This encyclopedic work on Islam comprises English translations of all canonical hadiths, complete with their respective chains of transmission (isnads).
By conflating the variant versions of the same hadith, the repetitiveness of its literature has been kept wherever possible to a minimum. The latest methods of isnad analysis, described in the general introduction, have been employed in an attempt to identify the person(s) responsible for each hadith.

The book is organized in the alphabetical order of those persons. These are the so-called 'common links'. Each of them is listed with the tradition(s) for the wording of which he can be held accountable, or with which he can at least be associated.