When he came, the Hadith of the Prophet s.a.w was never the same again. This individual authored and compiled the greatest man-written book on Earth. Scholars that came after him from generations to another were astounded by him for his great book. He protected Islam with this book. Millions of people around the world spent years reading and researching it up till this day. Countless commentaries were written to understand it and new benefits are gained every single day. Who is this man?
He was Ameerul Mu’minin, the leader of the Muhaddith, Al-Hafiz, Al-Faqeeh Abu Abdillah Muhammad bin Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Mughirah Al-Bukhari, famously known as Imam Al-Bukhari. He was born in Khurasan, Bukhara (modern day Uzbekistan) in the month of Syawwal in the year 194H on a Friday. His father passed away when he was very young, and his mother took the responsibility of bringing him up. She was a pious woman and nurtured him to learn Islam at a very young age. It was reported that Imam Al-Bukhari had lost his eyesight at an early age. His mother then tirelessly made dua’ to Allah s.w.t for his recovery and one day, he regained his eyesight.
He started seeking knowledge in his country, Khurasan, and then proceeded to travel elsewhere at the age of 16. He travelled to various places such as Hijaz, Syam, Basrah, Mesir, Kufah, and Baghdad. He spent the inheritance he obtained from his father’s death wisely and used all of it to seek knowledge. He diligently searched for scholars throughout the countries he travelled to and obtain hadiths from them. He studied under many notable scholars such as Ali ibn Madini, Ishaq ibn Rahuyah, Al-Fadl ibn Dukkayn, Qutaibah ibn Saeed and many more. He also had many students that learned from him and looked up to him such as Imam Muslim, Hammad bin Syakir, Taahir ibn Makhlad and others.
Imam Bukhari was an Imam of the Ahlussunnah and followed the ways of the pious predecessors. He wrote books to defend the creed of the Ahlussunnah during times of adversity. One of the books written was خلق الأفعال العباد where he emphasises on the Qur’an being the words of Allah rather than a creation, as argued by the Mu’tazilah sect. He was a protector of the religion and would go out of his way to always defend it.
Imam Bukhari was a man of few words and had a very strong memory since young. He memorised books of hadith from notable scholars that were present at that time such as hadith books from Waki’ ibn Jarrah and Abdullah ibn Mubarak. He memorised them all before the age of 13. He was strong-willed in seeking knowledge from a very young age that it was reported by Hani’ ibn An-Nadr that when he was in Syam, he saw some of the youths eating Fursad (توت grapes) and having fun. He saw Imam Bukhari with them, but he was not engaging in their activities but rather at the side busy seeking knowledge. We can see here that from a very young age, he was not interested in things pertaining to the matters of the people but rather used his time wisely in seeking knowledge.
It was reported that Imam Bukhari once attended a halaqah in Basrah where hadiths were being narrated. It was a practice of the muhaddiths in that point of time to write down every hadith they hear of so as they would not forget it. Everyone was writing the narrations except Imam Bukhari. He was different from the rest. At the end of the 16 days of the halaqah, he was asked to recap all the 15,000 hadiths that were narrated. With his amazing memory, he managed to narrate all of them from his memorisation without any error!
It was narrated that Muhammad ibn Yahya Az-Zuhli was attending a funeral and he met Imam Al-Bukhari there. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of a great scholar (although he was also a notable figure himself), he asked at that very place questions regarding some of the most difficult branches of hadith such as Ilal Hadith (Hidden defects in a narration) and Ilm Ar-Rijal (Biography of narrators). Imam Bukhari answered them easily and fluently from memory without any complications nor difficulties!
Once, Imam Bukhari was in Baghdad and met some people who wanted to test his memorisation. There were 10 of them and each of them narrated 10 hadiths to him totalling up to 100 hadiths. They purposely jumbled up the chain of narrators in the narrations so that Imam Bukhari would not know them. Imam Bukhari stated that he did not know all of them and they started to question his credibility as a scholar. At the end of it, Imam Bukhari mentioned all the 100 narrations which he just heard from his memory and corrected each one of them with the correct chain!
Imam Bukhari wrote countless books during his lifetime, but he was especially known for his magnum opus, The Sahih Bukhari. The original name of the book was Al-Jami’ Al-Musnad As-Sahih Al-Mukhtasar fi umuri Rasulillah Sallahu alayhi wasallam wa Sunanihi wa Ayyamihi. It took him more than 16 years to author this great book. This was the first hadith book in history written that was free from unauthentic narrations. He selected only the best from the authentic narrations he had as he did not want it to be too lengthy.
There were four main reasons why he authored this book. To begin with, he was a man that had sincere intentions to Allah s.w.t and wanted to be closer to his Creator and attain the rewards in doing so. A proof of this was that he would clean himself, make wudhu’ and prayed 2 raka’ahs of istikharah prayers before inserting a narration into his book.
In addition, the hadiths books before his were all a mixture of authentic and unauthentic narrations, sayings of the companions and others. As a result, he wanted to compile a book where it consists of the most authentic narrations of the prophet s.a.w. He wanted to make it easier for the masses to refer to when narrating a hadith.
The idea to author this book was also due to the recommendation of one of his teachers, Ishaq ibn Rahuyah. Ishaq proposed that it would beneficial if someone were to compile a summary which only includes authentic narrations of the prophet s.a.w. It was then it struck in his heart to write his Sahih.
The final reason was a dream he had of meeting the Prophet s.a.w. He dreamt of himself standing in front of the prophet s.a.w with a fan in his hand and swiping away the flies around him. He then asked an expert in interpreting dreams, and he said “‘You are deflecting away the lies upon the prophet s.a.w. With that, he made a decision to compile his Sahih.
Abu Nu’aim Ahmad bin Hammad praised him by declaring him a faqeeh in this ummah, not only in his generation but rather the whole Muslim ummah. Notable scholars of his time such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Hatim Ar-Razi, Ali ibn Madini, Abu Bakar ibn Abi Syaibah and others ascribe him to be a rare gem and had not seen anyone as knowledgeable as him.
Imam Al-Bukhari began his book with the basmalah and did not prescribe a preface like what Imam Muslim did. He did not mention his methodology and conditions but immediately starts off with his first narration. He had the strictest of methodology compared to other scholars in inserting & compiling narrations in his book. The narrations that are collated in it are thoroughly checked by him and his teachers. He only accepted the best authentic narrations within his strict set of conditions and those which are unanimously agreed upon. Among the many conditions he placed are that the narrations needed to be narrated by known companions (Sahabah), there are no differences in narrations between trusted narrators, the chain of narrators are connected, it is better to have to companions narrate it and more.
His methodology in organizing narrations was according to chapters of fiqh and other scientific issues. Every narration he placed in his book has a reason to it. He arranged and organised them with deep understanding of every one of them. An example would be him beginning his book with Kitab Bada’il Wahy (The book of the start of revelation) and then followed it up with Kitab Al Iman (The book of faith). He started his book with narrations regarding revelations as he wanted to point out that the Islamic syariah is built upon revelations and through it is where we understand Islam and Iman. He then continues with narrations regarding Iman before acts of worship as he wanted to show the need for faith before anything else. Worshipping without faith is nullified as we need to believe the fundamentals of Islam that has been prescribed to us. If we stop to analyse the arrangements and content of the book, we will only realise how much of a genius Imam Al-Bukhari was.
As he did not prescribe a preface, his methodology was extracted by scholars who dedicated their lives into understanding his book. Al-Ai’ni mentions in his famous quote:
“فقه البخاري في تراجمه“
“The methodology of Al-Bukhari in matters of fiqh are observable in the chapter headings of his book.”
He placed very detailed attention to hadiths and verses regarding Islamic law and extracted the benefits of fiqh from them. The Sahih was also more than just a book of narrations and if we were to examine the position of each narration he arranged, we can identify the position he holds to some matters of fiqh.
Sahih Al-Bukhari received so much attention that scholars wrote various commentaries on it. The most famous and considered the best among some would be Fathul Bari Fi Sharh Sahih Bukhari written by Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani. This was Ibn Hajar’s magnum opus as he wrote volumes to commentate Sahih Bukhari. It has been a source of reference until this day in understanding this great book. Other famous commentaries would be Umdatul Qari by Badruddin Al Ai’ni, Irsyadus Sari by Qastallani, Fathul Bari by Ibn Rejab Al-Hanbali and many more.
The last moments of Imam Al-Bukhari’s life was not a fairytale ending as one would imagine. He was slandered by certain individuals regarding his position in some matters regarding the Qur’an. Because of this, many ran away from him, and it was narrated that only Imam Muslim and Ahmad ibn Salamah were by his side. He then returned to Bukhara but was also expelled not long after from his own city as he differed with some politicians there. However, this did not bring him down. When he was asked by Ibrahim bin Ma’qil An-Nasafi regarding his banishment, he answered “I do not care, as long as my religion is safe”.
He left Bukhara and passed away soon after on the night of Eid’ul Fitr in the year 256H at the age of 62. Although he passed away in trials and tribulations, he left behind a leading legacy with him and became a source of inspiration to many. His book became known and is read by millions of people around the world throughout generations. Students of knowledge flock towards scholars whenever his book is being read in halaqahs and gatherings of knowledge. Scholars praised him profusely and made him the leading figure in the field of hadith.
Abu Nu’aim Ahmad bin Hammad praised him by declaring him a faqeeh in this ummah, not only in his generation but rather the whole Muslim ummah. Notable scholars of his time such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Hatim Ar-Razi, Ali ibn Madini, Abu Bakar ibn Abi Syaibah and others ascribe him to be a rare gem and had not seen anyone as knowledgeable as him. From this, we observe that Allah s.w.t has raised his rank in this world. No matter how his ending was, he was mentioned by many scholars throughout generations and that made him the leading figure in the field of hadith. One of which was by his student, Imam Ibn Khuzaimah. He said regarding his teacher:
ما رأيت تحت أديم السماء أعلم بالحديث و لا أحفظ له من محمد بن إسماعيل
“I have not seen under the skies anyone who is more knowledgeable in hadith and memorises them than Muhammad bin Ismail”
May He bless the works of Imam Al-Bukhari and preserve them until the end of time and grant him the highest of paradise for being the custodian of the words of the Beloved SAW.
