Pearls and coral, as agreed upon by the two sheikhs

Author's name: Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baqi

The book “Pearls and Coral: What the Two Sheikhs Agreed Upon” by Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baqi is one of the books of Hadith that compiled the agreed-upon Hadiths in Sahih. The book is 700 pages long and was printed in three parts, then compiled into one volume.

This is a book of Hadith, in which the author compiled the agreed-upon Hadiths found in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, totaling 2006 (some sources mention 1906, but the author states 2006 in the book's introduction). He selected the texts from Sahih al-Bukhari and from narrations whose wording is closest to that of Sahih Muslim. Following each Hadith, its location in Sahih al-Bukhari is indicated by the book title, chapter heading, and chapter numbers. The book's arrangement follows that of Sahih Muslim, taking the names of its fifty-four books, beginning with the Book of Faith and ending with the Book of Interpretation. Each book is further divided into chapters, as is the case in Sahih Muslim, resulting in a total of 1293 chapters. The adherence to the text of al-Bukhari was at the request of Muhammad al-Halabi, as mentioned in the introduction by Abd al-Baqi, after praising God and invoking blessings upon His Messenger: "This is the book 'Pearls and Coral, on what the two Sheikhs agreed upon,' authored by the two leading scholars of hadith: Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari al-Ju'fi, born in 194 AH and died in 256 AH, and Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Muslim al-Qushayri al-Naysaburi, born in 204 AH and died in 261 AH. Its composition was suggested by the publisher and printer, Mr. Muhammad al-Halabi, director of Dar Ihya' al-Kutub al-'Arabiyyah. He obligated me to include in it the text of the hadith of al-Bukhari which is the closest to the text of the hadith on which Muslim agreed with him." This obligation on his part, and my own commitment, presented an unparalleled hardship and difficulty. The difficulty of fulfilling this commitment is evident in the fact that no one who has authored or claimed that this hadith is agreed upon has ever adhered to such a restriction. This is because Ibn Hajar, the world's leading authority on hadith, established that the agreement of Muslim with Bukhari refers to their agreement on the chain of transmission of the hadith's core narration from its companion, even if some discrepancies exist in certain contexts. Similarly, Imam al-Nawawi, the commentator on Sahih Muslim, when he compiled his book "Al-Arba'un al-Nawawiyya" (The Forty Hadiths of al-Nawawi) and began with the hadith about actions being judged by intentions, indicating that it was among the hadiths agreed upon by both scholars, did not mention the version of Bukhari closest to that of Muslim. Instead, he cited the earliest version that Bukhari included in his Sahih, despite some contextual differences between it and the hadith included by Muslim. This hardship, which I face and which almost prevents me from fulfilling this commitment, has been mitigated by my two books: "Jami' Masanid Sahih al-Bukhari" (Collection of the Musnads of Sahih al-Bukhari) and "Qurrat al-'Aynayn fi Atraf al-Sahihayn" (The Delight of the Eyes in the Ends of the Two Sahihs). From the second book, I am guided to... The agreed-upon hadiths, along with their enumeration and classification, and from the first I will refer to the text that the publisher obligated me to, and which I have committed myself to.

Then Abdul Baqi mentioned the importance of the book, relying on what Ibn al-Salah mentioned when he mentioned the divisions of Sahih, and that the highest of them is what al-Bukhari and Muslim agreed upon, “about which the people of Hadith often say: Sahih agreed upon, they use that and they mean by it the agreement of al-Bukhari and Muslim, not the agreement of the nation on it; but the agreement of the nation on it is necessary from that and is obtained with it, because the nation agreed to receive what they agreed upon with acceptance.”

The book's three sources: The text is based on al-Bukhari, the arrangement is from Sahih Muslim, and the chapters are those that al-Nawawi included in his commentary on Sahih Muslim. Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad commented on the author, Abd al-Baqi, saying, "He is not a scholar, but he is an organizer. He has organization, attention to indexing, and perseverance in this field. He took great care with Sahih Muslim and numbered its hadiths in multiple ways, some based on repetition and others without. It was printed in four volumes under the supervision of Fuad Abd al-Baqi, and he added a fifth volume entirely of indexes, containing ten indexes, all related to Sahih Muslim. Thus, he served Sahih Muslim with exceptional and great service." Similarly, the numbering of the hadiths in Bukhari and the numbering found in Fath al-Bari with the Salafi edition is the numbering of Muhammad Fuad Abd al-Baqi. The book *Al-Lu'lu' wal-Marjan* was compiled by three people, so the wording is that of Bukhari. The wording and text in *Al-Lu'lu' wal-Marjan* are Bukhari's, and the arrangement is that of Muslim. The chapters included are not from Muslim or Bukhari, but rather from al-Nawawi's commentary on Muslim. Al-Nawawi organized and placed the chapters in the margins of his commentary. Muslim, may God have mercy on him, did not include chapters in his Sahih; he only included books. Abd al-Baqi begins the book with narrations of the hadith: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Do not lie about me, for whoever lies about me will enter Hellfire.’”