9. Are Sunni books of Hadith more authentic than Shia books of Hadith?

In the personal library of every Islamic scholar and academic (from any school of thought), all the books of Hadith exist. It is not that a certain book of Hadith is more authentic than another, the case is of certain traditions being more authentic than others. Some traditions have been repeated in many books of Hadith in the same manner, while there are some accounts which have been narrated by different people, differently.

The only difference between different scholars throughout history has been their approach of validating the authenticity of a hadith or a tradition of the Prophet. Validating a hadith is an entirely different field in itself and many books have been written on the subject.

The same holds true for Shia scholars – they have their own approach to validate a certain hadith. Generally among Shia scholars, if a hadith can be traced back to, or has been narrated by one of their Imams who succeeded Hazrat Ali, then that hadith is considered authentic. The authors of different books of Hadith just have different approaches in compiling and verifying the traditions they gather.

According to my way of study, if I am satisfied that a hadith is authentic then I quote it, irrespective of the book of Hadith it is part of.