The Central Focus of al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ
The rigorously authentic reports transmitted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ are the very subject of his al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ. They are what he directed his full attention to and what he purposely made the book encompass. Several points bear this out, among them:
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The title he himself gave the work: “The Comprehensive, Sound, Musnad Collection of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, His Sunnah, and His Days…”.
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His own explicit statements in many passages that have reached us—some of which were cited earlier when discussing the motive that moved him to compose it and in highlighting the extent of his painstaking care. In addition to what has already been mentioned is the report transmitted by al-Ismāʿīlī in which he said, “I did not bring out this book except in sound form, and what I left out of the sound material is even more.” Ibrāhīm ibn Miʿqal likewise relates that he said, “I inserted into my Jāmiʿ only what is authentic, and I left out other authentic material lest the book become unwieldy.”