Introduction to the Book

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and the most excellent prayers and most complete salutations be upon the one sent as a mercy to the worlds, our master Muhammad bin Abdullah, the truthful in promise, the trustworthy, and upon his family and his noble, radiant companions, and those who follow them in excellence until the Day of Judgment. Glory be to You, O Allah, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. O Allah, teach us what benefits us, and benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge, forbearance, and wisdom; indeed, You are the All-Knowing, the Forbearing, the All-Wise. My Lord, expand for me my chest and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech.

To proceed: I am pleased to present to the noble reader a selected collection of the concise and comprehensive sayings of the Prophet, which I have chosen from my most famous book, 'The Choicest Prophetic Hadiths.' These are the hadiths whose authenticity has been agreed upon by a number of the imams of Sahih. This follows the success achieved by 'The Choicest,' which is a comprehensive encyclopedic reference that Allah honored me to collect, prepare, categorize, and explain its obscure terms years ago. By the grace of Allah, it was met with acceptance and welcome among Arabic and Islamic scholarly circles throughout the world, given that it contains the most important and strongest prophetic hadiths whose authenticity is beyond doubt, due to the consensus of several imams of authentic hadith. These are the hadiths that a Muslim needs for his religion and his worldly life. In 'The Choicest,' I focused on hadiths related to creeds, acts of worship, legal rulings, prophetic wisdom, encouragement and warning, virtues, noble characteristics, manners, knowledge, medicine, exegesis, reports of tribulations, the signs of the Hour, descriptions of the Day of Resurrection, Paradise, and Hell, and everything that benefits the Muslim in his religion and worldly life, along with other sermons and heart-softening reports. This was done so it might serve as an easily accessible hadith reference, close at hand for researchers, and a documentary book in which the hadiths agreed upon by the imams of hadith appear, stamped with the symbols of their most important narrators, Allah willing.

This is the book that many scholars, hadith specialists, and thinkers have commended, considering it a complete contemporary hadith reference in terms of its inclusion of the most authentic prophetic hadiths with the strongest chains of narration and texts. It is a book in which I was not preceded, and nothing like it has been written in its field or after its fashion. After its fourteenth edition, I saw that despite its importance and scholarly status as a complete reference and index of the most authentic prophetic hadiths for those wishing to verify their authenticity, it primarily concerns the scholarly and intellectual class of students, scholars, and hadith specialists. Therefore, in response to the desire of some of our brothers among the people of knowledge and virtue, and their request to summarize 'The Choicest'—given the presence of some repeated hadiths due to differences in their beginnings, the addition of a word or words, or differences among narrators in the texts of some while the meaning remains identical or similar—we were compelled to remove these repetitions in 'The Compendium of the Noble Sayings.' This was done to make it easier to acquire and memorize for those who wish to do so. As for those who want the full collection of hadiths whose authenticity is beyond doubt, they should return to the complete 'The Choicest Prophetic Hadiths.' Thus, 'The Compendium of the Noble Sayings of the Prophet' will be easy to handle and acquire for various types of students and scholars of religious and worldly sciences, to showcase the masterpieces of the Prophet's ﷺ hadiths, his concise speech, and his Sunnahs. If a believer, a non-believer, or a critic examines them, the divine opening that Allah granted to the Unlettered Messenger ﷺ will become clearly evident. These collectively form the wise and profoundly magnificent hadiths that could only emanate from one whom Allah chose to be a mercy to the worlds, confirming the words of the Creator, Exalted and Majestic: 'And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.' And he said of himself, may the prayers and peace of my Lord be upon him: 'I am but a gifted mercy.' These hadiths confirm these meanings and align with noble and wonderful Islamic and human wisdom, values, and ethics, which all fair-minded and honorable thinkers and scholars of the world will appreciate and respect.

Likewise, I intended to direct these Muhammadan wisdoms and masterpieces to our brothers living abroad in foreign lands, to present them as sacred Islamic texts. I hope that every capable person among them will attempt to translate it into the living languages of their countries, as a prelude to presenting giant Islamic thought as a universal message containing mercy, love, and brotherhood for the advocates of coexistence based on peace, justice, and virtuous morals.

Since the Sunnah of the Noble Messenger ﷺ has its unique and distinguished role in building Arab and Islamic civilization and holds a fundamental position in Islamic legislation, the explicit divine command came regarding the necessity of adhering to the teachings of the Chosen One ﷺ. The Almighty said in the Wise Revelation: 'And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it.' Allah, Exalted and Majestic, specifically addressed him by saying: 'And indeed, you guide to a straight path,' and by saying to the believers: 'There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and who remembers Allah often.'

Furthermore, the Creator, Exalted and Majestic, commanded His Noble Messenger ﷺ to convey what was revealed to him, saying: 'O Messenger, convey that which has been revealed to you from your Lord.' In other verses, the Truth, Exalted and Majestic, clarifies that He revealed the Wise Remembrance to His Noble Messenger to explain and clarify it to the people, saying: 'And We revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them and that they might give thought.' The Truth, Blessed and Exalted, emphasizes that one of the most prominent characteristics of a believer is to adhere to what Allah and His Messenger have decreed, saying in the Wise Revelation: 'It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error.' He, Exalted be He, also emphasizes that the Noble Messenger ﷺ does not speak from his own inclination, but rather by the guidance of divine revelation, saying: 'Nor does he speak from inclination.' He also commanded the believers to obey him and joined the obedience of the Messenger ﷺ with the obedience of Allah, Exalted and Majestic, saying: 'And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger - those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favor of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions.' There are many other verses that urge the Muslim to follow the teachings of the Messenger ﷺ, avoid his prohibitions, and adhere to his Sunnah.

Undoubtedly, the Noble Qur'an is the primary source of Islamic legislation, and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ—consisting of his sayings and actions—is the second source. It explains the rulings of the Noble Qur'an, specifying its generalities, restricting its absolute terms, or interpreting its summaries. Indeed, it may uniquely legislate matters that were not mentioned in the Qur'an at all. Because of this status, the scholars and imams of the Ummah gave it the utmost care, spending what was precious and dear to collect and verify it. They excelled in compiling the prophetic hadith and arranging it according to their purposes and goals, traveling for it and occupying themselves with its documentation and categorization.

This process began with the noble Companions preserving the noble hadith in their chests and depositing it in the depths of their hearts. They would race to memorize it and verify its accuracy, for the Noble Messenger ﷺ had initially forbidden them from writing it down during the early days of the Call, fearing it might be confused with the Holy Qur'an. Later, he—may the blessings of Allah be upon him—permitted writing for some Companions, such as Ali bin Abi Talib, Abu Shah, and Jabir bin Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with them, and subsequently for Abdullah bin Amr bin al-Aas, may Allah be pleased with them both. This occurred after some Companions said to him, upon seeing him writing everything that issued from the Messenger ﷺ: 'Do you write everything you hear from the Messenger of Allah, while the Messenger of Allah is a human being who speaks in anger and in pleasure?' He mentioned this to the Messenger ﷺ, who said to him: 'Write; for by Him in Whose hand is my soul, nothing has come out of it'—and he pointed to his mouth—'except the truth.' Abu Hurayrah confirmed this by saying: 'None of the Companions of the Prophet has more hadiths from him than I, except for Abdullah bin Amr, for he used to write and I did not write.' The writing of Abdullah bin Amr bin al-Aas became famous among the Companions, and they called it 'The Truthful Scroll.' All of this was evidence of the noble Companions' concern and their eagerness to memorize the sayings and actions of the Noble Messenger ﷺ by heart, until they adopted them as a practical methodology and an enacted Sunnah for every minor and major matter. They were aided in this by their powerful memories and pure hearts, in addition to several of them writing down many hadiths, such that the community of the Companions in Medina formed the complete image of the first Islamic society, adhering to the honored Sunnah. All of this was transmitted with the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, to the societies of the Successors, where the major narrators among the Successors conveyed these great treasures and precious stores to the generations coming after them.

When Islam spread, the Islamic state expanded, and the Companions dispersed throughout the provinces, the need arose to record the hadith in integrated, classified books. Among the first to take an interest in this matter was the Caliph Umar bin Abd al-Aziz, who issued his order to his governors and the scholars of the provinces to record and collect the hadith. The first to undertake this were Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 124 AH), Ibn Ishaq (d. 151 AH), and Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161 AH). Among the most famous books that have reached us from that era is the Muwatta of Imam Malik (93–179 AH), followed by the Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq (d. 211 AH), the Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shaybah (d. 235 AH), and others. Then a new stage in the classification of the noble hadith began. Some scholars collected everything narrated from the Messenger ﷺ, authoring the Musnads, which are books containing the hadiths of the Messenger ﷺ with their chains of narration without distinguishing between the authentic and others. Among the first to author Musnads were Imam Ahmad (born 164, died 241 AH), Uthman bin Abi Shaybah (156–239 AH), and others. Others singled out the authentic for collection, excluding the weak; the first to classify in this manner was Imam al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH), then Imam Muslim (d. 261 AH). A number of prominent imams followed their methodology, and then hadith works of all forms and types became widespread, including Musnads, Sahihs, Sunans, Mustadraks, and Mustakhrajs, followed by Jawami' and other books of hadith and its terminology of various types and ranks. Collectively, these later formed the nucleus of the sciences of hadith, both in terms of narration and critical analysis.

It has not reached us that any science in history has enjoyed the continuity of chains of narration through trustworthy, upright, and precise narrators to the extent of this exalted status enjoyed by the Prophetic Sunnah. The scholars and imams of the Ummah gave it superlative care until they were able to form a massive library with few parallels in history, excelling in the collection and arrangement of the Prophetic hadith. This began from the earliest days of the Prophetic Call, and hundreds of hadith books have reached us; most of these books contain the authentic, the good, the weak, and some fabricated reports.

I will not hide from you that from the beginning of my intellectual life, my favorite hobby was reading and studying the books of the Sunnah and hadiths. I often found myself in a state of utmost joy and happiness while engaging with the hadiths of the Chosen One ﷺ through study, verification, and analysis. However, what used to disturb my joy and happiness was the presence of some problematic hadiths that do not harmonize with the objectives of the radiant Sharia. I often called upon scholars and hadith specialists to present us with a single book that gathers between its covers the most important and strongest authentic Prophetic hadiths that a Muslim needs for his religion and worldly life. This is because the student of knowledge who searches for a particular hadith in the various books of hadith often finds himself before a truly massive collection of hadiths exceeding one hundred thousand, regarding which the opinions of the imams differ concerning the degree of authenticity or weakness of each. I used to ask myself: how can a Muslim manage to review the second most important source of his Sharia among tens of thousands of hadiths, in whose oceans even specialists get lost...?!

This prompted me to re-study the most famous books of hadith in terms of narration and critical analysis. I continued my humble research until I discovered that a few hadith scholars had stipulated authenticity in their books and established conditions and criteria for accepting a hadith. The most important of these were mentioned by Imam al-Suyuti in the introduction to his book Al-Jami' al-Kabir, where he pointed out that their books are 'marked as authentic.' This meaning was confirmed by my grandfather, the Imam and Hadith Scholar Muhammad bin Ja'far al-Kattani, in his book Al-Risalah al-Mustatrafah li-Bayan Mashhur Kutub al-Sunnah al-Musharrafah, where he said: 'Among them are books whose authors committed themselves to authenticity therein.' These imams sacrificed what was precious and dear of their time, wealth, and effort to verify the authenticity of every minor and major report from the Prophet ﷺ. Most imams of hadith agreed on dividing the Prophetic hadith into three main types:

The Authentic (Sahih), the Good (Hasan), and the Weak (Da'if). Here are the details:

First: The Authentic Hadith (al-Hadith al-Sahih) is that which is narrated by an upright and precise narrator from an upright and precise narrator to its end. It is of three categories:

The Mutawatir Hadith: This is a report narrated by such a large group of people from a similar group that it is impossible for them to have conspired upon a lie.

The Famous (Mashhur) Hadith: This is a report narrated by at least three trustworthy narrators.

The Solitary (Ahad) Hadith: This is an authentic report that was narrated by only one trustworthy individual.

Secondly: The Fair (Hasan) Hadith: This is a report that possesses the minimum required attributes for acceptance.

Thirdly: The Weak (Da'if) Hadith: This is a report that does not possess any of the attributes of acceptance, and it is divided into many categories.

As for the Divine (Qudsi) Hadiths: These are the reports that the Messenger ﷺ narrates from the Creator, Mighty and Majestic. These hadiths, like other Prophetic reports, include those that are authentic, fair, weak, and some that are fabricated.

In light of these extensive hadith studies, I focused in my first book, 'The Choicest Prophetic Hadiths,' on reports whose authenticity was agreed upon by a number of the imams of authentic hadith. When a hadith is stamped with the documentation of several imams of authentic hadith—despite their differing schools of thought, locations, and eras—it means that each of them exerted every possible effort to verify its attribution to the Noble Messenger ﷺ. This provides an intellectual, geographical, and historical dimension to its documentation. Consequently, it elevates the reports in 'The Choicest Prophetic Hadiths' to the rank of absolute certainty regarding their attribution to the Noble Messenger ﷺ, as it is impossible for them to have collectively erred, been negligent, or been deceived. For instance, when we know that the noble hadith, 'Work, for everyone is eased toward that for which he was created,' was recorded by more than ten of the leading imams of authentic hadith, this leads us to conclude with certainty that it is among the most authentic of authentic reports.

Hence, I have maintained that our confidence in the authenticity of a particular hadith increases as the number of its transmitters among the imams of authentic hadith increases. Thus, this magnificent selection consists of hadiths whose authenticity has been agreed upon by a number of the imams of Sahih. They number approximately four thousand hadiths, covering the branches of the illustrious Sharia, including creed, acts of worship, transactions, punishments, etiquette, ethics, administration, and others. None of them contradict the Noble Qur'an, the objectives and constants of the illustrious Sharia, or definitive scientific facts.

I have cited the symbols of the imams according to their chronological seniority in this book. Below, I list the most important symbols I have chosen for the imams of hadith—may Allah be pleased with them—which have been agreed upon by most hadith scholars:

(Kh) for al-Bukhari, (M) for Muslim, (Q) for what is agreed upon between them, (D) for Abu Dawud, (T) for al-Tirmidhi, (N) for al-Nasa'i, (H) for Ibn Majah, (The Four) for these four, (The Three) for them excluding Ibn Majah, (Hm) for Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad, (Am) for the additions of his son Abdullah, (K) for al-Hakim in his Mustadrak, (Hb) for Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, (Khz) for Ibn Khuzaymah in his Sahih, (Tb), (Ts), (Tc) for al-Tabarani in al-Kabir, al-Awsat, and al-Saghir, (S) for Sa'id ibn Mansur in his Sunan, (Khd) for al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad, (Tkh) for al-Bukhari in al-Tarikh, (D) for al-Diya' al-Maqdisi in al-Mukhtara, (Fi) for al-Shafi'i in his Musnad, (Sh) for Ibn Abi Shaybah in al-Musnad and al-Musannaf, (Ab) for Abd al-Razzaq in al-Jami' and al-Musannaf, (A) for Abu Ya'la in his Musnad, (Qt) for al-Daraqutni in al-Sunan and al-Afrad, (Fr) for al-Daylami in al-Firdaws, (Hl) for Abu Nu'aym in al-Hilya, (Hb, Hq) for al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman, al-Sunan, al-Ma'rifa, Dala'il al-Nubuwwa, and al-Asma' wa al-Sifat, (Ad) for Ibn Adi in al-Kamil, (Aq) for al-Uqayli in al-Du'afa', (Kht) for al-Khatib in al-Jami' and al-Tarikh, (Mi) for al-Darimi in his Sunan, (T) for al-Tayalisi in his Musnad, (Kr) for Ibn Asakir in his Tarikh, and (Bz) for al-Bazzar in his Sunan.

I have selected these masterpieces of Prophetic hadiths from my book, 'The Choicest Prophetic Hadiths,' and named them 'The Compendium of the Noble Sayings of the Prophet.' They contain the finest of the fine and the pinnacle of hadith masterpieces, which affirm the greatness of the Noble Messenger ﷺ, his wisdom, his knowledge, his universality, his forbearance, his courage, his struggle against injustice and oppressors, and his establishment of truth and nullification of falsehood, so that they may serve as a beacon for our children and for the entire Ummah.

I sincerely hope that I have provided a great service to the magnificent religion of Islam in general, and to the honored Prophetic Sunnah in particular—a work that will, Allah willing, contribute to the unification of the Muslims and bring Islam, with its eternal spirituality, closer to the hearts of the educated and the minds of honorable thinkers in the East and the West. Allah speaks the truth, and He guides to the straight path. Praise be to Allah, Who said: 'And above every possessor of knowledge is one more knowing.' Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah the Exalted and His blessings.

Professor Dr. Abd al-Qadir al-Makki al-Kattani
Consultant and Professor of Engineering and Higher Islamic Studies

The Prophet ﷺ said: 'May Allah brighten the face of a man who hears something from us and conveys it as he heard it; for often the one informed is more understanding than the hearer.'