# Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (مسلم بن الحجاج)
**Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj** (مسلم بن الحجاج), in full Abu al-Ḥusayn Asākir ad-Dīn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward ibn Kawshādh al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī, was a hadith scholar of Nishapur (d. 875 CE) whose *al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ*, known as [Sahih Muslim](https://www.edgepedia.org/sahih-muslim), is one of the two canonical hadith collections of [Sunni Islam](https://www.edgepedia.org/sunni-islam), ranked together with al-Bukhari's Sahih as the Ṣaḥīḥayn.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) • [2](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muslim-ibn-al-Hajjaj)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Nishapur, Khorasan; birth year disputed (202, 204, or 206 AH), died 25 Rajab 261 AH (May 4, 875 CE) at Nasarabad near Nishapur, aged 55[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) |
| Teachers | Al-Bukhari during his Nishapur stay, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ʿAbdallah ibn Maslama al-Qaʿnabi, Qutayba ibn Saʿid[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) • [3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) |
| Compilation | 15 years, 235–250 AH, then taught the book for 11 years until his death[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim) |
| Selection ratio | Reportedly evaluated 300,000 traditions and retained about 4,000[5](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf) |
| Count of the Sahih | Edition-based counts: 7,525 (Dār al-Taʾṣīl), 7,563 (Darussalam), 7,748 (2024 dataset); 3,033–12,000 depending on whether repetitions are counted[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim) • [6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim) |
| Distinctive method | Explicit written introduction stating his criteria; all chains for a hadith gathered in one place; contemporaneity rather than proven contact between narrators, according to one account[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) |
| Standing | With Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the Ṣaḥīḥayn; traditionally ranked second in authority among Sunni hadith collections[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) |
## Life and Nishapur context
Muslim was born in Nishapur in Khorasan, then a province of the Abbasid caliphate and now in northeastern Iran.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) His birth year is disputed: biographical notices give 202, 204, or 206 AH, with the majority favoring 206 AH because he is said to have died at 55 in 261 AH.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) The Islamhouse edition of his Sahih gives 202 AH (817/818 CE) as the birth year.[5](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf)
**Travels and teachers.** He began traveling for hadith young: he performed the hajj in 220 AH/835 CE and studied under ʿAbdallah ibn Maslama al-Qaʿnabi (d. 221/836) in the Hijaz, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855) in Baghdad, and Abu Zurʿa and [Abu Hatim al-Razi](https://www.edgepedia.org/abu-hatim-al-razi), before settling in Nishapur, where he met al-Bukhari (d. 256/870) and studied in his company during Bukhari's stay there.[3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) • [1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) His travels took him to Iraq, the [Arabian Peninsula](https://www.edgepedia.org/arabian-peninsula), Syria, and Egypt.[5](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/muslim-ibn-al-hajjaj-c-817-875)
His students included Abu ʿIsa al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn Khuzaymah, and Abu ʿAwanah, and he is reported to have been inclined to the Shafiʿi school.[9](https://www.uloom.com/stable/110905501) • [1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) Unlike al-Bukhari, whose later career was damaged by the controversy over whether the Qur'an was created, Muslim avoided that dispute.[3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) He spent 15 years compiling his Sahih, from 235 to 250 AH, and then taught it for eleven years until his death in 261 AH.[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim)
## The Sahih: structure and contents
The book is organized into books and chapters of hadith arranged by subject. A recent description divides it into 43 books containing about 9,200 narrations.[6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim)
**The Muqaddima.** Muslim composed an explicit methodological introduction, the Muqaddima, setting out his criteria for accepting narrators and his understanding of the categories sahih, hasan, and daʿif; al-Bukhari, by contrast, left his methodology to be inferred from the book itself.[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) In the introduction he states that if a narrator of hadith is not trustworthy, it is not allowed to accept the narration, and he names narrators he excluded, such as ʿAbd Allah ibn Miswar (al-Madaʾini), ʿAmr ibn Khalid, and ʿAbd al-Quddus al-Shami, who were accused of fabricating hadith.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) Scholars conventionally distinguish the introduction from the Sahih proper: hadith cited from it are attributed to "the Introduction to al-Sahih," not to the Sahih, as in al-Mizzi's *Tuhfat al-Ashraf*, although in transmission and printing it has always traveled as part of the book.[10](https://islamqa.info/en/answers/462348) The introduction contains narrations, most of which are not hadith and may not all meet the strict authenticity standards required of hadith in the Sahih itself.[11](https://sunnah.com/muslim/introduction)
## His stated criteria and methodology
The introduction and the book's practice show several working rules.
- **Trustworthiness**: a narrator must be of accepted integrity (ʿadāla) and precise memory (dabt); a study of the Muqaddima finds his narrator-criticism methodology systematic, with particular emphasis on these two qualities and criticism of poor practices such as failing to screen narrations.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) • [12](https://jurnalumran.utm.my/index.php/umran/article/view/764)
- **Unbroken chains**: he compiled only hadith transmitted through an unbroken chain of narrators whose trustworthiness is accepted.[1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf)
- **Two-narrator requirement**: one publisher's description states he recorded only narrations reported by two reliable successors from two Companions through two independent unbroken isnads, a criterion described there as stricter than al-Bukhari's.[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) • [6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim)
- **Supportive chains**: his supportive isnads (mutabaʿat) are of two types, complete (mutabaʿah tammah) and incomplete (mutabaʿah qasirah).[13](https://akramnadwi.com/sahih-muslim/)
**The contested point: chain continuity.** The main point of disagreement is whether two consecutive narrators actually met. One line holds that Muslim's most significant methodological difference from al-Bukhari was that al-Bukhari required proven contact between narrators while Muslim required only contemporaneity, that narrators lived at the same time and could have met; Muslim held that when the particle ʿan ("from") appears in an isnad, no affirmative evidence that the two transmitters actually met is required.[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) • [3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) Another description presents his two-Companion, two-isnad criterion as stricter than al-Bukhari's.[6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim) These are not strictly contradictory, since they concern different rules (contact between consecutive narrators versus the number of independent paths at the head of a chain), but the literature does not resolve which imam's overall criteria were stricter, and a 2017 peer-reviewed study compares Muslim's hadith criticism with al-Shafiʿi's system precisely to measure such consistency.[14](https://brill.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685195-00244p01)
## How it compares with Sahih al-Bukhari
The two books differ most visibly in arrangement. Muslim gathered all the chains of transmission for each hadith together in a single place, listing the variant isnads known to him before their common text, whereas al-Bukhari distributed variant chains across multiple chapters; Muslim marks the different chains with the Arabic letter ha, standing for tahwil, the technique of converting multiple chains into a single text, which he applied more frequently than al-Bukhari.[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/muslim-ibn-al-hajjaj-c-817-875) • [15](https://e-jurnal.yadim.com.my/index.php/jurnal-yadim/article/view/82) Muslim also placed parallel versions of the same tradition together under one topical heading, while al-Bukhari placed them under different headings relating to different points of law; Muslim's Sahih has fewer chapters, keeps all narrations of a hadith in one section, excludes Companion reports without full isnads, and gives less attention to legal discussion, and it lacks the paragraph headings characteristic of al-Bukhari's book.[3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) Within each chapter, Muslim orders the chains of the first class of narrators by fame, preference for same-town transmitters, family line, and shorter isnad over longer.[13](https://akramnadwi.com/sahih-muslim/)
## By the numbers
Counts of the Sahih vary widely because they measure different things: whether repetitions of the same text with different chains are counted, and which edition's numbering is used.
- The traditional figure is that Muslim evaluated 300,000 traditions and retained about 4,000, or about 3,000 if repetitions are not counted.[5](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/muslim-ibn-al-hajjaj-c-817-875)
- Edition-based totals for the printed book are higher because they count repetitions: 7,525 in the Dār al-Taʾṣīl numbering, 7,563 in the Darussalam edition, and 7,748 records in the 2024 Multi-IsnadSet computational dataset; one publisher's description gives a range of 3,033 to 12,000 depending on whether duplicates are included.[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim) • [16](https://darussalam.com/sahih-muslim-english-arabic-7-volume-set/) • [17](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11096860/) • [6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim)
- The 2024 dataset records 2,092 unique narrators and 14,155 isnad records for the book, modeled as a directed graph with 77,797 chain-to-hadith edges.[17](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11096860/)
- About 2,000 hadiths are said to be shared with al-Bukhari's Sahih.[6](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim)
- A study of the two major recensions (Ibrahim ibn Sufyan's and Ibn Mahan's via al-Qalanisi) found only 117 instances of variation, 56 in chains and 61 in texts, most harmonizable, or 1.55% of the 7,525 reports in the Dār al-Taʾṣīl numbering.[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim)
## Reception and canonization
Sunni tradition ranks [Sahih al-Bukhari](https://www.edgepedia.org/sahih-al-bukhari) as the most authentic book after the Qur'an, with Sahih Muslim second, and discusses the two together as the Ṣaḥīḥayn.[7](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/) Muslim himself never claimed to collect all authentic traditions; his goal was to collect only traditions that all Muslims should agree on about accuracy.[5](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf) The joint authority of the two books took shape over centuries: al-Hakim al-Naysaburi (d. 405/1014) recognized that the Ṣaḥīḥayn had polemical value as common measures of hadith authenticity acceptable to both transmission-based scholars and others.[18](https://archive.org/stream/TheCanonizationOfAlBukhariAndMuslimByJonathanBrown/The+Canonization+of+al-Bukh%C4%81r%C4%AB+and+Muslim+By+Jonathan+Brown_djvu.txt) Even so, some early authorities considered al-Bukhari's Sahih superior; one remarked that perhaps al-Bukhari's Sahih had not reached Abu ʿAli al-Naysaburi, who praised Muslim's work.[19](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/transmission-of-muslims-sahih/96E1A2EA0979DEBC8BE1E4E5B13DACA0) A comparative study of scholarly opinion finds three positions on relative superiority: al-Bukhari superior, Muslim superior, or both equal in authenticity, with evidence drawn from [Ibn al-Salah](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-al-salah), al-Nawawi, [Ibn Kathir](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-kathir), and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.[20](http://www.alamir.com.pk/index.php/ojs/article/view/256)
Against the argument of the academic Norman Calder that Sahih Muslim reached final form a generation after the author's death, a recent manuscript-based study argues that the small variation between recensions is a natural transmission outcome, and cites Ibn al-Salah (d. 643 AH), al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH), and al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) as affirming that the transmission was too widespread for its authorship to be doubted.[4](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim)
**Commentaries.** The best-known commentaries are al-Nawawi's *Al-Minhaj fi Sharh Sahih Muslim* (al-Nawawi, d. 676/1277, Syrian jurist and hadith master) and Ibn al-Salah's *Siyanah Sahih Muslim* (Ibn al-Salah, d. 643/1245).[3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf) The famous commentaries by al-Qadi ʿIyad and al-Nawawi focus on the text (matn) rather than the chains, and added chapterization and chapter headings that Muslim himself did not provide; neither fully defends Muslim's compilation against criticism of what he includes or excludes.[13](https://akramnadwi.com/sahih-muslim/) In his commentary, al-Nawawi explains that hadith scholars allowed laxity on matters other than legal rulings (ahkam) because such hadiths "have sound bases."[21](https://www.drjonathanbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Even-If-Its-Not-True-Its-True-The-Use-of-Unreliable-Hadiths-in-Sunni-Islam.pdf)
## Other works and lost writings
Beyond the Sahih, the biographical lists attribute to Muslim a Musnad al-Kabir, al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Kuna (resolving transmitters' bynames), Kitab al-ʿIlal, Kitab al-Tabaqat (arranging hadith transmitters by generation), Kitab al-Afrad al-Shamiyyin, al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir, Kitab al-Wijdan, and others.[9](https://www.uloom.com/stable/110905501) • [1](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf) • [22](https://www.kubepublishing.com/blogs/news/sahih-muslim-volume-14) Pavel Pavlovitch's Brill monograph *Muslim al-Naysābūrī (d. 261/875): The skeptical traditionalist* (ISBN 9789004524200) organizes these under three headings, extant works, works preserved as secondary citations, and lost works, and devotes a separate chapter to the Sahih.[23](https://brill.com/display/title/63369) Part of the Kitab al-ʿIlal is said to survive within the introduction to his Sahih.[3](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf)
## References
1. [Sahih Muslim — Introduction (translated, with editor's biography), Sahihiman](https://www.sahihiman.com/hadith/muslim/Muslim-introduction.pdf)
2. [Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Encyclopaedia Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muslim-ibn-al-Hajjaj)
3. [Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj: The Junior Partner of a Great Venture, IAIS Malaysia](https://iais.org.my/attach/Muslim%20ibn%20al-Hajjaj.pdf)
4. [Tracing Transmissions: The Accuracy of Sahih Muslim, Yaqeen Institute](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/tracing-transmissions-the-accuracy-of-sahih-muslim)
5. [Sahih Muslim (English translation), Islamhouse](https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih%5Fbooks/single/en%5FSahih%5FMuslim.pdf)
6. [Mukhtasar Sahih Muslim (publisher's description), The Islam Shop](https://theislamshop.com/books/arabic-books/mukhtasar-sahih-muslim)
7. [Imam Muslim, Islamic Heritage Encyclopaedia](https://know-your-history.com/articles/imam-muslim/)
8. [Muslim Ibn Al-Hajjaj (c. 817–875), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/muslim-ibn-al-hajjaj-c-817-875)
9. [Muslim b. Hajjaj al-Qushayri — d. 261, Uloom biographical entry](https://www.uloom.com/stable/110905501)
10. [Is The Introduction of Sahih Muslim Part of it?, IslamQA](https://islamqa.info/en/answers/462348)
11. [Introduction — Sahih Muslim, Sunnah.com](https://sunnah.com/muslim/introduction)
12. [Metodologi Muslim Bin Al-Hajjāj Dalam Kritik Perawi, UMRAN (UTM)](https://jurnalumran.utm.my/index.php/umran/article/view/764)
13. [Sahih Muslim — Shaykh Mohammad Akram Nadwi](https://akramnadwi.com/sahih-muslim/)
14. [The Principles of Hadith Criticism in the Writings of al-Shāfiʿī and Muslim, Islamic Law and Society 24:4 (2017)](https://brill.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685195-00244p01)
15. [براعة الشيخان في صناعة الأسانيد وتحويلها للمتن الواحد, YADIM journal](https://e-jurnal.yadim.com.my/index.php/jurnal-yadim/article/view/82)
16. [Sahih Muslim (English-Arabic) 7 Volume Set, Darussalam](https://darussalam.com/sahih-muslim-english-arabic-7-volume-set/)
17. [Multi-IsnadSet (MIS) for Sahih Muslim Hadith, Data in Brief (2024)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11096860/)
18. [Jonathan Brown, The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim](https://archive.org/stream/TheCanonizationOfAlBukhariAndMuslimByJonathanBrown/The+Canonization+of+al-Bukh%C4%81r%C4%AB+and+Muslim+By+Jonathan+Brown_djvu.txt)
19. [The Transmission of Muslim's Ṣaḥīḥ, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/transmission-of-muslims-sahih/96E1A2EA0979DEBC8BE1E4E5B13DACA0)
20. [A Comparative & Analytical Study of Scholarly Opinions on the Superiority of Sahih Muslim & Sahih al-Bukhari, Al-Amir](http://www.alamir.com.pk/index.php/ojs/article/view/256)
21. [Jonathan A.C. Brown, Even If It's Not True It's True: Using Unreliable Hadiths in Sunni Islam](https://www.drjonathanbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Even-If-Its-Not-True-Its-True-The-Use-of-Unreliable-Hadiths-in-Sunni-Islam.pdf)
22. [A Landmark Achievement: Sahih Muslim Series by Imam Nawawi Completed, Kube Publishing](https://www.kubepublishing.com/blogs/news/sahih-muslim-volume-14)
23. [Pavel Pavlovitch, Muslim al-Naysābūrī (d. 261/875): The skeptical traditionalist, Brill](https://brill.com/display/title/63369)
24. [Awqaf Ministry issues new scholarly edition of major hadith work, The Peninsula Qatar](https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/07/09/2026/awqaf-ministry-issues-new-scholarly-edition-of-major-hadith-work)
25. [A Scholarly, Analytical, and Comparative Study of the Methodology and Style Adopted by the Authors of Ṣaḥīḥayn, Al-Marjan (2025)](https://al-marjan.com.pk/index.php/Journal/article/view/94)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Scriptures and textual transmission › Islamic scriptural texts › Hadith › Hadith scholars and narrators › Sunni canonical compilers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 10, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
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