About Sahih
al-Bukhari
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is a
collection of hadīth compiled by Abu Abdullāh Muhammad Ibn Ismā`īl
al-Bukhārī(rahimahullāh). His collection is recognized by the overwhelming
majority of the Muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the
Sunnah of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). It contains roughly 7563 hadīth
(with repetitions) in 98 books.
The translation provided here is by Dr. M. Muhsin Khan.
Author bio:
Imām al-Bukhārī (rahimahullāh) is
known as the Amīr al-Mu'minīn in hadīth. His genealogy is as follows: Abu
Abdullāh Muhammad Ibn Ismā`īl Ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Mughīrah Ibn Bardizbah
al-Bukhārī. His father Ismā`īl was a well-known and famous muhaddith in his
time and had been blessed with the chance of being in the company of Imām
Mālik, Hammād Ibn Zaid and also Abdullāh Ibn Mubārak (rahimahullahum).
Imām al-Bukhārī (rahimahullah) was born on the day of Jumuah (Friday) the 13th
of Shawwāl 194 (A.H.). His father passed away in his childhood. At the age of
sixteen after having memorized the compiled books of Imām Wakīy and Abdullāh
Ibn Mubārak, he performed Hajj with his elder brother and mother. After the
completion of Hajj he remained in Makkah for a further two years and upon
reaching the age of eighteen headed for Madīnah, compiling the books
"Qadhāyas-Sahābah wa at-Tābi'īn" and "Tārikh al-Kabīr."
Imām al-Bukhārī also traveled to other key centers of Arabia in search of
knowledge like Syria, Egypt, Kufa, Basra, and Baghdad.
Imām al-Bukhārī (rahimahullah) first started listening and learning ahādīth in
205 A.H., and after benefiting from the `ulama of his town he started his
travels in 210 A.H. His memory was considered to be one of a kind; after
listening to a hadīth he would repeat it from memory. It has been known that in
his childhood he had memorized 2,000 ahādīth.
There are a number of books compiled by Imām al-Bukhārī (rahimahullah). His Ṣaḥīḥ is regarded as
the highest authority of the collection of hadīth. He named this book
"Al-Jāmi` al-Musnad as-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Mukhtasar min Umuri Rasulullahi
sallallāhu 'alaihi wa sallam wa Sunanihi wa Ayyāmihi." After he finished,
he showed the manuscript to his teachers Imām Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rahimahullah)
for approval, along with Ibn al-Madini, and lastly Ibn Ma`īn. It has also been
recorded that it took Imām al-Bukhārī a period of 16 years to gather the
ahādīth and to write the Ṣaḥīḥ, which sets the date back to 217
A.H. as the year in which he started the compilation; Imām al-Bukhārī
(rahimahullah) being merely 23 years of age.
Before he actually placed a hadith in his compilation he performed ghusl and
prayed two raka`ah nafl prayers asking Allah for guidance. He finalized each
hadith in the rawdah of Masjid an-Nabawi (between the Prophet's (صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) grave and his minbar) and wrote the hadīth in the
masjid. Only after being completely satisfied with a hadīth did he give it a
place in his collection.
Methods of
Classification and Annotation:
Imām al-Bukhārī (rahimahullah)
imposed conditions which all narrators and testifiers in the hadith chain must
have met before a hadith was included in his book:
1. All narrators in the chain must be just (`adl).
2. All narrators in the chain must possess strong memory and all the
Muhadditheen who possess great knowledge of ahadith must agree upon the
narrators' ability to learn and memorize, along with their reporting
techniques.
3. The chain must be complete without any missing narrators.
4. It must be known that consecutive narrators in the chain met each other (this
is Imām al-Bukhārī's extra condition).
Imām an-Nawawi (rahimahullah) relates that all scholars in Islām have agreed
that Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī has gained the status
of being the most authentic book after the Qur'an. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
consists of 7,563 ahādith including those ahādith which have been repeated.
Without repetitions however, the total number of hadith is around 2,600.
His Students:
In the year 864/250, he settled in
Nishapur. It was there that he met Muslim ibn Al-Hajjaj, who would be considered
his student, and eventually collector and organizer of the hadith collection Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim which is
considered second only to that of al-Bukhārī.
His Death:
Political problems led him to move to Khartank, a village near
Samarkānd where he died in the year 256 A.H./870 A.D.
