الصحيح
al-Ṣaḥīḥ
Book
A hadith collection whose reports meet strict standards of soundness; the name is given to the two sahihs and to the other four main collections.
What it means
Al-Ṣaḥīḥ means “the sound” or “the authentic”. As a title it belongs to the collections of Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, who each set out to include only reports whose chain of narrators and text met strict tests. Faruqi uses the name for the six widely trusted collections: al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasaʾi and Ibn Majah. Readers should know that the title Ṣaḥīḥ is strictly carried by the first two, while the other four are called Sunan, and they include reports that scholars grade as good or weak as well as sound. The six together are known as al-kutub al-sitta, “the six books”.
Often misunderstood as
The six books are sometimes treated as equal in rank, although scholars place al-Bukhari and Muslim above the rest and grade individual reports in all of them.
What the sources say
Scholars generally rank Sahih al-Bukhari first and Sahih Muslim second, and reports found in both carry the highest standing. Later scholars such as Ibn al-Salah set out the conditions of a sound report: a connected chain, trustworthy and accurate narrators, and no hidden defect or irregularity.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 50, listed as AL ṢAḤĪḤ. The definition is restated here.