Muhammad bin Ismail bin Al Mughirah Al Bukhari

Asalamu Alaikum,




It has been unanimously agreed that Imam Bukhari's work is the most authentic of all the other works in Hadith literature put together. The authenticity of Al Bukhari's work is such that all religious scholars of Islam use his book as a first source of Ahadeeth.

Imam Bukhari was born on 13th Shawwal in the year 194 AH in Bukhara in the territory of Khurasan (West Turkistan). His real name is Muhammad bin Ismail bin Al Mughirah Al Bukhari.

His father died when he was still a young child and he was looked after by his mother. At the age of ten he started acquiring the knowledge of Haith. He travelled to Makkah when he was sixteen years old accompanied by his mother and elder brother. It seemed as though Imam Bukhari loved Makkah and its learned religious scholars for he remained in Makkah after bidding farewell to his mother and brother. He spent two years in Makkah and then went to Al Madina. After spending a total of six years in Al Hijaz which comprises Makkah and Al Madina, he left for Basrah, Kufa and Baghdad and visited many other places including Egypt and Syria. He came to Baghdad on many occasions. He met many religious learned scholars including Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal.

Owing to his honesty and kindness and the fact that he was trustworthy he used to keep away from the princes and rulers for fear that he may incline to say things to please them.

Many a story has been told about Imam Bukhari regarding his struggles in collecting Hadith literature. He travelled to many a different places gathering the precious gems that fell from the lips of the Prophet Muhammad :saws:It is said that Imam Bukhari collected over 300,000 Ahadith and he himself memorized 200,000 or which some were unreliable. He was born at a time when Hadith was being forged either to please rulers or kings or to corrupt the religion of Islam.

It is said that Imam Bukhari (before compiling Sahih Al Bukhari) saw in a dream, standing in front of Prophet Muhammad having a fan in his hand and driving away the flies from the Prophet Imam Bukhari asked some of those who interpret dreams, and they interpreted his dream that he will drive away the falsehood asserted aginst the Prophet

So it was a great task for him to sift the forged Ahadith from the authentic ones. He laboured day and night and although he had memorised such a large number he only chose approximately 7,275 with repetition and about 2,230 without repetition of which there is no doubt about their authenticity.

Before he recorded each Hadith, he would make ablution and offer a two Rak'at prayer and supplicate his Lord (Allah). Many religious scholars of Islam tried to find fault in the great remarkable collection -Sahih Al Bukhari, but without success. It is for this reason, they unanimously agreed that the most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Sahih Al Bukhari.

Imam Bukhari died on first Shawal in the year 256 AH and was buried in Khartank, a village near Samarkand. Many Allah have mercy on his soul.

Assalamou aleikoum

Some more anecdotes relating to Imam Bukhari, Rahimahullah....

IMAM BUKHARI ....

His Extraordinary Intellect

Along with his extraordinary memory, he also had an outstanding fascinating intellect. He did not depend on pen and paper as much as he relied on his sharp memory. People examined the extraordinary capabilities of Imam Bukhari in the science of Hadith repeatedly but he always remained successful as a result of Allah's gift of intelligence and superb memory.

Hafiz Ahmad ibn `Adi said about Imam Bukhari: "When the people of Baghdad had learnt that Imam Bukhari was due to arrive there, the Muhaddithin of Baghdad decided to test him by changing the text and chains of transmission of one hundred Ahadith. They joined the chain of one Hadith with the text of another and attached the chain of this Hadith with the text of the prior. Like this, they mixed up the text and chains of transmission of one hundred Ahadith and gave these to people who would test Imam Bukhari with these. When he finished, the entire audience was full of praise and recognition of the superiority and greatness of Imam Bukhari."

Simplicity and humbleness :

....Warraq goes on to say: "When we accompanied Imam Bukhari on a journey, he would gather us in one room and stay in another room alone. Once I saw Imam Bukhari get up between fifteen and twenty times during the night and every time, he lit the lamp. He took some Ahadith out, marked them and then placed his head on his pillow and laid on his couch. I said to him, 'Why did you go through all this trouble during the night, you could have woke me up to help you.' He said: 'You are young and in need to get sufficient amount of sleep and I did not want to disturb your sleep."

Generosity

Just as he was generous with this wealth, he was also generous with his heart and emotions. Sometimes, he would give three thousand dirhams as a donation in one day. Warraq says that Imam Bukhari's earnings were five hundred dirhams per month and he would spend all of it on his students.


Fear of Allah

He was blessed with the highest rank of piety and righteousness. He feared Allah in everything he did. He kept himself away from backbiting and suspicion and always respected people’s rights.

Imam Bukhari was so vigilant in his worship, that he would pray Sunnah and keep fasts in abundance. He would read the whole Qur'an on each day in the month of Ramadan and also recited ten chapters of the Holy Qur'an late at the night. He would complete the Holy Qur'an in the Tarawih prayers and always reciting twenty verses in each rak`a. He was very polite, tolerant and gentle. He never got angry when mistreated by others and prayed forgiveness for those who attributed evil to him. If he needed to correct any person, he would never embarrass him in public.

All above taken from www.islamonline.com ''spotlight on Islam''


Words of Wisdom from Imam Al Bukhari

Muhammad ibn Ismaa'eel al-Bukhaaree said:

((I have written (hadeeth) from more than 1,000 Shaykhs, and from each one I have (taken) 10,000 hadeeth; There is nothing I have except that I recall its isnaad))

Siyar A'laam an-Nubalaa. - Volume 12, Page 407

Quote taken from www.fatwaonline.com