Does what al-Bukhari and Muslim agree on yield certainty of its soundness?

Ideas Words

هل يفيد ما اتفق عليه البخاري ومسلم القطع بصحته؟

A question in the hadith sciences: Ibn al-Salah held that what the two Shaykhs agree on is certainly sound and yields reasoned certain knowledge, because the community received it with acceptance, and said he had first inclined to the opposite view; al-Nawawi answered that the verifiers and the majority hold it yields probability unless mass-transmitted, as the editor Itr quotes.

Depth

At a glance

Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Scripture and its sciences

The question

Ibn al-Salah divides the sound hadith into seven classes:

  1. what al-Bukhari and Muslim both report;
  2. what al-Bukhari alone reports;
  3. what Muslim alone reports;
  4. what meets the conditions of both but neither reports;
  5. what meets al-Bukhari's conditions;
  6. what meets Muslim's conditions;
  7. what others hold sound but meets the conditions of neither.

The highest is the first, of which hadith scholars say "sound, agreed upon". They mean the agreement of al-Bukhari and Muslim, not of the community. Yet the community's agreement follows from it, because the community received what the two agreed on with acceptance. 1 2

The views

Ibn al-Salah describes the view he rejects as that of those who argued as follows: a hadith in itself yields only probability; the community accepted these reports only because it must act on probability; and probability can err. 2

Opinions on the question

The question: Single-chain reports in the two Sahihs: do they yield knowledge or probability?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: Ibn al-SalahMain reference

this whole category is certainly sound and yields reasoned certain knowledge, because the probable judgement of one protected from error does not err, and the community in its consensus is protected; what only one of the two reports belongs with it, except a few places criticised by critics such as al-Daraqutni. He says he had inclined to the opposite view and thought it strong, then saw that his first choice was right. 2 3
More opinions (1)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: al-Nawawi, as the editor Itr quotes himMain reference

in al-Taqrib he wrote that the verifiers and the majority disagreed and said it yields probability unless mass-transmitted; in his commentary on Muslim, that their hadith are single-chain reports, that the two books differ from others only in that what they contain is sound without need of examination, and that consensus on acting on them does not entail consensus that their attribution is certain. 2

People and things also explored

Dreams (ahlam)· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· Ghanima (spoils of war)· Sacred hadith (hadith qudsi)· Seeking knowledge· Isnad· Criticism and vindication of narrators (jarh wa-ta'dil)· The jinn

Sources

  1. Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn al-Salah — edited and annotated by Nur al-Din Itr (edition not stated in the scan) , p. 27
  2. Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn al-Salah — edited and annotated by Nur al-Din Itr (edition not stated in the scan) , p. 28
  3. Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn al-Salah — edited and annotated by Nur al-Din Itr (edition not stated in the scan) , p. 29
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Does what al-Bukhari and Muslim agree on yield certainty of its soundness?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/ifadat-ma-ittafaqa-alayhi-al-shaykhan-al-qat/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words.
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Dreams (ahlam)

What the sleeper sees in sleep. The hadith collections divide it into the true dream (ru'ya), which is from God and a glad tidings for the believer; the bad dream (hulm), which is from Satan; and the soul's idle talk (hadith nafs), which is not acted on.