The Extent of His Diligence in Compiling It

Imam Muslim—may Allah have mercy on him—states in the introduction to his Sahih:
“Know—may Allah grant you success—that it is obligatory upon anyone who can distinguish sound reports from defective ones, and trustworthy transmitters from those who are suspect, to narrate only what he has verified as to the authenticity of its sources and the integrity of its transmitters, and to purge the corpus of anything related by the accused or by the obstinate followers of innovation.”

This principle, which Imam Muslim affirmed at the outset of his Sahih and recommended to others, is exactly the method he followed in compiling his work. He spared no effort and devoted his time to gathering and arranging it. Among the proofs of this—reported from him and from others—are the following statements:

• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, with his chain of transmission to Muhammad al-Masarjisi, narrated: “I heard Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj say, ‘I compiled this authentic musnad (hadith collection) from three hundred thousand hadiths that I had heard.’”

• Al-Dhahabi relates in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz: “Ibn al-Sharqi said, ‘I heard Muslim say, “I did not place anything in this musnad of mine except with a proof, and I did not omit anything from it except with a proof.”’”

He spent in the composition of this book