Hadith report, the scale of the report's transmission, the routes through which the report was transmitted, and the individual narrators involved in its transmission. On the basis of these criteria, various classifications were devised for hadith. The earliest comprehensive work in hadith studies was Abu Muhammad al-Ramahurmuzi's "al-Muhaddith al-Fasil", while another significant work was al-Hakim al-Naysaburi's "Ma‘rifat ‘ulum al-hadith". Ibn al-Salah's "ʻUlum al-hadith" is considered the standard classical reference on hadith studies. By means of hadith terminology, hadith are categorized as "ṣaḥīḥ" (sound, authentic), "ḍaʿīf" (weak), or "mawḍūʿ" (fabricated). Other classifications used also include: "ḥasan" (good), which refers to an otherwise
Hadith "the documentation" of the Sunnah. Another source (Joseph A. Islam) distinguishes between the two saying: Whereas the 'Hadith' is an oral communication that is allegedly derived from the Prophet or his teachings, the 'Sunna' (quite literally: mode of life, behaviour or example) signifies the prevailing customs of a particular community or people. ... A 'Sunna' is a practice which has been passed on by a community from generation to generation en masse, whereas the Ahadith are reports collected by later compilers often centuries removed from the source. ... A practice which is contained within the Hadith may well be regarded