Imam Muslim

Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj an-Naysaburi (206-261 AH / 821-875 CE) was the compiler of Sahih Muslim, universally recognized as the second most authentic hadith collection after Sahih al-Bukhari. Born in Nishapur (in present-day Iran), he began studying hadith at an early age and traveled to the Hejaz, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to learn from the foremost scholars of his era, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Yahya an-Naysaburi, and his primary teacher, Imam al-Bukhari.

Sahih Muslim contains approximately 7,500 hadith (around 3,000 without repetitions), selected with rigorous criteria from a vast pool of 300,000 narrations. While his authenticity criteria are considered slightly less strict than al-Bukhari's on the question of whether narrators must have verifiably met (Muslim accepted contemporaneity as sufficient), his collection is praised for its superior organization. Unlike al-Bukhari, Muslim placed each hadith in a single chapter, gathered all variants of a narration together, and structured the work in a way that makes it easier to reference. His introduction to the Sahih includes valuable discussions on hadith methodology.

Muslim also authored works on narrator criticism, including al-Kunayy wal-Asma and at-Tamyiz, though most of his other writings have not survived. He died in Nishapur in 261 AH (875 CE). Together with al-Bukhari, his collection forms the core of the Sahihayn (the Two Sahihs), the gold standard of hadith literature. An-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim is among the most celebrated works of hadith explanation.