Sihah Sitta - Hadith Collection of Six Books (Kutub al-Sittah)

The  Kutub al-Sittah  ( Arabic :  ٱلْكُتُب ٱلسِّتَّة ‎,  romanized :  al-Kutub as-Sittah ,  lit.   'The six books') are six (originally five) books containing collections of  hadith  (sayings or acts of the  Islamic prophet   Muhammad ) compiled by six  Sunni  Muslim scholars in the ninth century  CE , approximately two centuries after the death of Muhammad. They are sometimes referred to as  al-Sihah al-Sittah , which translates as "The Authentic Six". They were first formally grouped and defined by  Ibn al-Qaisarani  in the 11th century, who add  Sunan ibn Majah  to the list. Since then, they have enjoyed near-universal acceptance as part of the official canon of Sunni Islam.

Not all Sunni Muslim jurisprudence scholars agree on the addition of Ibn Majah. In particular, the  Malikis  and  Ibn al-Athir  consider  al-Mawatta'  to be the sixth book. [4]  The reason for the addition of Ibn Majah's Sunan is that it contains many Hadiths which do not figure in the other five, whereas all the Hadiths in the Muwatta' figure in the other Sahih books.

Sunni Muslims  view the six major hadith collections as their most important, though the order of authenticity varies between  Madhhabs :

Sahih Bukhari , collected by  Imam Bukhari  (d. 256 AH, 870 CE), includes 7,275 ahadith (2,230 without repetitions) Sahih Muslim , collected by  Muslim b. al-Hajjaj  (d. 261 AH, 875 CE), includes 9,200 ahadith (2,200 without repetitions) Sunan Abu Dawood , collected by  Abu Dawood  (d. 275 AH