Sahih Muslim (Muslim's Authentic Collection)

Sahih Muslim is the second most authoritative hadith collection in Sunni Islam after Sahih al-Bukhari. It was compiled by Imam Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naysaburi (815-875 CE). The work contains approximately 7,500 hadith (with repetitions) or around 3,033 unique narrations, selected from 300,000 narrations.

Imam Muslim organized his work thematically and gathered all narrations on a given topic in one place, making it easier to study than Sahih al-Bukhari, which distributes related hadith across multiple chapters. Imam Muslim's methodology was equally strict, and he required a continuous chain of trustworthy narrators.

In "Kitab al-Salah" (The Book of Prayer) in Sahih Muslim, one finds fundamental narrations about the five pillars of prayer, including the famous hadith: "Islam is built upon five pillars: The testimony that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, performing the prayer, paying zakat, fasting in Ramadan, and pilgrimage to the House." Imam al-Nawawi wrote his famous commentary "al-Minhaj" on this work.