Alongside the Quran, the Hadith (tradition) forms a major source of guidance for Muslims. These collections of traditions comprise sayings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and convey accounts of his daily practices. This highlights its close relation to the Islamic concept of Sunnah which refers literally to ‘established custom or habitual practice’. Produced in the century after the advent of Islam, the Hadith formed the first manifestation of religious methodology in the initial stages of developing Islamic law and is an established source of moral guidance for Muslims across the globe. By observing these sources, Muslims come to understand the practice of Muhammad ﷺ and his way of life during the time of the early Islamic Ummah (Muslim community). There are six major compilations of hadith known as al kutub al sittah (the six books) which include: Sahih of Bukhari, Sahih of Muslim, Sunan of Abu Daud, Sunan of al-Tirmidhi, Sunan of al-Nasa’i and Sunan of ibn Majah. For Sunni Muslims, these are all regarded as the authoritative second source of the content of Islam, aside from the Quran.

Due to its vast nature, with estimates of hundreds of thousands of reports, the early years of Islamic history saw the development of a systematic codification of hadith (ilm al-hadith). During its first stages of development, the Sahaba (the companions of the Prophet ﷺ) witnessed and recorded many of the actions, likes, dislikes and pearls of wisdom that the prophet Muhammad ﷺ exhibited throughout his lifetime. Initially, these observations were preserved through individual and communal memory as well as via oral transmission as this was viewed as the most reliable method. This established the Sahaba as a repository of this information and placed a religious duty upon them to ensure this knowledge was preserved and passed down to later generations of the Muslim Ummah.

Subsequently, the systematic codification of hadith reports began compiling into written form during the 8^th and 9^th centuries. In the 9^th century, the impetus to collect reports and organise them into an authenticated classification system rose, with Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj becoming some of the most reputable scholars in this field of compilation.  Given the esteemed nature of these collections to Muslims in the present day, these texts highlight the significance of these manuscripts in the complex process of compiling hadith reports into a formal, written collection.