Led by Dr. Idris Fasi Al-Fihri and Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, with an unbroken chain of narration and ijāza.
On 23 August the recitation of Sahih Muslim will be crowned with its final hadiths, supplications, and the granting of ijāza. Register for the khatm programme to witness this historic moment — everyone is welcome.
Register for the Khatm* The gathering concludes each day with the Maghrib prayer. The gatherings are open to everyone — those who wish to receive ijāza simply need to fill in the registration form.
By the grace of Allah, we invite you to take part in a complete recitation of Sahih Muslim — read from its first hadith to its last in the presence of Dr. Idris Fasi Al-Fihri and Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, transmitted with an unbroken chain of narration reaching back through the generations to Imam Muslim, and onward to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Over ten days at the historic Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, all who attend will hear the entire collection and receive ijāza — a licence of transmission — joining a living chain that has carried this knowledge, teacher to student, for more than a thousand years.
Sahih Muslim is one of the two most rigorously authenticated collections of Prophetic hadith. Together with Sahih al-Bukhari, the two are known as the Sahihayn — held to be the most trustworthy books after the Qur'an.
It was compiled by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naysaburi (d. 261 AH), who selected its contents from a far larger body of narrations according to the most exacting standards of authenticity. Scholars across the centuries have praised the precision of its arrangement and the care of its methodology, and it has been studied and transmitted in an unbroken tradition ever since.
Since its compilation, Sahih Muslim has been preserved not only as a written text but as a living tradition of narration — transmitted from generation to generation through samāʿ, recitation, and ijāza. It is therefore regarded both as one of the most authoritative works in the science of hadith and as a foundational link in a scholarly heritage maintained without interruption across the centuries.
The transmission of hadith has never been a matter of books alone. From the earliest generations, the words of the Prophet ﷺ were heard — recited aloud by a teacher and received by students, who were then authorised to carry them onward. This is the tradition of samāʿ (audition) and ijāza (licensed transmission), and it is what keeps the isnâd — the chain — alive and unbroken.
To sit in such a gathering is to become a link in that chain. A full recital like this one revives a practice observed throughout the history of Islam, and gives all who are present a direct, connected share in the preservation of the Sunnah.
Dr. Idris Fasi Al-Fihri is Deputy Director of the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez and imam of the al-Qarawiyyin mosque. Founded in 859, al-Qarawiyyin is the oldest continuously operating university in the world. He belongs to the al-Fihri family, the lineage of Fatima al-Fihri who founded it, and carries forward the Moroccan tradition of hadith and the sciences of the Sharīʿa.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi is among the foremost scholars of hadith and the Islamic sciences of our age. Heir to a distinguished scholarly family of Damascus, he has devoted his life to teaching, transmitting, and serving the sacred tradition, and is widely recognised among the most influential Muslim scholars in the world today.
Read the full biography →This recitation continues a journey that began with the historic recital of Sahih al-Bukhari led by Shaykh al-Yaqoubi at the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in 2019. Over eleven days the mosque was filled with spiritual life; local scholars described it as a milestone, and it drew attention across the Muslim world as the revival of a treasured scholarly tradition.
"We benefited from circles of knowledge that the hadith describes as gardens of Paradise. We tasted the sweetness of the words of the Prophet ﷺ — alhamdulillah."
"To be among the lovers of the Prophet ﷺ, listening to his hadith as though sitting before him, reciting salawat upon him ﷺ as though speaking to him directly — this was a great honour for me."
"I have never longed for anything like this. In this majlis, for the first time, I thanked Allah with a deep and sincere gratitude for granting us this gathering."
A classical Ottoman mosque in the Fatih district of Istanbul — the same blessed setting as the 2019 recital. For centuries, throughout the Ottoman era, Fatih has been a quarter of scholarship, gathering mosques and madrasas around it.
For centuries the Fatih district has been distinguished by its grand mosques, madrasas, and circles of scholarship — a centre of learning not only for Istanbul but for the entire Islamic world. Mihrimah Sultan Mosque is one of the exceptional spaces of this deep heritage, having hosted centuries of worship, learning, and religious guidance. The hadith recitation taking place here today is itself a living expression of this ancient scholarly tradition in our time.
