Hadith in the context of Ta'til

The following is a list of Muslim historians writing in the Islamic historiographical tradition, which developed from hadith literature in the time of the first caliphs.

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Muslim community, being appointed at the meeting of Saqifa. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib (r. 656–661) as his successor. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar (r. 634–644) and Uthman (r. 644–656) as 'rightly-guided caliphs'.

The term Sunni means those who observe the sunna, the practices of Muhammad. The Quran, together with hadith (especially the Six Books) and ijma (scholarly consensus), form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia legal rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion, using the principles of jurisprudence developed by the four legal schools: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i.

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population, after Christianity.

Muslims believe that there is a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and they believe that Islam is the universal and complete version of this faith. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (the Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injil (Gospel). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final of God's prophets, through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the Sunnah, documented in accounts called the hadith, provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God (tawhid), and belief in an afterlife (akhirah) with the Last Judgment—wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise (jannah) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell (jahannam). The Five Pillars, considered obligatory acts of worship, are the Islamic oath and creed (shahada), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm) in the month of Ramadan, and a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Islamic law, sharia, touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment. The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Sharia (/ʃəˈriːə/; Arabic: شَرِيعَة, romanized: sharīʿah, lit. 'path [to water]', IPA: [ʃaˈriːʕa]), also transliterated as Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah, is a body of religious law that form the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology sharīʿah refers to immutable, intangible divine law, in contrast to fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars. Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from the very beginning in Islamic history; it has been elaborated and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists – reflecting the tendencies of different schools – and integrated with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers; and implemented for centuries by judges in the courts until recent times, when secularism was widely adopted in Islamic societies.

Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources for al-sharia: the Qur'an, sunnah (or authentic ahadith), ijma (lit. consensus) (may be understood as ijma al-ummah (Arabic: إجماع الأمة) – a whole Islamic community consensus, or ijma al-aimmah (Arabic: إجماع الائـمـة) – a consensus by religious authorities), and analogical reasoning. It distinguishes two principal branches of law, rituals (Ibadah) and social dealings (Muamalat); subsections family law, relationships (commercial, political / administrative) and criminal law, in a wide range of topics assigning actions – capable of settling into different categories according to different understandings – to categories (ahkam) mainly as: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Beyond legal norms, Sharia also enters many areas that are considered private practises today, such as belief, worshipping, ethics, clothing and lifestyle, and gives to those in command duties to intervene and regulate them.

Ijtihad (/ˌɪdʒtəˈhɑːd/ IJ-tə-HAHD; Arabic: اجتهاد ijtihād [ʔidʒ.tihaːd], lit. 'physical effort' or 'mental effort') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with taqlid (imitation, conformity to legal precedent). According to classical Sunni theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), and is not employed where authentic and authoritative texts (Qur'an and hadith) are considered unambiguous with regard to the question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus (ijma). Ijtihad is considered to be a religious duty for those qualified to perform it. An Islamic scholar who is qualified to perform ijtihad is called a "mujtahid".

For the first five centuries of Islam, the practice of ijtihad continued in theory and practice among Sunni Muslims. It then first became subject to dispute in the 12th century. By the 14th century, development of classic Islamic jurisprudence or fiqh prompted leading Sunni jurists to state that the main legal questions in Islam had been addressed, and to call for the scope of ijtihad to be restricted. In the modern era, this gave rise to a perception amongst Orientalist scholars and sections of the Muslim public that the so-called "gate of ijtihad" was closed at the start of the classical era. While recent scholarship established that the practice of Ijtihad had never ceased in Islamic history, the extent and mechanisms of legal change in the post-formative period remain a subject of debate. Differences amongst the Fuqaha (jurists) prevented Sunni Muslims from reaching any consensus (Ijma) on the issues of continuity of Ijtihad and existence of Mujtahids. Thus, Ijtihad remained a key aspect of Islamic jurisprudence throughout the centuries. Ijtihad was practiced throughout the Early modern period and claims for ijtihad and its superiority over taqlid were voiced unremittingly.

In the Islamic study of hadith, an isnād (chain of transmitters, or literally "supporting"; Arabic: اِسْناد) refers to a list of people who passed on a tradition, from the original authority to whom the tradition is attributed to, to the present person reciting or compiling that tradition. The tradition an isnad is associated with is called the matn. Isnads are an important feature of the genre of Islamic literature known as hadith and are prioritized in the process that seeks to determine if the tradition in question is authentic or inauthentic.

According to the traditional Islamic view, the tradition of the hadith sciences has succeeded in the use of isnads to distinguish between authentic and inauthentic traditions going back to Muhammad and his companions. The contemporary view in modern hadith studies, however, is that isnads were commonly susceptible to forgery and so had to be scrutinized before being used to guarantee the transmission of a tradition.

Hadith sciences (Arabic: علم الحديث ʻilm al-ḥadīth "science of hadith") consists of several religious scholarly disciplines used by Muslim scholars in the study and evaluation of the hadith. ("Science" is used in the sense of a field of study, not to be confused with following the principles of observation and experiment, developing falsifiable hypotheses, etc. of modern science.) The hadith are what most Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. Hadith science scholars aim to determine which of these records are authentic, and which may be fabricated.

For most Muslims, determining the authenticity of hadith is enormously important in Islam because along with the Quran, the Sunnah of the Islamic prophet—his words, actions, and silent approvals—are considered the explanation of the divine revelation (wahy), and the record of them (i.e. hadith) provides the basis of Islamic law (Sharia). In addition, while the number of verses pertaining to law in the Quran is relatively few, hadith, for many, give direction on everything from details of religious obligations (such as Ghusl or Wudu, ablutions for salat prayer), to the correct forms of salutations, to the importance of benevolence to servants. Thus, the "great bulk" of the rules of Islamic law are derived from hadith, along with the Quran as a primary source.

Muslims (Arabic: المسلمون, romanized: al-Muslimūn, lit. 'submitters [to God]') are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham (or Allah) as it was revealed to Muhammad, the last Islamic prophet. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injeel (Gospel). These earlier revelations are associated with Judaism and Christianity, which are regarded by Muslims as earlier versions of Islam. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices attributed to Muhammad (sunnah) as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith).

With an estimated population of almost 2 billion followers, Muslims comprise around 26% of the world's total population. In descending order, the percentage of people who identify as Muslims on each continental landmass stands at: 45% of Africa, 25% of Asia and Oceania collectively, 6% of Europe, and 1% of the Americas. Additionally, in subdivided geographical regions, the figure stands at: 91% of the Middle East–North Africa, 90% of Central Asia, 65% of the Caucasus, 42% of Southeast Asia, 32% of South Asia, and 42% of sub-Saharan Africa.

Islamic advice literature may include collections of stories or anecdotes such as legal opinion, interpretation of religious text, legal theory, guidance, consultation, or Islamic stories.

Islamic advice literature is usually printed on small leaflets and often involves advice from individuals or authorities. In contrast to Fatwa, Tafsir, and Fiqh, Nasîhat and advice literature can come from secular sources, and are not required to be written by Ulama (Islamic scholars). Unlike Fiqh, Tafsir, Fatwa, or Nasîhat based on them, advice can go beyond the realm of religious scripture and may take support of otherwise not easily admissible Hadith or religious rulings in order to make normative pleas.Its reliance has been on traditional and self-renewing information about social, authoritative, or religious themes.

Sunnah is the body of traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. For Muslims, the sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time supposedly saw, followed, and passed on to the next generations. However, what constitutes the Sunnah, and its interpretation, depends significantly on the specific Islamic sect and school of thought. Sunnis rely on six major canonical hadith collections to document the Sunnah, known as Kutub al-Sittah. For Shias, the sunnah is generally documented in Kutub al-'Arba'a, which give preference to hadiths attributed to the Prophet's family (Ahl al-Bayt) and the Twelve Imams. For Ibadis, the sunnah is documented in the two hadith collections Jami Sahih and Tartib al-Musnad. Sufis hold that Muhammad transmitted his sunnah, including his spiritual values, "through a series of Sufi teachers".

According to classical Islamic theories, the sunnah is embodied in the hadith: verbally transmitted records of the teachings, actions, deeds, and sayings, attributed to Muhammad. Alongside the Qur'an, the Hadith contains the divine revelations (wahy) delivered through Muhammad that make up the primary sources of Islamic law, beliefs, and theology. The sunnah is classified into different types based on Muhammad's specific words (Sunnah Qawliyyah), his actions such as habits and practices (Sunnah Fiiliyyah), and silent approvals (Sunnah Taqririyyah). However, some Muslims, such as Ahl al-Kalam and the Mu'tazilites, have distinguished between the Sunnah and Hadith, accepting the Sunnah as an authoritative practice while being critical of the Hadith's reliability as a source for Islamic law. The Quranist stance on the Sunnah varies from outright rejection to an approach that considers external sources as secondary and dependent on the Qur'an for verification.

Kutub al-Sittah (Arabic: ٱلْكُتُب ٱلسِّتَّة, romanized: al-Kutub al-Sitta, lit. 'the Six Books'), also known as al-Sihah al-Sitta (Arabic: الصحاح الستة, romanized: al-Ṣiḥāḥ al-Sitta, lit. 'the Authentic Six') are the six canonical hadith collections of Sunni Islam. They were all compiled in the 9th and early 10th centuries, roughly from 840 to 912 CE and are thought to embody the Sunnah of Muhammad.

The books are the Sahih of al-Bukhari (d. 870), the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875), the Sunan of Abu Dawud (d. 889), the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi (d. 892), the Sunan of al-Nasa'i (d. 915), and the Sunan of Ibn Majah (d. 887 or 889) as the sixth book, though some (particularly the Malikis and Ibn al-Athir) instead listed the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas (d. 795) as the sixth book, and other scholars list Sunan of al-Daraqutni (d. 995) as the sixth book. Sunan ibn Majah largely won out as the sixth canonical book because its content has less overlap with the other five compared with its two contenders.

Principles of Islamic jurisprudence (Arabic: أصول الفقه, romanized: ʾUṣūl al-Fiqh) are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (sharia).

Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how the scriptures (Quran and hadith) should be interpreted from the standpoint of linguistics and rhetoric. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when the legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. In addition to the Quran and hadith, the classical theory of Sunni jurisprudence recognizes secondary sources of law: juristic consensus (ijmaʿ) and analogical reasoning (qiyas). It therefore studies the application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools (madhahib). This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad, which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason (ʿaql) as a source of law in place of qiyās and extension of the notions of hadith and sunnah to include traditions of the imams.

The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and traditionist, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (c. 780–855 CE), and later institutionalized by his students. One who subscribes to the Hanbali school is called a Hanbali (Arabic: ٱلْحَنْبَلِيّ, romanized: al-ḥanbalī, pl. ٱلْحَنْبَلِيَّة, al-ḥanbaliyya, or ٱلْحَنَابِلَة, al-ḥanābila). It mostly adheres to the Athari school of theology and is the smallest out of the four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools.

Like the other Sunni schools, it primarily derives sharia from the Quran, hadith and views of Muhammad's companions. In cases where there is no clear answer in the sacred texts of Islam, the Hanbali school does not accept juristic discretion or customs of a community as sound bases to derive Islamic law on their own—methods that the Hanafi and Maliki schools accept. Hanbalis are the majority in Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the Salafi movement has grown. As such, Hanbalis form barely 5% of the Sunni Muslim population worldwide.

Noah, also known as Nuh (Arabic: نُوْحٌ, romanized: Nūḥ), is recognized in Islam as a prophet and messenger of God. He is also believed to be the first messenger sent by God. He is one of the Ulul 'azm prophets. Noah's mission was to warn his people, who were plunged in idol worshipping. God charged Noah with the duty of preaching to his people, advising them to abandon idolatry and to worship only God, and to live good and pure lives. Although he preached the Message of God with zeal, his people refused to mend their ways, leading to building the Ark and the Deluge, the Great Flood. In Islamic tradition, it is disputed whether the Great Flood was a global or a local one. Noah's preaching and prophethood spanned 950 years according to the Quran, ahadith and tafsir.

Moses (Arabic: موسى ابن عمران Mūsā ibn ʿImrān, lit. 'Moses, son of Amram') is a prominent prophet and messenger of God and is the most frequently mentioned individual in the Quran, with his name being mentioned 136 times and his life being narrated and recounted more than that of any other prophet. Apart from the Quran, Moses is also described and praised in the Hadith literature as well. He is one of the most important prophets and messengers within Islam.

According to the Quran, Moses was born to an Israelite family. In his childhood, he is put in a basket which flows towards the Nile, and is eventually discovered by Pharaoh's (Fir'awn) wife (not named in the Quran but called Asiya in Hadith), who takes Moses as her adopted son. After reaching adulthood, Moses then resides in Midian, before departing for Egypt again to threaten the Pharaoh. During his prophethood, Moses is said to have performed many miracles, and is also reported to have personally talked to God, who bestows the title 'Speaker of God' (Kalīm Allāh) upon Moses. The prophet's most famous miracle is dividing the Red Sea, with a miraculous staff provided by God. After Pharaoh's death, Moses and his followers travel towards the Promised Land and the prophet dies within sight of the land. Moses is reported to have met Muhammad in the seven heavens following his ascension from Jerusalem during the Night Journey (’Isrā’ Miʿrāj). During the journey, Moses is said by Muslims to have repeatedly sent Muhammad back, and request a reduction in the number of required daily prayers, originally believed to be fifty, until only the five obligatory prayers remained.