A few months ago I finished reading the Quran and subsequently learned about Ahadith. As background, I was raised Christian and have dabbled in atheism as a teen and am now more or less an agnostic/atheist.
I read the Quran not for spiritual reasons but to better understand the foundations of Islam and its impact on current affairs.
With that in mind I would like to read the Ahadith. I’ve seen anthologies directed to specific issues (eg Ahadith and women’s issues, Ahadith and science etc). Can anyone out there recommend anthologies of all of them or does such a thing exist? I understand that they are reports of the actions and words of Muhammed (similar to the New Testament with respect to Christ perhaps?).
My recommendation is based solely on the fact that I have a set, and that as an English speaker I found it reasonably easy to use: Mishkat al-Masabih (spellings can vary).
It is probably going to be a bit difficult to find the set of books, but at least some of it seems to be available online via PDF if you search. The key to the whole thing, just like law, is to have the indexes.