Jami' at-Tirmidhi is a collection of hadith compiled by Imam Abu 'Isa Muhammad at-Tirmidhi (rahimahullah). His collection is unanimously considered to be one of the six canonical collections of hadith (Kutub as-Sittah) of the Sunnah of the Prophet (ﷺ). It contains roughly 4400 hadith (with repetitions) in 46 books.
Author bio:
He is Abu ‛Isa Muhammad ibn ‛Isa ibn Sawrah ibn Musa ibn al Ḍahhak al-Sulami
at-Tirmidhi (209-279 AH/824–892 AD). Imam at-Tirmidhi was born in
the year 209 A.H. during the reign of the Abbasid Khalifa Ma'mun al-Rashid. The
Abbasid Caliphate, despite its brilliant contributions to Islam, brought along with
it many problems. Greek philosophy had a free flow into the Islamic world. This
was fully sanctioned by the government until eventually it declared the Mu'tazila
school of thought as the state religion. Anyone who opposed the Mu'tazila school
of thought would be opposing the state. With the influence of Greek philosophy
among the people, many Muslims began attempting to reconcile
between (this brand of) reason and revelation. As a result many deviations were introduced and
many innocent and weak Muslims were led away from Allah and His Prophet (ﷺ)).
Many scholars of Islam had come to the fore in order to defend the Shari'ah. Forgeries
and interpolations in Hadith by rulers who wished to fulfill their personal motives
were common. In the first century 'Umar bin Abdul 'Aziz (ra) initiated a movement
for the compilation of the hadith of the Prophet (s) as there was a fear of them
being lost. A number of scholars of Islam undertook this task, six among them stand taller
than the rest. One of the six was
Imam Abu 'Isa Muhammed ibn 'Isa at-Tirmidhi.
Having grown up in an environment of learning and possessing many great qualities naturally drove Imam Tirmidhi to dedicate his life totally towards the field of Hadith. He obtained his basic knowledge at home and later travelled to far off lands in search of knowledge of this science. He studied Hadith under great personalities such as Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim and Imam Abu Dawud. In some narrations Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim are his students as well. Once Imam al-Bukhari mentioned to him "I have benefited more from you than you have benefitted from me." Musa ibn 'Alaq once said: "When Imam al-Bukhari passed away, he left no one in Khurasan who compared with Abu 'Isa Tirmidhi in knowledge, memory, piety and abstinence." Imam at-Tirmidhi said that he compiled this book and presented it to the learned scholars of Hijaz, Iraq and Khurasan and they were pleased with it.
His Memory:
Imam Tirmidhi had an exceptionally remarkable memory. If he heard something
once he never forgot it. Once on his way to Makkah, Imam Tirmidhi met a scholar
of hadith (muhaddith) from whom he had previously copied two chapters of
hadith. Thinking that he had the notes with him he asked the scholar if he would
allow him to read out these two chapters so that he could correct any errors.
After realizing that he did not have those notes with him he took a blank piece
of paper and read out the entire two parts from memory. When the muhaddith
realized what he was doing he rebuked Imam Tirmidhi saying: "Have you no
shame, why are you wasting my time." Imam Tirmidhi assured him that he had
committed all the ahadith to memory. The scholar was not convinced, even
though Imam Tirmidhi had recited all the hadith from memory. Imam Tirmidhi
requested him to recite to him some other hadith. The scholar recited forty
ahadith, which Imam Tirmidhi then repeated without making a single error, thus
showing his remarkable power of committing hadith to memory.
His Works:
Many books of hadith were compiled before Imam Tirmidhi decided to compile
his Jami'. Dawud Tayalisi and Ahmed ibn Hanbal had compiled books
consisting of both authentic and weak hadith. Later Imam al-Bukhari compiled
his Sahih and omitted all weak narrations from it. His main objective was to
derive masa'il (laws) from the relevant hadith. Later Imam Muslim compiled
his book with a primary focus on the isnad (different chains of narrators). Imam
an-Nasa'i's aim was to mention the discrepancies of the hadith whilst Abu Dawud
prepared a book which became the basis for the fuqaha. Imam at-Tirmidhi
combined the styles of al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud and an-Nasa'i by mentioning
discrepancies regarding the narrators and also making his compilation a
basis for jurists.
His Students:
Imam Tirmidhi had a large number of students from all over the world. The most
famous amongst them were Haytham ibn Kulaib, Abul Abbaas and Muhammad
ibn Ahmad Shah Abdul 'Aziz, who describes Imam Tirmidhi in the following
words: "His memory was unique and his piety and fear of Allah ta'la was of a very
high caliber. He would cry so much out of the fear of Allah, that towards the end
of his life he lost his sight."
According to Ibn Taymiyya and Shah Waliullah, Imam Tirmidhi was an
independent jurist (mujtahid).
His Death:
In the year 279 A.H. in a village called Bawag at the age of 70 , Imam Tirmidhi
passed away.
This collection is titled Al-Jami' al-Mukhtasar min as-Sunan 'an Rasulu Allah wa Ma'rifatu as-Sahih wa al-Ma'lul wa ma 'alaihi al-'amal otherwise known as Jami' at-Tirmidhi.
Methods of Classification and Annotation:
According to the commentators of Al-Jami', Imam Tirmidhi maintained the
following conditions throughout the compilation of his book:
The status of Jami' at-Tirmidhi is among the six authentic books of hadith. It has been categorized as fifth amongst the six most authentic books of hadith. According to the most preferred opinion, al-Bukhari enjoys the highest status, followed by Muslim, Abu Dawud, Nasai, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah respectively. Haji Khalifa in al-Kashf al-Dhunoon has categorized Tirmidhi in third position. Al-Dhahabi has written that Tirmidhi in actual fact should be holding the third position, but due to him bringing weak narrators like Kalbi and Masloob its status has dropped. However, looking at the manner in which he set out his book it seems that Haji Khalifa's opinion is best.
The special characteristics of Jami' at-Tirmidhi:
