Hadith Resources

These are some resources for study of Hadith Sciences in the English language:

A brief overview of Hadith Terminology

Sciences of Hadith by Suhaib Hasan – This was the first book I ever read on sciences of Hadith. It’s a good starting place. You can purchase Sh. Suhaib’s lectures on this same topic here.

Studies in Hadith Methodology & Literature by Dr. Mustafa Azami – This is an excellent brief read familiarizing the reader with the History of Hadith literature starting from the Prophetic Era. He also lists and describes some of the most important Hadith collections. This book is an essential read along with Sh. Suhaib’s.

A Textbook of Hadith Studies: Authenticity, Compilation, Classification and Criticism of Hadith by Mohammad Hashim Kamali – This is a thorough survey of the sciences of Hadith in English. It is well-written and has the advantage of being an original work, therefore not suffering from the awkwardness of reading a translation. My wife was taking courses at al-Arees and this book was used for Sciences of Hadith. Consequently, I was able to familiarize myself with it. All in all, Dr. Kamali has done a good job as he did with his excellent work on Usul al-Fiqh.

Studies in Early Hadith Literature –This is Dr. Azami’s PhD thesis. It functions as an extensive refutation of false Orientalist claims and doubts as well as extensively documenting the manner in which Hadith was recorded and preserved. It is extremely meticulously researched and is a true masterpiece of modern research. I have this book both in the original English as well as its Arabic version.

Nukhbah al-Fikr by ibn Hajar – This is a text that is often memorized by students of knowledge. It is a tradition of students and scholars to memorize a brief text concerning each science that they study as well as studying it with a teacher and reading its commentaries. This is a very popular text for that purpose in the field of `Ulum al-Hadith. This works slightly swerves away from earlier works such as Muqaddimah ibn as-Salah which are more authoritative in defining certain terms, however it is still a very beneficial work. However, it is not very helpful to the average reader without a commentary or shaykh. Many commentaries have in fact been written, including one by al-Hafiz ibn Hajar himself. Nonetheless, Arabic and English are available here side by side, perhaps making this of some benefit to those who are learning Arabic or have some proficiency in it. It could also be beneficial as a reference to those who are studying the science of Hadith simultaneously from some other source or have some familiarity with it already.

Muqaddimah ibn as-Salah – This is an excellent text and could be of benefit to someone already having some familiarity with Sciences of Hadith. The text is able to stand alone, and in fact summaries of it have been done by an-Nawawi, ibn Kathir and others. Commentaries have been written on both the original and the summaries. As-Suyuti’s Tadrib ar-Rawi is an extensive commentary on an-Nawawi’s summary. Sh. Ahmad Shakir’s al-Ba’ith al-Hathith is a commentary on ibn Kathir’s summary (It has a special place in my heart as this was my first Arabic textbook on the subject which I read numerous times). The best of them all, however, has to be an-Nukat ‘Ala Muqaddimah ibn as-Salah (Notes on Muqaddimah ibn as-Salah) by ibn Hajar, one of the most important works on Sciences of Hadith for a student of the subject to read. This is probably ibn Hajar’s best contribution to this subject, and it is full of gems.

Hady al-Sari: Ibn Hajar’s Introduction to Fath al-Bari – This is a translation of Hady al-Sari done by Mohammed Fadel, University of Chicago. This is a beneficial work for knowing about the methodology of al-Bukhari in authoring and organizing his Sahih. In order to access it, you will need to log in to JSTOR, which is an online catalog of academic journals. You should be able to log in to JSTOR from the website of your local university library or public library if you are a member. In my case, I use my university library login; even though I have graduated it still works.

[This page is a work in progress and will be expanded as I come across more resources on the subject]