Sunan al-Nasa'i (Nasa'i's Hadith Collection)
One of the six canonical hadith collections, known for its strict authenticity criteria.
Sunan al-Nasa'i is one of the six canonical hadith collections in Sunni Islam. It was compiled by Imam Abu Abd al-Rahman Ahmad ibn Shu'ayb al-Nasa'i (829-915 CE) and is considered to have the strictest authenticity criteria after Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
Al-Nasa'i first wrote "al-Sunan al-Kubra" (The Large Sunan) and then distilled it into "al-Sunan al-Sughra" (The Small Sunan), also called "al-Mujtaba," which is the version included among the six canonical collections. The work contains approximately 5,761 hadith organized into 51 books.
Imam al-Nasa'i's chapter on prayer is particularly detailed and covers meticulous aspects of prayer practice. He includes narrations about the precise manner of raising the hands (raf' al-yadayn), the placement of fingers during tashahhud, and the specific supplications the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited in different parts of the prayer.
Related terms
Sunan Abu Dawud (Abu Dawud's Hadith Collection)
One of the six canonical hadith collections in Sunni Islam with a special focus on legal narrations.
Laylat al-Mi'raj (The Night of Ascension)
The night when Prophet Muhammad journeyed to the heavens and received the gift of prayer.
Isnad (Chain of Narration)
The chain of narrators connecting a hadith back to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Masjid al-Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque)
The Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina, the second holiest mosque in Islam.
Sunnah Mu'akkadah (Emphasized Sunnah)
Voluntary prayers that the Prophet (peace be upon him) performed regularly and rarely omitted.
Rawatib (Regular Sunnah Prayers)
The voluntary prayers regularly prayed before and after the obligatory prayers.