The Hadith is the record of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).  The sayings and conduct of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) constitute the Sunnah.

   The Hadith has come to supplement the Holy Quran as a source of the Islamic religious law.  The Hadith is the second pillar after the Quran upon which every Muslim rests his faith.

   In Shari'ah (Islamic theology), actions are divided into the following five classes:

1.      Fardh or Wajib:  An obligatory duty the omission of which is Islamicly punishable.

2.      Mus'tahab:  An action which is rewarded, but the omission is not punishable.

3.      Mu'baah:  An action which is permitted but legally is indifferent.

4.      Mak'rooh:  An action which is disapproved by the Shari'ah but is not under any penalty.

5.      Haram:  An action which is forbidden, Islamicly punishable.

   The Hadith was collected and categorized in the latter part of the third century of Hijrah (Islamic Calendar), resulting in six canonical collections (Al-Sihaah Al-Sittah).  They are:

1.        Sahih of al-Bukhari:    d.256 A.H. =870 A.D.

2.        Sahih of Muslim:    d.261 A.H. =875 A.D.

3.        Sunan of Ibn Maajeh:    d.273 A.H. =887 A.D.

4.        Sunan of Abu Dawood:    d.276 A.H. =888 A.D.

5.        Jami' of Tirmidhi:    d.279 A.H. =892 A.D.

6.        Sunan of al-Nisaa'i:    d.303 A.H. =915 A.D.

   The scholars of the Hadith literature divided the Traditions into three categories according to the degree of reliability of the chain of the transmitters, freedom of the text from concealed defects, and acceptance or rejection of any Hadith by the Companions of the Prophet.

   The three categories are as follows:

1.      Sahih:  These are the genuine Traditions, the authentic.

2.      Hasan:  These are the fair Traditions although inferior in matter of authenticity.

3.      Dha'eef:  These are the weak Traditions which are not so reliable.

 Tradition reports that Bukhari recognized 600,00 Hadiths, all of which were rejected except 9,082 (1.5% accepted).  The distinct Hadiths that he accepted were 2,762.

Sahih Muslim was complied out of 300,000 Hadiths.  Abu Dawood says he wrote down half a million Hadiths out of which he selected 4,800 authentic Traditions.

One may ask, and rightfully so, why only a few thousand Hadiths were selected out of more than half a million?  Were the others fabricated in the name of Islam, and if so, by whom and for what incentive?

DIFFERENT SOURCE OF HADITH

   It was during the Khilaafah of Abu Bakr (r) and early Khilaafah of Omar (r) that Imam Ali (a.s.) set to the task of registering the Hadiths.  Imam Ali was incomparably strict about Islam, and could foresee the need to register the Hadith to be the source for future generations.

   The Hadith books which he wrote were left with the Imams of Ahlul Bayt after him.  They referred to these Hadiths over a period of two and a half centuries.  Notable among them is Imam Ja'far Al-Saadiq, who was the teacher of Imam Abu Hanifa and Al-Maaliki, and as many as 400 scholars graduated from his school.  It is said that as many as 400 religious books were written by his students.  It is also said that about 80% of the Hadiths in Al-Bukhari and Muslim are indirect quotations from the students of Imam Ja'far Al-Saadiq.

   Because of the source and chain of narration of the Hadith, the Shi'a (Ja'fari) rely only on the Hadith of Ahlul Bayt or those Hadiths in the Al-Sihaah Al-Sittah (Bukhari, Muslim and others) that are similar to what Ahlul Bayt had quoted.

   The original books of Hadith as written by Imam Ali are not available, but the sources of Hadith of Ahlul Bayt was best registered by:

1.      Al-Kulaini (d.328 A.H.=940 A.D.) in the book of Al-Kaafi which registers 16,199 Hadiths.

2.      Toosi in the book of Al-Tah'dheeb, and the book of Istibsaar.

3.      Al-Siddooq in the book of Man La Yah'dharhu al-Faqih.