The most correct view is that it cannot be absolutely claimed that any particular chain of narrators is superior to any other saheeh narration. The actual grades of authenticity depend on how the chain and text is influenced by the five conditions for authenticity. For example, the lowest level of authentic narrations would be those hadeeths which have transmitters whose accuracy is disputed. However, proof in favour of their reliability is overwhelming. For example, the narration of Suhayl ibn Abli Salih from his father from Abu Hurayrah. In spite of that fact, some scholars traditionally considered certain chains of narration to be of the highest grade.
For example, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ishaq ibn Rahawayh considered: "Zuhri from Salim from his father, Abdullah ibn Umar," to be the strongest chain. On the other hand, Bukhari considered: "Malik from NafifromAbdullah ibn Umar," to be the strongest. It came to be known as the "golden chain". With regard to the hadeeth saheeh, it cannot be said that theyare all found in the books of Bukhari and Muslim because these scholars themselves confirmed that they did not gather all of the hadeeth saheeh. Bukhari stated: "I only wrote in my book, al-Jam; what was authentic and I omitted some authentic narrations to avoid it been too long." Imam Muslim also said: "I did not include in this book every hadeeth I found to be saheeh. I only put in it what the scholars agreed upon." In fact the majority of authentic hadeeths are found outside of these two compilations.
Imam Bukhari himself stated: "And the authentic hadeeths which I have omitted are more than I have included (in my book)." He also stated: "I memorized 100,000 authentic hadeeths and 200,000 inauthentic hadeeths." And the total number of hadeeths in Saheeh al-Bukhari is around 4,000 and in Saheeh Muslim is also around 4,000 The hadeeths may be graded according to criteria used by Imams Bukhari and Muslim which were considered to be of the highest standard.
1. Authentic hadeeths recorded by both Bukhari and Muslim. Such narrations are often referred to by scholars as muttafaqun alayh (agreed upon).
2. Authentic hadeeths recorded by only Bukhari.
3. Authentic hadeeths recorded by only Muslim.
4. Authentic hadeeths according to the criteria of Bukhari and Muslim recorded by others.
5. Authentic hadeeths according to the criteria of Bukhari alone recorded by others.
6. Authentic hadeeths according to the criteria of Muslim alone recorded by others.
7. Authentic hadeeths not according to the criteria of either Bukhari or Muslim.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited