it's really not that simple... first of all, you have to consider the science of narratives, then you have to consider the various anthropological nuances which contribute to the sympathetic understanding of the time frames involved and then you have the dialectic in which you have to understand the reason why hadeeth sciences take a minimum of 5 years of study, 8 hours per day... all that, just to really be able to understand the contextualisation process.
Thus, the scholars have determined that the sahih 6 are as bro Signor has outlined for you above and are deemed as absolutely incontestable, but even here there are contradictions.
For example, in Bukhari, it mentions that the period prior to hijra (makkanite period) was 10, 13 and 15 years... how do we reconcile which it was? And why did they include all three in there if they are a contradiction? The reason being, all three passed the sahih grade and so, were included.
As for those which fall outside of the sahih 6, this doesn't devalue their worth as many scholars of great eminence reference these also, but always by following the methodology to better contextualise the understandings from them.
This is a very complicated subject. So in order to give you a brief over view of the various considerations, click in order and follow on from there in sha Allah:
Section A
- Introduction
- A brief history of Mustalah al-Hadith
- Mustalah al-Hadith (the Classification of Hadith)
- Rijal al-Hadith (the study of the Reporters of Hadith)
Section B
The Classification Of Hadith
- According to the reference to a particular authority
- According to the links in the isnad
- According to the number of reporters in each stage of the isnad
- According to the manner in which the hadith is reported
- According to the nature of the text and isnad
- According to a hidden defect found in the isnad or text of a hadith
- According to the reliability and memory of the reporters
The Science Of Hadith(
A Brief Introduction).This article is taken from
USC Muslim Students Association Islamic Server.
Scimi
.