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 and preserve only the authentic Prophetic traditions for the benefit of 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
