Hadith stories, animated

What is a hadith?

A hadith is a report of what the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said or did. The people around him remembered his words and passed them on, and each report came with the names of the people who passed it on, one after another. In the two or three centuries that followed, scholars gathered these reports in large books.

The best known of these books are Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. "Sahih" means authentic: their authors only kept reports whose chain of people they had checked very carefully.

How the stories are checked

Scholars of hadith judge each report: authentic, good, weak or invented. Every Qabas Anime episode page names the book and the number of the hadith, links to its text in Arabic and in translation, and shows how the scholars judged it, so anyone can check it.

If a story is a traditional tale and not a hadith, we do not call it a hadith. Its page says clearly that it is a story told for its lesson, and it shows separately the authentic texts it quotes.

Stories the Prophet told

Many hadith stories are about people who lived before the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): a man who borrowed a thousand gold coins with only Allah as his witness, three men who asked Allah for help by remembering a good deed, a devoted worshipper called Juraij and his mother. Others are about the Prophet and his companions, like the day the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to teach them their religion.

These stories speak about forgiveness, gratitude, honesty, patience and trust in Allah. They are short, clear and easy to remember, which is why they have been told for more than fourteen centuries.

Watching and learning

The films are made for adults, young people and families. Each page ends with the lessons of the story and a few questions to talk about. For the stories of the prophets, see also our page of stories of the prophets.