256 AH/870 CE, Khartank, Tahirid Dynasty
He is Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju‘fī al-Bukhārī. The author of the most important of all ḥādīth collections, al-Jaami’ as-Ṣaḥīḥ, more commonly known as Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Imām al-Bukhārī is said to have questioned more than a thousand scholars of ḥādīth, who lived in places as far apart as Naysarbur, Hijaz, Egypt and Iraq. He used to seek aid in prayer before recording any ḥādīth, and weighed every word he wrote with scrupulous accuracy. He devoted more than a quarter of his life to the compilation of his Ṣaḥīḥ, which is generally considered as an authority second only to the Qurʾān.
Birth, Family and Life
al-Bukhārī was born in Bukhara in modern-day Uzbekistan in the year of 194 AH/810 CE. Of Persian origin. his ancestor, Bardizbah, was a Zoroastrian farmer in the vicinity of the Bukhara, who was taken captive during the Muslim conquest of the region. His son, who took the name al-Mughīrah, accepted Islam at the hands of al-Yamaan al-Ju‘fī, the Muslim governor of Bukhara and gained from him the ascription al-Ju‘fī. al-Mughīrah’s son Ibrāhīm, the grandfather of Imām al-Bukhārī, had a son called Ismā‘īl, who became a scholar of ḥādīth of great piety and sound reputation. Scrupulous in his habits, he is said to have mentioned on his deathbed that in all he possessed there was not a penny which had not been earned by his own honest labour. He passed away during al-Bukhārī's infancy.
In infancy, al-Bukhārī lost his sight but Allāh cured him, blessing him with a sharp sight and sharp memory. He began his studies under the guidance of his mother in his native city, memorizing the Qurʾān at the age of nine. Finishing his elementary studies at the age of eleven, he immersed himself in the study of ḥādīth. Within six years he had mastered the knowledge of all the scholars of Bukhara, as well as the contents of all the books available to him. He travelled to Makkah at the age of sixteen with his mother and brother in order to perform Hajj, having already memorised the books of Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, al-Waqi' and other learned companions of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. From Makkah, he started a series of journeys in a quest for ḥādīth, passing through all the important centres of Islamic learning.
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Imām al-Bukhārī's travels in pursuit of knowledge.
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He began his writings in Madīnah at the age of eighteen, where he produced his al-Tarikh al-Kabir. The extant work is a massive biographical compendium of over 12,300 narrators of ʼaḥādīth. In Khurāsān, he visited Balkh, Merv and Naysabur, where he studied with Isḥāq b. Rahawayh. In western Iran, he stayed in Rayy and made numerous trips to Baghdad, where he studied with Imām Aḥmad and Yahya b. Ma'in. In Basra, he heard from Ali b. al-Madīni, who would become one of his main teachers, and Abu Asim Dahhak al-Nabil. In Makkah, he heard from Abdallah b. Zubayr al-Humaydi, and also went to to Egypt and some cities such as Homs and Asqalān in Greater Syria.
Imām al-Bukhārī's travels continued for some four decades. Among his students was Imām Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, who would go on to author Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. In 250AH/864CE, he settled in the great city of Naysabur, where he was given a grand reception suitable to a scholar of his caliber, with al-Hakim stating that he remained here for some five years before being exiled due to false accusations against hisʿaqīdah. In the last year of his life, he returned to his birthplace of Bukhara. The local Tahirid amir, Khalid b. Aḥmad, entertained many ḥādīth scholars at his court, even ordering the scholar Nasr b. Aḥmad al-Kindi to produce him a musnad. When the amir asked al-Bukhārī to provide his children with a private reading of his Ṣaḥīḥ and Tarikh al-Kabir, he refused to extend him preferential treatment. Enraged, the amir ordered his expulsion. Tired and intimidated, the Imām passed through the city of Nasaf before returning to Allāh in the village of Khartank, a few miles from Samarqand, in 256AH/870CE.
One of his scribes, Muḥammad ibn Abi Hatim said:
"I was once saw al-Bukhārī in a dream. He was walking behind the Prophet ﷺ, setting his feet directly in the Prophet's footsteps."
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi narrated: ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn ʾĀdam said:
"I once saw the Prophet ﷺ, with a group of his companions, in a dream. He was standing, so I greeted him, and when he returned my greeting, I said: 'Why are you standing here, O Messenger of Allāh?' and he replied: 'I am waiting for Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl [al-Bukhārī].' A few days later, the news of al-Bukhārī's death reached me, and when I checked I realised that he had died at the moment when I beheld that dream."
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
His magnum opus, al-Bukhārī's notion to compile his Ṣaḥīḥ owed its origin to a remark from his teacher Isḥāq b. Rahawayh. who said:
لو جمعتم كتاباً مختصراً لصحيح سنة رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم
'If only you would gather a concise book for the authentic Sunnah of Allāh’s Messenger ﷺ.'
These words seem to have only fired his imagination, and he set to work with indefatigable diligence and care. al-Bukhārī later recalled:
فوقع ذلك في قلبي فأخذت بجمع ذلك الصحيح
'That idea came into my heart (i.e. it captured my imagination), so then I began to compile together that Ṣaḥīḥ collection'
It was on this that he devoted his most intense care and attention, expending about a quarter of his life on its compilation. He collected his Ṣaḥīḥ in Khurāsān, arranged it in the Ḥaram in Makkah, and completed it while seated between the minbar and the Prophet's Tomb in Madīnah. He sifted through all the ʼaḥādīth known to him, tested their authenticity according to canons of criticism he himself developed, selected 7,275 out of some 600,000 ʼaḥādīth he had memorized, and arranged them according to their subject matter under different headings. Before recording each ḥadīth, he would make ablution, offer a two rakaʿāt prayer and supplicate his Lord.
Ibn Abi Hatim said:
When I was with him on a journey we would stay in a single room together, and I would see him rising fifteen or twenty times in a night to light the lantern, and work on an isnad, after which he would lie down again. I asked him: 'Why do you impose all of this on yourself instead of waking me?' and he would reply, 'You are a young man, and I do not wish to interrupt your sleep.'
It was thus that the Ṣaḥīḥ, the work of a great ḥadīth scholar who combined a vast knowledge of ʼaḥādīth and allied subjects with scrupulous piety, strict exactitude, the painstaking accuracy of an expert editor and the legal acumen of an astute jurist, rapidly attracted the attention of the whole Ummah, and became accepted as an authority next to only the Qurʾān. Its importance can be gauged by the fact that over 70 full commentaries have been written on it, the best known including al-Kawakib al-Dariri by Imām Shams ad-Din al-Kirmani, Umdat al-Qari by Imām Badr al-Din al-Ayni, and the magnificent Fatḥ al-Bārī by Imām Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī.
His Extraordinary Intellect
On many occasions, Imām al-Bukhārī's knowledge was put to the test - emerging victorious in every instance. At Baghdad, ten ḥadīth scholars changed the isnads and contents of over one hundred ʼaḥādīth, recited them to him in a public meeting, and asked him questions about them. The Imām confessed his ignorance of the ʼaḥādīth that they had recited. But he then recited all their correct versions, and stated that the questioners had probably inadvertedly recited them wrongly.
At Samarqand, four hundred students tested al-Bukhārī's knowledge in a similar manner for over seven gruelling days, but he succeeded in exposing their interpolations. At Naysabur, Imām Muslim and others questioned him about certain ʼaḥādīth and found his answers completely satisfactory. In many scholarly gatherings, he successfully identified of the obscurer, early ḥadīth narrators in a way that had eluded the other scholars present. These repeated trials and triumphs won him recognition as the greatest ḥadīth scholar of his time.
Imām Aḥmad said of him:
ما أخرجت خرسان مثل محمد بن اسماعيل
'Khurāsān has never produced anyone like him.'
Imām Tirmidhī said:
'I have never seen in Iraq or in Khurāsān anyone with more knowledge of ḥadīth criticism, history and isnads than al-Bukhārī.'
Ibn Khuzaymah said:
'I have never seen anyone beneath the canopy of heaven who has more knowledge of the ḥadīth of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and who has memorized more (ḥadīth) than al-Bukhārī.'
Isḥāq b. Rahawayh said:
اكتبوا عن هذا الشاب فلو كان في زمن الحسن لاحتاج الناس إليه لمعرفته بالحديث و فقهه
'Write (ʼaḥādīth) from this young man, for even if he was present in the time of al-Ḥasan (al-Baṣrī) the people would still have been in need of him (al-Bukhārī) due to his great knowledge of ḥadīth and his understanding of it.'
His Works
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī - his magnum opus and the most authentic book of ʼaḥādīth. Contains approximately 7,275 ʼaḥādīth in nine books, arranged thematically, recounting the statements of the Prophet ﷺ and the companions relating to faith, belief, prayer, purification, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, monotheism, commerce, inheritance, crimes, judicial procedures, murders, wills, vows, oaths, war, wine, and hunting. Read online in English and Arabic here (note: the ʼaḥādīth are not accompanied by any commentaries, which are essential to understanding them).
- al-ʼAdab al-Mufrad - a collection of ḥadīth providing a vivid insight into the akhlaq and ʼadab (manners and morals) of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. Read online in English and Arabic here.
- al-Tarikh al-Kabir - a massive biographical compendium of over 12,300 narrators of ʼaḥādīth.
- Raf’ul Yadayn fis-Salāh - his refutation of those who say that the hands are only to be raised in the salah in the first takbeerah, which is the opinion of the Ḥanafīs and some of people of Kufa.
- Al-Qiraa'ah Khalf al-Imām - a discussion regarding the recitation al-Fātiḥah behind the Imām.
