It has long been recognised by western scholars how valuable is the vast corpus of Hadith (sc. the sayings of the Prophet, his companions, the early Caliphs and other leading Muslim scholars) for the study of early Islam. This book is a collection of Muslim traditions.providing a translation by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan of the Riyad as-Salihin. literally "Gardens of the Righteous", written by the Syrian Shafi'i scholar Muhyi ad-Din Abu Zakariyya' Yahya b. Sharaf an-Nawawi (1233-78), who was the author of a large number of legal and biographical works.