Six authentic collections of Hadith stand out to be a popular and straight forward question among the candidates. Majority of them answered the question well and the performance was commendable.
            The questions demanded the candidates to list out all the six authentic collection of Hadith and describe the best of them. Thus:

1. Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī.
2. Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Muslim.
3. Jāmi‘of Tirmidhī.
4. Sunan of ibn Mājah.
5. Sunan of an-Nasāī.
6. Sunan of Abū Dāwūd.

   Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī
The author of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Buhārī was Muhammad b. ’Ismā‘īl cAbū cAbdullah. (Introduction)

1. He was noted for his responsibility in detecting defects in traditions
2.  He never accepted any Hadith unless their entire transmitters were reliable persons.
3. He was meticulous and critical in the collection of Hadith.
4. He collected about 600,000 traditions.
5.  He knew by heart 200,000 traditions.
6. Out of 600,000 traditions collected, he selected only 7,257 traditions as the most authentic.
7. His work is known as Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.
8. This is the most respected and authentic collection of Hadith.
9. The collection covers a wide range of topics in Islamic theology.
10. It is divided into ninety-seven books.
11. The books contained 3,450 chapters.
12. The compiler (al-Bukhārī) started studying of Hadith at the age of eleven years.
13. He laboured for sixteen years to compile his Ṣaḥīḥ.
14. He interviewed over a thousand scholars of Hadith for his collection.
15. He used to offer a two rak‘ah prayer before compiling a tradition.
16. His collection receives a universal acceptability in matters of Jurisprudence.
17. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is of the Muṣannaf type.
18. Each of his collections is preceded and concluded with an explanatory notes.
19. He was was weak in physique but with a strong intellect and sharp retentive memory