Hadith remembers God unceasingly. (Al-Ahzab 33: 21) The hadith literature is based on spoken reports in circulation after the death of Muhammad. Unlike the Qur'an, ahadith were not promptly written down during Muhammad's life or immediately after his death. Hadith were evaluated and gathered into large collections during the 8th and 9th centuries, generations after the death of Muhammad, after the end of the era of the "rightful" Rashidun Caliphate, over from where Muhammad lived. "Many thousands of times" more numerous than Quranic verse, ahadith have been described as resembling layers surrounding the “core” of the Islamic belief (the Quran). Well-known,
Hadith of the Ark follows: Behold! The similitude of my Ahlul Bayt, is like that of the Ark of Noah: The one who embarks it, will have saved himself, and the one who turns away from it, is doomed. Many Sunni books narrate this Hadith. Some significant Sunni books that narrate this Hadith are: Al-Hakim al-Nisaburi, one of the greatest Sunni scholars, narrated this hadith as authentic (sahih) in his Mustadrak. Al-Heithami in his book ("written against Shia") states: By many narrations of this hadith which strengthen each other;""certainly Ahl al-Bayt are like the Ark of Noah, saved Whoever boarded"", and in Sahih Muslim