Database of islamic hadith:About

The Hadith, in Islam, is second in authority only to the Qur'an. It is a record of the prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) life, actions, and deeds. A saying in the Hadith is called a sunnah. These sunnah were transmitted by word of mouth down through the centuries having been memorized first by prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) companions and then later by subsequent Muslims. Therefore, the hadith is the written record of the oral traditions passed down from Muslim to Muslim of what the prophet Mohammed (pbuh) was supposed to have said and done.

The Ahadith fall into two categories, "Hadith Qudsi (sacred hadith) in which Allah (God) himself is speaking in, as it were, a complementary revelation through the prophet, and Hadith Sharif (noble hadith), the prophet's own acts and utterances." [The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. San Francisco, 1989, page 141.]

The most famous and universally accepted among the six collections of Hadith are those of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

The Hadith are important because they elucidate many areas not covered by or were not very clear in the Qur'an. The Hadith is appealed to in legal decisions and consulted in debate among many Muslims.