihah al-Sittah (six sahih books), to whom they used to refer, and who could easily look into asanid of these traditions because of their high rank, especially the inference of any mujtahid with a corrected hadith, and reference to al-Sihah al-Sittah and using them in dispute can be achieved only through considering those who succeeded them. That point drawing our attention here is that some of the latter huffaz show leniency in ascribing the traditions they report to the six origin books and other than them, with a great difference in wording and meaning.
In his Sharh al-Alfiyyah, al-Iraqi writes: Al-Bayhaqi in his al-Sunan and al-Ma’rifah, and al-Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah and others, used to narrate the traditions with their own words and asanid, ascribing them then to
599. Hamish Shurut, pp.58, 59.
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al-Bukhari and Muslim with differences in wording and meaning, as what they were after was relating the hadith in itself not ascribing its words.
As an example for this I can refer to al-Nawawi’s words in the hadith “the Imams are (all) from Quraysh,” as reported by the two Shaykhs, while its wording in the Sahih was” This affair (caliphate) would be kept in Quraysh till the day when only two of them are alive,” and the great difference between the two wordings and the meaning is quite obvious.
Al-Sayyid Rashid al-Attar has compiled a book on maqtu’ traditions reported in Sahih Muslim, under the name: (al-Fawa’id al-majmu’ah fi sha’n ma waqa’a fi Muslim min al-ahadith al-maqtu’ah), saying: Concerning what the people claim that ‘Anyone for whom the two Shaykhs have narrated, has in fact attained a lofty rank’ is untrue since Muslim has reported in his book from Layth ibn Abi Sulaym and other unreliable narrators. Also know that the words (inna and ‘an) necessitate inqita’ (i.e. disconnection from mudallas traditions) in view of men of hadith, and these words were repeated many times in the books of Muslim al-Bukhari, so they say for seeking dignity: Any hadith of this kind reported in other books than the two Sahihs is munqati’, and that which is cited in the Sahihs should be held to be muttasil (successive)!!
In his Sahih Muslim reported from Abu al-Zubayr, from Jabir so many traditions known with ‘an’anah, and the huffaz said: Abu al-Zubayr Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Tadrus al-Makki used to defraud in Jabir’s hadith and whatever was in the mode of ‘an’anah was rejected by him. Also Muslim reported in his book from Jabir and Ibn Umar in the event of Hijjat al-Wada’ that: the Prophet (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny) betook himself toward Makkah on the sacrifice day (yawm al-nahr), where he performed circumambulation of ifadah (spreading) performing then the noon prayer at Makkah, returning then to Mina. In another narration, he performed the ifadah circumambulation, returning then to Mina where he performed the noon prayer. By these words, they seek honour (tajawwuh)600 and say: He performed it again to show permissibility!
600. Tajawwaha means ta'azzamma (get proud), i.e. feigned magnanimity, while being devoid of this.
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and other such interpretations!! About these two narrations, Ibn Hazm said: One of them is undoubtedly false.
Muslim has also reported the hadith on isra’, in which he said (that was before sending down of revelation [wahy] to him). The huffaz have spoken against and weakened this statement. Muslim has also reported the hadith: “Allah created the earth on Saturday.”601 Also in his book he reported from Abu Sufyan that he said to the Prophet (S), after embracing Islam: “O Messenger of Allah, would you kindly do me three favours: Get married to my daughter Umm Habibah, appoint my son Mu’awiyah as a scribe, and command me to fight the disbelievers”, and the Prophet responded to his demands … (the hadith). It is known that much misconception is found clearly in this hadith! As Umm Habibah was taken for wife by the Messenger of Allah in the Abyssinia with the dowry given by al-Najashi, and Abu Sufyan embraced Islam in the conquest (fath) year, and several years separated between the migration (hijrah) and conquest year. In regard of commandment of Abu Sufyan (to lead the army), the haffaz said that they had no information about it, reporting from al-Zubayr through weak asanid that the Prophet (S) gave him commandment of the army in few of the battles. This was not reported or known by others, and the motive pushed them to claim so was only bigotry.
The traditionists say that when Muslim compiled his book he showed it to Abu Zar’ah al-Razi, who disapproved it and was enraged saying: And you called it al-Sahih, making it a ladder for the heretics and others … and when any opponent narrates any hadith for them, they would say: This can never be in Sahih Muslim.602 I have previously cited other statements uttered by Abu Zar’ah and others in regard of Muslim and his book.
Al-Hazimi, in Shurut al-A’immah al-khamsah, writes the following: (chapter on abolition of the saying of that who claimed that the condition of al-Bukhari (for veracity of the hadith) was reporting the hadith from two reliable men and so on and so forth, till the chain of the khabar reaching to the Prophet, may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny):
601. See discussion of this hadith in my book Shaykh al-mudirah.
602. Al-Hazimi, op, cit., p.61, 62.
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“This being a decision of that who has never examined narrowly and got to the bottom of the correct traditions, as if the book was attentively studied, many of the traditions recorded in it would be found disproving his (al-Bukhari’s) claim.”
Concerning the saying of al-Hakim that the option made by al-Bukhari and Muslim in reporting the hadith from two reliable men from the Prophet (S),603 is incorrect forward and backward, rather had he reversed the issue and gave decision it would have been much safer for him. The same notion was held by someone who excelled him in the field of hadith, that is Abu Hatam Muhammad ibn Hibban al-Basti, who said: “The reports are verily all akhbar al-ahad since no report from the Prophet (S) is found to be narrated by two reliable men who reported it in turn from two other reliable narrators till the chain reaching the Messenger of Allah (may God’s peace and benediction be upon him and his Progeny). Impossibility and voidance of this proved the akhbar to be akhbar al-ahad, and whoever stipulated that condition has in fact abandoned all the sunan, as they were not to exist but only through the akhbar al-ahad”. (End of Ibn Hibban’s statement).
Whoever fathoming and trying the depth of reports would realize that whatever stated by Ibn Hibban is nearer to truth. (End of al-Hazimi’s speech).604
These were the first class hadith books, and the following is a brief discussion of the second class ones which are: Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan al-Nasa’i.605
Abu Dawud
He is al-Imam al-Faqih Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash’ath al-Azdi al-Sijistani. He was born in 202H. He has visited Baghdad several times, and was dead in Basrah in 275 H. Al-Khitabi is reported to have said: No book was compiled on ilm al-hadith to the level of Sunan Abi Dawud, which was of better position and more doctrinal than the two Sahihs. From him
603. The first hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari is: The acts are verily according to the intentions, and the last one i.e. the hadith: Two light words, are two strange replies, when taking into consideration the way of reporting, as stated by al-Burhan al-Biqa'i and others (Ibid., p.31).
604. Ibid., p.31.
605. Men of hadith stated that the book that come in order after those of al-Bukhari and Muslim being: Sunan Abi Dawud (d. 275 H), Sunan al-Nasa'i (d. 303 H), and Sunan al-Tirmidhi (d. 279 H). They considered these books to be the usul (reference books), with some of them adding Sunan Ibn Majah (d. 375 H). Some of them said that it was proper to regard Sunan al-Darimi (d. 255 H) as the sixth source, as Ibn Majah has reported traditions from men charged with falsification and plagiarizing the traditions. While Sunan al-Darimi contains very few weak rijal, and rarely contains disapproved or odd traditions, though having some mursal and mawquf ones. Nevertheless, he is more rightful than him (Ibn Majah), and what they said is the truth.
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al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasa’i reported a number of traditions. Ibn Kathir, in Mukhtasar ’ulum al-hadith, said: The narrations for Sunan Abi Dawud are so many, in some of which things are there that can’t be seen in the others. The most notable among narrators of the Sunan, being Abu Sa’id ibn al-A’rabi, Abu Ali al-Lu’lu’i and Abu Bakr ibn Dasah.
All the resolution of Abu Dawud focussed on collecting the traditions that were inferred by fuqaha’ of all towns and upon which they based their judgements. So he sorted out his Sunan, including in it the sahih, hasan (good), layyin (flexible) and that which is fit to adopt in practice. Among the words uttered by him: I have never stated in my book a hadith upon the abandonment of which people unanimously agreed, and if there found any hadith of very feeble nature in it, I have indicated it clearly.
Abu Bakr ibn Dasah says: I heard Abu Dawud saying: I have written down from the Messenger of Allah 500 thousand traditions, some of which I have selected and implied in this book, in which I brought together four thousand and eight hundred traditions, including the sahih and similar and near ones.
It is said: Sunan Abi Dawud is sufficient for every mujtahid, and for his religion he can be sufficed with only four traditions: (1) The acts are verily (accepted) with only four traditions. (2) That which indicating betterment of one’s Islam being forsaking what is not of his concern. (3) Any believer can never be (true) believer (mu’min) till he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. (4) The halal (lawful) is manifest and haram (unlawful) is manifest, and between the two some dubious (mushtabah) things. Some of the traditionists have preferred it (Sunan) to Sahih al-Bukhari.
Abu Dawud and al-Bukhari have both learnt fiqh under fuqaha’ of Iraq.
Al-Tirmidhi
His name is Abu ‘Isa Muhammad ibn ‘Isa al-Tirmidhi al-Darir. He
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was born in Tirmidh in 209 H. and died in it in 279 H. Ibn al-Athir is reported to have said: In Sunan al-Tirmidhi, not in other books, there is a reference to madhahib (schods, of thought), manners of inference, and manifestation of kinds of hadith, namely the sahih, hasan and gharib (odd).
When compiling his book, he epitomized in it so elegantly the ways of hadith, elucidating its sorts, whether being sahih or weak or disapproved. But his book al-Jami’ al-sahih contained so many disapproved traditions.606
Al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab, in Sharh ‘Ilal al-Tirmidhi, stated that al-Tirmidhi reported in his book the correct (sahih) hadith and good (hasan) one, (which is lower in degree than the sahih having some weakness, beside the gharib (odd) one. In the strange traditions he cited there are found some disapproved ones, particularly in the chapter (kitab) on al-fada’il (merits), but he often demonstrates this never letting it go unseen. I have no knowledge that he has reported from some narrator upon whose falsity there was consensus, any hadith through a single isnad, but he might report a hadith narrated through different turuq (ways) or in its isnad there being a narrator known of falsification. Thus he reported hadith of Muhammad ibn Sa’id al-Maslub and Muhammad ibn al-Sa’ib al-Kalbi. Yes, he might report from narrators known of bad memory or whose narrations being misconceived, but he used to manifest this fact, never keeping silent about it. Abu Dawud shared him in reporting from many narrators of this class with keeping silent regarding their traditions, like Ishaq ibn Abi Farwah. Al-Tirmidhi used to report hadith from the accurate thiqah (trustworthy), and from that of little dubiety and that of much dubiety, and that commonly known of misconception, with demonstrating this.
It is also known that al-Tirmidhi was the first among traditionists in classifying the hadith into sahih, hasan (good), da’if (weak), while before his time such classification was not known.
606. Ikhtisar ulum al-hadith, p.18.
