- Sunan Ibn Mājah
According to the prevalent view, Sunan Ibn Mājah is the sixth of the Six Books and is the least among them in rank. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, in his biography of Ibn Mājah in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, writes: “His Sunan is a comprehensive and well-constructed collection, rich in chapters and unusual narrations, yet it contains very weak ḥadiths. I have even heard that al-Sarrī used to say, ‘Whenever he alone relates a report in it, it is usually weak.’ My own examination shows that this is not an absolute rule, but overall the book does include many objectionable narrations. Allah’s help is sought.”
It was deemed the sixth of the Six Books because of the large number of additional reports it contributes beyond the other five. Some, however, consider al-Muwaṭṭaʾ the sixth on account of the loftiness of its chains, while others regard Sunan al-Dārimī as the sixth.
The finest edition is the one prepared under the supervision of Shaykh Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, who numbered the ḥadiths—bringing them to 4,341—and divided the work into thirty-seven books,