future generations. It is also worth highlighting that al-Bukhari began to write books from an early age. He composed his first book on hadith during his stay in Madinah, when he was only eighteen. This book contained a large collection of sayings and exhortations attributed to the Prophet’s companions (sahabah) and their successors (tabiun). He also wrote a book on hadith narrators during his early years. In other words, his intellectual and literary accomplishments during his student days were nothing short of remarkable. All his teachers recognised and praised his intellectual abilities and vast learning, and some even predicted a bright future for him. As it transpired, he contributed more to Islamic thought and scholarship than any other scholar of his generation, while his anthology of hadith is today revered as one of the most authentic in the field of hadith literature. Of all his works, his most seminal contribution was Jami al-Sahih, better known as Sahih al-Bukhari. This collection of hadith was the product of an entire lifetime devoted solely to the study, research and verification of Prophetic hadith. Being his magnum opus, this anthology is today widely considered to be the most authentic book of Islamic teachings after the Holy Qur’an, the Divine revelation itself.
It is related that al-Bukhari was prompted to compose this book after the distinguished traditionist, Ishaq ibn Rahawaih, once publicly expressed his wish that a reputed scholar of hadith should prepare a large collection of authentic hadith. This remark apparently convinced al-Bukhari to muster all his might and energy for the compilation of his immortal Jami al-Sahih, a multi-volume work on hadith which has stood the test of time and remains an unrivalled work in the field of hadith to this day. Using strict criteria – to ascertain the genuineness of each and every hadith – he sifted through more than half a million ahadith and chose only the most authentic ones for inclusion in his Jami al-Sahih. He arranged the book subject-wise using different headings (including The Book of Knowledge (Kitab al-Ilm) and The Book of Ablution (Kitab al-Wudu), and finally completed his treasure trove of hadith after almost four decades of research. Consisting of a total of seven thousand, two hundred and twenty-two Prophetic narrations, this anthology of hadith has not only established al-Bukhari’s reputation as one of the Muslim world’s most famous and influential scholars, it has also immortalised his name. Jami al-Sahih thus represents the pinnacle of achievement in the field of hadith literature and it is very unlikely that another scholar of al-Bukhari’s calibre will appear again.
After decades of travelling in the single-minded pursuit of Islamic knowledge and wisdom, al-Bukhari returned to Muslim Central Asia and settled in Nishapur; he was fifty-four at the time. The people of that city received him warmly, and he continued to study, research and teach Prophetic traditions until the local governor forced him to leave the city for refusing to deliver lectures on hadith at his official residence. Al-Bukhari then settled in a small town adjacent to his native Bukhara and passed away at the age of approximately sixty-one.
THE PRINCIPLES OF shari’ah (Islamic law) are derived from the Qur’an and the normative practice (sunnah) of the Prophet Muhammad. The early Muslims were fortunate enough to have lived during the lifetime of the Prophet, who guided them in their daily affairs. After the death of the Prophet, his leading companions, such as Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib, assumed the leadership of the Muslim community and ruled the expanding Islamic State in accordance with the teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophetic sunnah. Although Islamic principles and practices underpinned the affairs of the Islamic society established by the Prophet and his companions during the early days of Islam, the shari’ah was not codified in a systematic way at the time. After the period of the Prophet’s companions, as the Islamic dominion continued to expand rapidly and Muslims came into contact with other cultures and traditions, and more and more non-Muslims embraced the faith of their conquerors, new and unexpected social, political, cultural, legal and economic challenges confronted both the rulers and the scholars of Islam. At such a critical time in Islamic history, Abu Hanifah emerged to develop one of Islamic history’s most influential legal syntheses.
Numan ibn Thabit ibn Zuta ibn Mah, better known by his patronymic Abu Hanifah, was born in Kufah (in modern Iraq) during the reign of the great Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Of Persian origin, Abu Hanifah was brought up in a relatively wealthy Muslim family. His father, Thabit, was a noted businessman who had the honour of meeting Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam, who reportedly prayed for Thabit and his family. Like his father, Abu Hanifah grew up to be a successful merchant. Since Kufah at the time was a major centre of Islamic learning and intellectual activity, some of the most famous companions of the Prophet (such as Abdullah ibn Mas’ud) settled in this city in order to disseminate Islamic learning and wisdom. Abu Hanifah was very fortunate to have met a number of prominent companions, including Anas ibn Malik, Sahl ibn Sa’d, Abu al-Tufail Amir ibn Watihilah and Jabir ibn Abdullah. That was why he considered himself to be a successor (tabi) of the Prophet’s companions. However, some Muslim scholars have questioned whether Abu Hanifah did actually meet any companions of the Prophet, but according to luminaries such as Khatib al-Baghdadi, Yahya al-Nawawi, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and Zain al-Din al-Iraqi, he met between eight and ten companions of the Prophet.
Abu Hanifah spent his early years pursuing business and commercial interests. Since the tyrant Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ruled in at Kufah at the time, it appears that Abu Hanifah was only too happy to pursue his business affairs while Hajjaj was in charge. After the latter’s death in 713, political turmoil and social unrest began to subside in and around Kufah. The death of Caliph al-Walid a year later also helped to restore peace and order across the Islamic world. Caliph Sulaiman, al-Walid’s successor, was a relatively benevolent ruler who promoted learning and scholarship. The new, peaceful ambience created by Sulaiman’s accession to power probably encouraged Abu Hanifah to devote more time to the pursuit of learning and education. It is related that one day while he was passing by the house of al-Sha’bi (an eminent scholar of the time), the latter – mistaking him for one of his students – asked him where he was going. Abu Hanifah replied that he was on his way to meet a certain merchant. Whereupon al-Sha’bi told Abu Hanifah that he showed signs of intelligence and he ought to devote more time to his studies. These words of advice apparently fired Abu Hanifah’s imagination, and he began to dedicate all his time and energy to the pursuit of Islamic knowledge and wisdom.
By all accounts, Abu Hanifah was a late starter and most of his peers were way ahead of him when he began his studies. But, thanks to his indefatigable energy and intellectual brilliance, he soon became a prominent Islamic thinker and jurist. He may have embarked on the path of Islamic learning and education with some hesitation, but after he had started he was determined to reach the very summit of Islamic learning and scholarship. Hailed as al-imam al-azam (or ‘the great scholar of Islam’), Abu Hanifah went on to become one of the Muslim world’s greatest intellectuals and jurists. As a gifted and hardworking student, he rapidly made up for lost time by plunging himself deep into the ocean of Islamic learning and wisdom. He sat at the feet of great luminaries like al-Sha’bi, Salama ibn Kuhail, A’mash, Hammad and Amr ibn Murrah – all of whom were based in Kufah at the time – and received a thorough education and training in traditional Islamic sciences including Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir), Islamic theology (kalam) and jurisprudence (fiqh). In addition, Abu Hanifah gained proficiency in Arabic grammar, literature and aspects of history and genealogy before he proceeded to Basrah and attended the lectures of Qatada and Shu’ba, both of whom had learned hadith directly from the Prophet’s companions. Abu Hanifah’s sharp intellect, coupled with his unflinching dedication to his studies, enabled him to understand and assimilate Islamic knowledge very rapidly. So much so that his tutor Shu’ba once remarked, ‘Just as I know that the sun is bright, I know for certain that learning and Abu Hanifah are doubles of each other.’ Thus he not only became proficient in hadith, but Shu’ba also formally authorised him to impart knowledge of hadith to others.
Now increasingly recognised as an esteemed scholar in his own right, Abu Hanifah could have established his own school and begun to teach, but