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Alongside Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, these four collections complete "the six books" (al-Kutub al-Sittah) of Sunni hadith. Unlike Bukhari and Muslim — which set out only to gather what their compilers judged authentic — the Sunan collect narrations of every grade and label each one, which is exactly what's shown here: the Arabic, an English translation, and the collection's own grading, hadith by hadith.
Authentic. An unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators back to the Prophet ﷺ, with no hidden defect (‘illah) and no contradiction with more reliable narrations. The highest grade — usable as evidence (hujjah) in matters of belief and law.
Good. Meets the same conditions as sahih, except one narrator in the chain is of slightly lesser precision or memory. Still considered reliable and usable as evidence — the difference from sahih is a matter of degree, not a rejection.
Weak. Fails to meet a condition of sahih or hasan — a broken or missing link in the chain, an unreliable or unknown narrator, or a defect in the text. Not a sound basis for rulings; scholars differ on whether da'if narrations may still be mentioned for general virtues (fada'il al-a'mal), with caution, but not for belief or law.
Forged. Falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ — words he never actually said. The most serious grade; a fabricated narration carries no religious weight at all and should never be acted upon or repeated as if authentic.
Not recorded. The source dataset didn't carry a specific grade for this narration. This is a gap in our data, not itself a judgment that the hadith is weak or strong — treat it as unverified until you can check a specialized grading source.