Sahih al-Bukhari

The authentic collection (Arabic: الجامع الصحيح, "al-Jaami al-Musnud al-Sahih" or popularly al-Bukhari's authentic (Arabic: صحيح البخاري, "Sahih al-Bukhari") is one of the six major Hadith collections (Hadith are oral traditions recounting events in the lives of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ).

Many of the great Sunni Islamic scholars throughout the Muslim History tried to find fault in the great remarkable Hadith collection of Sahih Al-Bukhari in order to verify its authenticity, but without success. It is for this reason it has been unanimously agreed that 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 the religious learned scholars of Islam said concerning his book: 'The most authentic book after the Book of Allah (i.e. Al-Qur'an) is Sahih Al-Bukhari.' [ “Translation of the meanings of Shahih Al-Bukhari” Arabic-English by Dr.Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Volume 1, p18 and p19, Introduction – Imam Bukhari and his Book Sahih Al-Bukhari ] Therefore it has been traditionally agreed upon among all the Sunni Islamic scholars that each and every Hadith in this book is without doubt, authentic and can be used to decide matters of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) concerning religious obligations, Haraam and Halal actions etc, by taking evidence from this book.

The Collection

These prophetic traditions were collected by the Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (810-870) and published during his lifetime. He was a scholar from Bukhara, hence the name by which he is known. Al-Bukhari belonged to the Shafi'i School [ Ibn Hajar op cit ] . He traveled widely throughout the Abbasid empire for sixteen years, collecting those traditions he thought trustworthy. It is said that al-Bukhari collected over 300,000 hadith and transmitted only the 2,602 traditions that he believed to be Sahih [ [http://www.ibnamin.com/num_hadith.htm The number of authentic hadith] ] [ [http://www.masnet.org/history.asp?id=538 The Sciences of the Hadith: Results of Islamic Scholarship] , "Muslim American Society", October 9, 2003, retrieved May, 2008] [ [http://www.iiu.edu.my/deed/hadith/bukhari/sbtintro.html Introduction to Translation of Sahih Bukhari ] ]

The book covers almost all aspects of life in providing proper guidance of Islam such as the method of performing prayers and other actions of worship directly from Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. This 9-Volume Bukhari is the work of over 16 years by Bukhari who before writing any Hadith in this book performed ablution and two units of prayer asking guidance from Allah. Then he would do the necessary research and investigation, observing if the particular Hadith fits in to his strict criteria of authenticity and if he is sure that the Hadith is authentic, he wrote it in the book.

It is said that notable hadith scholars including Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 855, Ibn Maīn 847, and Ibn Madīni 848 accepted the authenticity of his book. Therefore al-Bukhari finished his work around 846, and spent the last twenty-four years of his life visiting other cities and scholars, teaching the hadith he had collected. In every city that he visited, thousands of people would gather in the main mosque to listen to him recite traditions. Regarding Western academic doubts as to the actual date and authorship of the book that bears his name, Sunni say that notable hadith scholars of that time, such as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (855 CE/241 AH), Ibn Maīn (847 CE/233 AH), and Ibn Madīni (848 CE/234 AH), all accepted the authenticity of his book [http://www.ummah.net/Al_adaab/hadith/bukhari/imam_bukhari.html] [http://ahmed2004uk.blogspot.com/2005/09/imam-bukhari-ra.html] . Thus, the collections inmediate fame makes arguments regarding its being changed after the authors death highly improbable.

During this long period of twenty-four years, Bukhari made minor changes to his book, in particular its chapter headings.Each version is named by its narrator. According to Ibn Hajar Asqalani in his book "Nukat", the number of hadiths in all narrations (versions) is the same. The most famous one today is the version narrated by al-Firabri (d. 932 CE/320 AH), who is a trusted student of Bukhari. Khatib al-Baghdadi in his book History of Baghdad had quoted Firabri saying: "There were about seventy thousands people have heard Sahih Bukhari with me".

Firabri is not the only transmitter of Sahih Bukhari. There were many others that narrated that book to later generations,such as Ibrahim ibn Ma'qal (d. 907 CE/295 AH), Hammad ibn Shaker (d. 923 CE/311 AH), Mansur Burduzi (d. 931 CE/319 AH),and Husain Mahamili (d. 941 CE/330 AH). There are many books that noted differences between these versions; Fath al-Bari is the most famous among them.

Commentaries

Several Muslim scholars have written full commentaries on this collection, such as:
*Fath al-Bari by Ibn Hajar Asqalani (most notably).
*Umdat al-Qari
*Irshad al-Sari by Al-Qastallani

Translations

*The Translation of the Meanings Of Sahih Al-Bukhari - by Muhsin Khan. 1984? In nine volumes with an Arabic text. ISBN 81-7151-013-2 (set)

References

ee also

*Hadith
*Isnad

External links

* [http://www.akacademy.eu/ Study the abridged Sahih Al Bukhari online] - Delivered weekly by Shaykh Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq
* [http://www.searchtruth.com/mobile/hadith/download_mobile_hadith.php Read English Translation of Sahih Al Bukhari in Mobile Phone] - translated by Muhamamd Muhsin Khan and presented by SearchTruth.com
* [http://www.searchtruth.com/searchHadith.php Search any word in English Translation of Sahih Al Bukhari] - translated by Muhamamd Muhsin Khan and search engine developed by SearchTruth.com
* [http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/ English Translation of Sahih Al Bukhari] - translated by Muhamamd Muhsin Khan
* [http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/bukhari.html Islamic Awareness, On The Nature Of Hadith Collections Of Imam Al-Bukhari & Muslim]