The Quran and the Hadith
Revelation, compilation, and transmission
Islam rests on two textual foundations: the Quran, understood as the literal word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ over twenty-three years, and the Hadith, the recorded sayings and practice of the Prophet that clarify and apply it. How these texts were preserved — first in memory and on scattered material, then in written codices, and finally in the great authenticated compilations — is among the most consequential stories in Islamic intellectual history.
This collection traces that process. It covers the Quran itself and its compilation under Abu Bakr, the standardisation carried out under Uthman that fixed the text as it is recited today, and the disciplines of hadith and sunnah that developed to sort reliable transmission from unreliable. It also includes the jurisprudential frameworks built upon these sources, and the scholars whose collections became the reference points of Sunni tradition.
In This Collection
The Quran (Al-Qur'an)
The holy book of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the direct word of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel (Jibril) over 23 years. The Qu…
Hadith - The Prophetic Traditions
Hadith are the recorded sayings, actions, and approvals of Prophet Muhammad, serving as the second primary source of Islamic guidance after the Quran. These pro…
Sunnah - The Prophetic Way
The Sunnah represents the teachings, practices, and sayings of Prophet Muhammad, serving as the second primary source of Islamic guidance after the Quran. It pr…
Compilation of the Qur'an under Abu Bakr
After heavy losses among the Qur'an reciters at Yamama, Caliph Abu Bakr ordered Zayd ibn Thabit to gather the Qur'an into a single written record. The resulting…
Standardization of the Quran under Uthman ibn Affan
The standardization of the Quran under Caliph Uthman (644–656 CE) was a defining act of early Islam. Undertaken around 650 CE to address regional differences in…
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870 CE) was the most influential hadith scholar in Islamic history. His Sahih al-Bukhari, compiled through decades of rigorous authenti…
Imam Muslim
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (817–875 CE) compiled Sahih Muslim, the second most authoritative hadith collection in Sunni Islam. A student of al-Bukhari, he grouped all…
Al-Tabari: Historian and Exegete of the Abbasid Age
Al-Tabari (839-923) was the most important historian and Quranic exegete of the early Islamic period. His annalistic History and his vast commentary on the Qura…
Al-Nawawi: Jurist of the Shafi'i School and Compiler of Riyad al-Salihin
Al-Nawawi (1233-1277) was a Shafi'i jurist and hadith scholar of Damascus who died at forty-four having written some of the most widely used books in Sunni Isla…
Ibn Kathir: Exegete and Historian of Mamluk Damascus
Ibn Kathir (c. 1300-1373) was a Shafi'i scholar of Mamluk Damascus whose commentary on the Quran and universal history became two of the most widely read works …
Sharia - Islamic Law and Guidance
Sharia is the comprehensive legal and moral framework of Islam, derived from the Quran and Sunnah. It encompasses ethics, spirituality, and social justice, aimi…
Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence: The Madhabs
The madhabs, the schools of Islamic law that developed methods for deriving rulings from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Four Sunni schools and the Shi'a traditions …
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (c. 594–653 CE) was among the earliest converts to Islam, a close companion of the Prophet, and the scholar who carried the Quranic and lega…
Anas ibn Malik: The Servant of the Messenger
Anas ibn Malik (c. 612-712 CE) attended the Prophet Muhammad's household for about ten years from the age of roughly ten, and became one of the most prolific na…
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz: The Reforming Caliph
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (c. 680-720 CE), the eighth Umayyad caliph, ruled about two and a half years and used them to attempt a thorough reform of the state: equal…
Al-Suyuti
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (1445-1505 CE) was an Egyptian scholar of the late Mamluk period and the most prolific author in Islamic literature. His Al-Itqan remains…
Mahmud Hasan Deobandi
The first student of Darul Uloom Deoband, who taught there for forty years and led it from 1890. Known as Shaykh al-Hind, he organised the Silk Letter Movement,…
Anwar Shah Kashmiri
A Kashmiri scholar of hadith who led Darul Uloom Deoband as its principal and chief teacher of hadith from 1915 to 1927. His major works, including the four-vol…
Shabbir Ahmad Usmani
A scholar of hadith and Qur'anic commentary who taught at Darul Uloom Deoband and Dabhel, completed Tafsir-e-Usmani, and began the Arabic commentary Fath al-Mul…
Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi
A hadith scholar of Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur who taught for over fifty years and wrote a six-volume Arabic commentary on Malik's Muwatta. His Urdu devotional tr…
Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi
The second leader of the Tablighi Jamaat, who directed it from 1944 to 1965 and oversaw its spread beyond South Asia. A graduate of Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur, he…
Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda
A Syrian Hanafi scholar and editor whose critical editions of works of law and hadith brought many neglected texts into print. He introduced modern South Asian …