Kitab al-Salah and Kitab as-Siyam

The prayer and fasting sections of Sahih Muslim are among the most frequently studied in Islamic jurisprudence because of the detailed variant narrations they preserve and the light these variants shed on contested points of law across the four madhabs.

Kitab as-Salah opens with hadiths on the times of prayer, the call to prayer, and the obligation of congregational prayer. Among the most debated hadiths in this section is the cluster on rafa al-yadayn — raising the hands during prayer at the opening takbir, before and after ruku, and at other moments. Muslim collects multiple authenticated narrations confirming this practice from Ibn Umar, Malik ibn al-Huwayrith, and others. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools take these narrations as evidence that rafa al-yadayn at each transition is recommended; the Hanafi school, working from other narrations in the Sunan collections, holds that only the opening raise is established sunnah. The availability of all variants in Muslim's collection has made this one of the most thoroughly analyzed juristic discussions in the science of hadith.

The chapters on recitation behind the imam are similarly significant. Muslim records hadiths supporting the view that the imam's recitation suffices for those praying behind him, as well as narrations indicating that each person must recite al-Fatiha individually. Scholars have used these competing narrations to construct detailed arguments for their respective positions, and the fact that Muslim collected them in close proximity makes the tension visible and the comparison straightforward.

The prayer of eclipse (salah al-kusuf) is covered in exceptional detail. Muslim records the event of a solar eclipse during the Prophet's lifetime, the Prophet's extended prayer with long bowings and two bowings per unit, his sermon afterward warning that eclipses are signs from Allah and not caused by the birth or death of any person. The extended description of the prayer's form gave Muslim's collection particular authority in debates about how this prayer should be performed.

Kitab as-Siyam — the Book of Fasting — is organized around the entire Ramadan month and its associated acts of worship. The opening hadiths establish the lunar sighting as the basis for beginning and ending Ramadan — 'When you see the crescent, begin fasting; when you see it, break your fast; and if it is obscured, complete thirty days of Sha'ban.' This hadith became the central text in the ongoing scholarly debate about moon-sighting methods, one that gained new dimensions with modern astronomy and global communication.

The fasting chapters cover the intention for fasting, the permissibility of eating until the adhan of Fajr, the suhoor meal, the recommended foods for iftar, the voluntary fasting of six days in Shawwal, and the fasting of Arafah (which expiates sins of two years). Muslim also includes the hadiths on I'tikaf — the spiritual retreat in the mosque during the last ten days of Ramadan — and the Prophet's search for Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the final ten days.

For students working through the fiqh of fasting, Muslim's Kitab as-Siyam is the first stop for primary sources, and al-Nawawi's commentary provides the juristic analysis layered onto each narration in a format that combines hadith criticism with legal reasoning in an exceptionally accessible way.