1 of 2 · Madinah years · c. 622–632 CE · Madinah
'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As رضي الله عنه
The Man Who Wrote It Down
'Abdullah ibn 'Amr, the son of the conqueror of Egypt, used to write down what he heard from the Prophet ﷺ. Some Quraysh told him not to: "You write everything, yet the Messenger of Allah is a human being who speaks in anger and in contentment." So he held back, and told the Prophet ﷺ.
The Prophet ﷺ pointed to his mouth and said, "Write. By Him in whose hand is my soul, nothing comes out of it but truth" (Sunan Abi Dawud 3646).
Abu Hurayrah later said no one among the Companions had more hadith than 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr, except himself, because 'Abdullah wrote and he did not (Sahih al-Bukhari 113). 'Abdullah's notebook, which he named al-Sahifah al-Sadiqah ("the truthful sheet"), became a source of later hadith collections.
What the Prophet ﷺ taught was worth preserving carefully, and one who writes it down serves everyone who comes after.
What do you rely on memory for that deserves to be written down?
- Sunan Abi Dawud 3646Graded by Al-Albani: Sahih · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad SahihSahih
- Sahih al-Bukhari 113 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'Historical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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