source of inspiration, guidance and instruction for more than a billion Muslims across the globe today. From how to conduct a multi-billion pound business transaction in the international market-place, to the finer details of how to drink a glass of water, a Muslim can draw direct guidance for all spheres of his life from the vast corpus of hadith literature. The Arabic word hadith refers to a ‘saying’ or ‘utterance’ of the Prophet. No other human being is followed as meticulously as the Prophet is followed and imitated by the Muslims. He is seen as the epitome of virtue, goodness and humanity. That is why Muslims scrupulously emulate his deeds and actions (sunnah) in every sphere of their lives. In Islamic history, one man stands over and above all others when it comes to collecting, editing, analysing and verifying the sayings and utterances of the Prophet. He is none other than Imam al-Bukhari.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari was born in Bukhara, in Muslim Central Asia. Of Persian origin, al-Bukhari’s ancestors were farmers who were taken captives during the Muslim conquest of that region in the early days of Islam.
Al-Bukhari’s great grandfather, al-Mughirah, accepted Islam at the hands of Yaman al-Jufi, the then governor of Bukhara, and he had a son by the name of Ibrahim. Ibrahim’s son, Ismail, was the father of al-Bukhari. Ismail was a relatively wealthy merchant and an accomplished scholar of hadith who became well known in his locality for his meticulous habits and strict adherence to the normative practice of the Prophet. He had two sons, Ahmad and Muhammad. Muhammad was the younger son, and became well known as al-Bukhari. Ismail died when al-Bukhari was still a child, and the family fell into povery and hardship. But young al-Bukhari’s mother was a pious and determined lady who, in spite of her difficult economic circumstances, ensured her son received a good education.
Al-Bukhari was evidently a gifted student who possessed a photographic memory and great analytical skills. Of slim build and somewhat frail health, he nevertheless excelled in his studies. His ability to grasp complex arguments and reconcile often differing and contradictory views–thanks largely to his prodigious intellect and unusual memory power – elevated him to one of the highest positions ever to be attained by a scholar of hadith. Al-Bukhari’s love for Islamic learning, especially his undiminished quest for Prophetic traditions, became very evident early in his life. It was his devoted mother who played a critical role in his early education, and it was her who inspired him to pursue the study of hadith. After successfully completing his initial education at the age of twelve, al-Bukhari pursued advanced training in Islamic sciences and specialised in hadith literature. His hard work and dedication to his studies paid off when he completed his study of hadith under the guidance of all the reputable scholars of Bukhara; he was only eighteen at the time. In fact, he was barely twenty when he came to be recognised as one of the foremost scholars of hadith in his locality. Thereafter, the study, collection and verification of Prophetic traditions became his lifelong preoccupation. It was this, combined with the compilation and codification of the Prophetic traditions, which established his reputation as one of Islam’s greatest authorities on hadith, and represents his vast contribution and service to Islamic scholarship in general. The signs of his greatness were evident from the very outset. It is related that when al-Bukhari was only eleven he once corrected his own teacher’s mistake. When the teacher refused to take him seriously, al-Bukhari reportedly challenged him to check his facts. After the teacher checked his manuscript, al-Bukhari was found to be correct.
After completing his higher education in Bukhara, al-Bukhari left his native city and went to Makkah, along with his mother and brother, to perform the sacred hajj (pilgrimage). He stayed in Makkah and Madinah for several years and pursued advanced training in hadith literature under the guidance of the leading scholars of the time. From Makkah he travelled to other great centres of Islamic learning in Egypt, Syria and Iraq before settling in Basrah where he conducted advanced research in hadith. Like many other great scholars of his era, al-Bukhari was a distinguished traveller who spent nearly four decades journeying from one place to another in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. During his sojourns he came into contact with some of the foremost hadith scholars of his time, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Bakr ibn Abu Shaiba, Ishaq ibn Rahawaih, Ali ibn al-Madini and Yahya ibn Ma’in. These celebrated scholars of hadith played a pivotal role in the development and promulgation of ulum al-hadith (or ‘the science of hadith’). Al-Bukhari learned and mastered the science of hadith – that is, the art of sifting, dissecting and distinguishing the authentic hadith from the fabricated, forged or manufactured ones – from these great pioneers of Islamic thought and scholarship. Sustained and systematic analysis of a hadith required a thorough familiarisation with, and mastery of, a number of research procedures and techniques. That is to say, the skills and ability to undertake rigorous scrutiny and cross-examination of each and every hadith from a multi-dimensional perspective was a sine qua non for ascertaining the veracity of the text (matn) of the hadith; its chains of narration (isnad), the background of the hadith narrator (al-asma al-rijal), as well as a sound knowledge and understanding of the Qur’an in order to determine whether the hadith was in compliance with the Divine revelation.
After rigorous and systematic investigation of the ahadith, the muhaddithun (or ‘scholars of hadith’) classified them into different categories such as sound (sahih), good (hasan), recurrent (mutawatir), solitary (ahad), weak (daeef), fabricated (maudu) and so on and so forth. However, given the fact that the quantity of hadith which were in circulation during al-Bukhari’s time was mind-bogglingly vast, sifting the wheat from the chaff became a monumental task even for a gifted scholar like al-Bukhari. Nonetheless, his diligence, dedication and incredible retentive power enabled him not only to master the science of hadith, but also to commit around half a million hadith to memory. This established his reputation as a veritable master of hadith literature, and his fame soon began to spread across the Islamic East. After four decades of incessant quest for knowledge, especially that of the Prophetic traditions, al-Bukhari reached the summit of Islamic scholarship, a lofty position which no other scholar of hadith was able to rival after him.
For al-Bukhari, learning, collecting and disseminating hadith became a way of life, if not an obsession. He travelled distant lands, sacrificed all his time, energy and wealth in the pursuit of Prophetic hadith. He was also a man of impeccable character, piety and scrupulous manners and habits. He ate most frugally, and led a very simple and austere lifestyle. He literally followed in the steps of the Prophet whose sayings and utterances he was so eager to preserve for posterity. He became so proficient in hadith literature that on a number of occasions he allowed his knowledge of hadith to be tested by some of the most distinguished scholars of his time. During one such occasion, ten reputable scholars of Baghdad publicly put him to the test in order to ascertain his knowledge of Prophetic traditions. They deliberately changed and altered the chain of narration (isnad) of around one hundred different ahadith, and then recited them to him in front of the public. He was then asked to comment on them. Al-Bukhari confessed that he was not familiar with those hadith, and instead recited all the authentic versions of the same hadith with their correct chains of narration. He then commented that the scholars who had recited the hundred ahadith might have muddled and confused their chains of narration. Al-Bukhari’s depth and breadth of learning left his interrogators, as well as the spectators, utterly spellbound. On another occasion, a number of acclaimed scholars of hadith, led by Abul Hussain Asakir al-Din Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (better known as Imam Muslim), questioned him on several issues relating to the science of hadith, and they found him to be thoroughly proficient on the subject. In short, al-Bukhari emerged from these and many other similar tests he was subjected to during his lifetime, with his reputation enhanced.
If al-Bukhari was a great master and memoriser of hadith, then he was an equally prolific writer. After collecting more than half a million hadith, he systematically investigated and examined them in order to ascertain their veracity. Thereafter, he classified all the hadith according to a grading scale, thus sifting the sound traditions from the fabricated and spurious ones. Such an advanced and scientific methodology, developed by al-Bukhari and his contemporaries, enabled him to collect