How Many Authentic Ahadeeth Exist?
The scholars of hadeeth differed over the number of authentic ahadeeth of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The strongest opinion is that which Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalanee reported in the book ‘an-Nukat ‘ala Ibn as-Salah’ (p. 992): “Aboo Ja’far Muhammad bin al-Husayn mentioned in his book ‘at-Tamyiz’ that Shu’bah, (Sufyaan) ath-Thawree, Yahya bin Sa’id al-Qattan, Ibn al-Mahdee, Ahmad bin Hanbal, and others mentioned that all of the hadeeth narrated directly from the Prophet, without repetition, number around four thousand four hundred (4,400) hadeeth. al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab said in ‘Jaami’ al-‘Uloom wal-Hikam’ (p. 9): “Aboo Dawood said: ‘I looked at the narrated ahadeeth, and I found them to be four thousand in number.’”
We also know that the reliable scholars of hadeeth are agreed upon the authenticity of all which has come in the two ‘Saheehs’ (of al-Bukhaaree and Muslim), with a few exceptions. So, if all that is in the two ‘Saheehs’ – without repetition – numbers 2,980 ahadeeth (or if you wish, say 3,000), with the conclusion that the total number of authentic ahadeeth are 4,400 in number, we can then conclude that the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhaaree and Muslim) reported roughly three-fourths of all of the authentic ahadeeth narrated from the Prophet, with around 1,400 authentic ahadeeth left over that they did not narrate in their books. The vast majority of these remaining ahadeeth can be found in the collections of at-Tirmidhee, Aboo Dawood, an-Nisaa’ee, etc., as an-Nawawee mentions in his explanation of ‘Saheeh Muslim’.
As for the most important ahadeeth which involve issues of halaal and haraam, we can say [that] nearly all of them are in the two ‘Saheehs’, and some [scholars] numbered such ahadeeth to be around five hundred (500). al-Bayhaqee narrated in ‘Manaqib ash-Shaafi’ee’ (1/915 – with the verification of Ahmad Saqr): “al-Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee was asked about the number of ahadeeth dealing with the foundations of the rulings found in the Sunnah. So, he said: ‘Five hundred.’ It was then asked of him how many of them were found in the books of al-Imaam Maalik; so, he replied: ‘All except for thirty-five.’” And it is known that the majority of ahadeeth narrated by Maalik in his ‘Muwaatta’ are also narrated by al-Bukhaaree and Muslim in their collections, and because of this, Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id authored a book collecting the ahadeeth related to rulings from only those found in the ‘Saheehs’ of al-Bukhaaree and Muslim.
As we stated earlier, the total number of ahadeeth in the two ‘Saheehs’ – without repetition – number roughly 2,980.
Aboo Dawood reported 2,450 ahadeeth not found in the Saheehayn.
at-Tirmidhee reported 1,350 ahadeeth not reported by Aboo Dawood, and not found in the Saheehayn.
an-Nisaa’ee reported 2,400 ahadeeth not reported in the four collections mentioned above.
So the total number of ahadeeth reported in the ‘Sunan’ (of Aboo Dawood, an-Nisaa’ee, and at-Tirmidhee) that are not reported in the two ‘Saheehs’ number around 6,200.
So, the five collections mentioned above which attempted to collect the authentic ahadeeth gathered a total of 9,180 ahadeeth, most of them being weak.
Ibn Maajah collected 600 ahadeeth not reported in the five collections mentioned above, with approximately 500 of those ahadeeth being weak.
Maalik’s ‘Muwaatta’ contains 50 ahadeeth that are not found in the collections mentioned above.
ash-Shawkanee’s ‘Nayl al-Awtar’ (which contains mostly ahadeeth well-known amongst the later scholars of Fiqh, and most of which are found in the ‘Sunan’ of ad-Daraqutnee and the ‘Mu’jam’ of at-Tabaraanee) contains about 500 ahadeeth not found in the collections mentioned above.
The ‘Musnad’ of Ahmad bin Hanbal contains about 1,500 ahadeeth not found in any of the collections mentioned above.
So the total number of ahadeeth contained in all of the well-known collections are 11,830 in number, and – as mentioned earlier – about 4,400 of these are authentic.
