It is one of the most important books of Prophetic Hadith, and is considered the second of the six foundational books in Hadith science.

It is one of the "Jami'" books because it contains all chapters of Hadith, including beliefs, rulings, manners, interpretation, history, virtues, and more.

Its author made sure to only narrate sound hadiths that scholars and hadith specialists agreed upon. He limited himself to narrating Marfu' hadiths and avoided narrating Mu'allaqat and Mawqufat, as well as the sayings and jurisprudential opinions of scholars, except for rare instances. He spent approximately fifteen years compiling and classifying it, gathering more than three thousand hadiths excluding repetitions, selecting them from three hundred thousand hadiths from his memorized collection.