Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahiim

SAHIH BUKHARI

Al-Bukhari Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Mughirah Al-Bukhari was born in Bukhara in the territory of Khurasan (West Turkistan) on 13^th of Syawwal 194AH/810CE. He died at Khartank a village in Samarqand on 1ts Syawwal 256Ah/870CE at the age of 60. He is one of the great scholar of Islam, the author of Al-Jami As-Sahih which is known as Sahil Al-Bukhari. He also wrote At-Tarikh, and Ad-Du�afa, about the narrators of hadith. He grew up an orphan and undertook a long journey in 210 Ah in pursuit of Ahadith. He visited Khurasan, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. And he heard Ahadith from thousands of Shaiks. He collected thousands of Ahadith of which he selected those whose chains of narrations he found to be sound to be included in his sahih, which contains 7275 Ahadith including those that are repeated. If the repeated Ahadith are omitted, the number is 4000 Ahadith. He was the first scholar in Islam to compile a book in this manner.

He travelled to Makkah when he was still 16 years old and spent years in Makkah and then went to Al-Madinah. After spending a total of 6 years in Al-Hijaz (which comprises Madinah and Makkah), he left to basra, Kufa and Baghdad and visited many other places including Egypt and Syria. He met many religious scholars including Imam Ahmad bin Hambal.

Owing to his kindness and honesty and the fact that he is trustworthy he used to keep away from the princes and rulers for fear that he may incline to say things to please them. 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 the Sahih Al-Bukhari) saw in a dream, standing in front of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) having a fan in his hand and driving away the flies from the Prophet (pbuh). Imam Bukhari asked some of those that interpret dreams, and they interpreted his dreams that he will drive away falsehood asserted against the Prophet.

So it was a great task for him to sift the forged Ahadith from the authentic ones. He labored day and night and although he had memorized such large number of Hadith he only chose approximately 7,275 with repetition and about 2230 without repetition of which there is no doubt about their authenticity. Before he recorded each Ahadith, he would make ablution and offer two raka�at prayer and supplicate to Allah. Many religious scholars of Islam tried to find fault in the great remarkable collections � Sahih Bukhari � but without success. It is for this reason, they unanimously agreed that the most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Sahih Bukhari. Muslim the author of Sahih Muslim is also one of his students.

May Allah have mercy on his soul, amen.

 Ameen. We can see that he was born in year 194 Hijrah, i.e. nearly 200 years after the hijrah. Also, we see the mess of the narrations (Ahadith). They were in a very bad state. Imam Ismail Bukhari r.a. did great job of collecting the Ahadith. Then he did a good job of  sifting the right from the wrong Hadith. May Allah bless is soul in peace.

 There was no such case with the Sunnah. There was no malady and no disease. Imagine the condition of the Hadith when many thousand false narrations were in circulation. It was a difficult job to find the right ones. Imam Bukhari himself was not acting on any Hadith. He knew and was doing everything as per the practice of the holy prophet s.a.w.s. The collection of the narrations was an extra subject. Before he did such a great job,, he was still performing his wudhu and salat etc. He was acting on the Sunnah of the prophet s.a.w.s. which was in circulation all over the muslim countries (areas).

If Imam Bukhari met Imam Hambali it means they were of the same generation? 

As Brother Minuteman said :

So this means that even Imam Hambali and the rest of those Imams were not acting on any Hadith as there were no Sahih Bukhari yet exist as it is still on the process of compilation etc,  but was acting on the Sunnah. So why not follow the same and lets be united into one? Quran and Sunnah and no more fanatical  Imam followers and no more labeling? Are we making things hard on us? Please no more insults, just tell me if am right or wrong 

** Sunnah accordingly is the saying and deeds of the Prophet while Hadith is the sayings (included the instructions and inspirations) of the prophet; it means that hadith is one part of Sunnah. So if we put it into equation:-

Sunnah = sayings + Deeds of the Prophet

but Hadith = sayings of the prophet

therefore:-

Sunnah = Hadith + Deeds of the Prophet

am I right? Mr Minuteman & Mr Abdul-Azeem'876

Jazmine wrote: If Imam Bukhari met Imam Hambali it means they were of the same generation?  <!--[endif]--> As Brother Minuteman said :  �Imam Bukhari himself was not acting on any Hadith. He knew and was doing everything as per the practice of the holy prophet s.a.w.s. The collection of the narrations was an extra subject. Before he did such a great job,, he was still performing his wudhu and salat etc. He was acting on the Sunnah of the prophet s.a.w.s. which was in circulation all over the muslim countries (areas)�� (inviting attention to the life story of Imam Bukhari) So this means that even Imam Hambali and the rest of those Imams were not acting on any Hadith as there were no Sahih Bukhari yet exist as it is still on the process of compilation etc,  but was acting on the Sunnah. So why not follow the same and lets be united into one? Quran and Sunnah and no more fanatical  Imam followers and no more labeling? Are we making things hard on us? Please no more insults, just tell me if am right or wrong  <!--[endif]--> ** Sunnah accordingly is the saying and deeds of the Prophet while Hadith is the sayings (included the instructions and inspirations) of the prophet; it means that hadith is one part of Sunnah. So if we put it into equation:- Sunnah = sayings + Deeds of the Prophet but Hadith = sayings of the prophet therefore:- Sunnah = Hadith + Deeds of the Prophet am I right? Mr Minuteman & Mr Abdul-Azeem'876

�Nuh Ha Mim Keller 1995

The word sunna has three separate meanings that are often mixed up by Muslims when the term arises in discussions.

The first sense of sunna is in the context of shari'a rulings, in which sunna is synonymous with the mandub or "recommended", meaning something that one deserves a reward in the next life for doing--such as using the miswak to clean one's teeth before prayer--but is not punished for not doing. It can be contrasted in this context with the "wajib" or obligatory, meaning something that one is rewarded in the next life for doing-- such as performing the prescribed prayers--and deserves punishment in the next life for not doing. The sunna in this sense is at the second level of things Allah has asked of us, after the wajib or obligatory.

A second sense of sunna is in the context of identifying textual sources, as when the Kitab, meaning the Qur'an, is contrasted with the sunna, meaning the hadith. In this sense, sunna is strictly synonymous with hadith, and is used to distinguish one's evidence from that of the Qur'an. One should note that this is quite a different sense from the above-mentioned meaning of the word sunna, though sometimes people confuse the two, believing that the Qur'an determines the obligatory, while the hadith determines what is merely sunna or recommended--but in fact, rulings of both types are found in the Qur'an, just as they are in the hadith.

A third sense of sunna is the way of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), embodied in the things he said, did, and in his noble states of heart; together with the things he approved of in others (whether by explicit confirmation, or by allowing them to be done in his presence without condemning them), and the things that he intended to do but did not get the chance, such as fasting on the ninth of Muharram (Tasua). Here, sunna simply means the Prophets way (Allah bless him and give him peace), and is not to be confused with either of the two senses mentioned above. In contrast to the first sense, his sunna or way (Allah bless him and give him peace) includes not just the recommended, but rather the whole shari'a, the entire spectrum of its rulings, whether obligatory (wajib), recommended (sunna), permissible (mubah), or avoiding the offensive (makruh) or unlawful (haram). And in contrast with the second sense, his sunna or way (Allah bless him and give him peace) is preserved not only in the hadith, but first and foremost in the Qur'an, for as Aisha (Allah be well pleased with her) notes in the hadith of al-Bukhari, "His character was the Qur'an".

The confusion and non sequiturs that often result when Muslims discuss the sunna could perhaps be better avoided if these distinctions were kept in mind

 Ameen. We can see that he was born in year 194 Hijrah, i.e. nearly 200 years after the hijrah. Also, we see the mess of the narrations (Ahadith). They were in a very bad state. Imam Ismail Bukhari r.a. did great job of collecting the Ahadith. Then he did a good job of  sifting the right from the wrong Hadith. May Allah bless is soul in peace.

Imams Bukhari and Muslims did not begin the science of hadith verification it began very soon after after the prophets death with Muslims first asking the Question of who narrated this or who told you such a thing. Imam Maliks Muwatta was the first major collection due to the methodology he used to verify ahadith but Imam Abu Hanifa and the other 2 Imams all had there own systems which they used for example when deciding between contradictory ahadith ,there are other older collections than theres even.

Imam Abu hanifahs Fiqh works where the first to be widely spread and in his own lifetime, he was both a muhadith and a Faqi but he also gathered around him the foremost experts at the time in all the different areas of knowledge and formed a round table of scholars if you like to help him with his.

Imam Bukhari himself was not acting on any Hadith. He knew and was doing everything as per the practice of the holy prophet s.a.w.s. The collection of the narrations was an extra subject. Before he did such a great job,, he was still performing his wudhu and salat etc. He was acting on the Sunnah of the prophet s.a.w.s. which was in circulation all over the muslim countries (areas).

This isnt correct Imam Bukhari was a mujtahid Imam in his own right capable of starting his own madhhab, before he reached this level of ijtihad he certainly followed a single madhab like ALL scholars at the time and it appears he was a shafii scholar. He may not have been the first muhadith but him and his student Imam Muslim developed this science to higher levels of sophistication untill there methods, as apposed to there works themselfs, became the standard by which other muhadithun would be judged.

Its more correct to say muslims at the time followed the sunnah of rasul allah [sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam] and affirmed it with the ahadith but as more collections came into circulation the more the mujtahids of each madhab refined and corrected there fiqh using the fiqh methodologies [Usul al Fiqh] of the founders of the madhabs.

This ongoing process continued long after all ahadith where collected and verified in the various works, one mujtahid Imam would take up the work of a previous one and continue to refine and add to the fiqh as more knowledge was made available and different situations arose that required new rulings. This continued until the time came when people where no longer able to reach the level of knowledge required to do Ijtihad so the ulumah of the time said the door to ijtihad was closed to stop corruption and wrong Fiqh from spreading.

 Thanks for the informative post. It seems to be all good and correct. I believe it to be so but probably I did not (could not) describe it in that way myself. Thanks to you.

 The problem is with the ahle hadith people of today not giving any credense to the works of Abu Hanifah r.a. They have developed a methodogy of their own. They do not give any credit to any Saint (Aulia Allah), say Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jeelani r.a. One of the ahle Hadith told me that all those saints were totally misguided. Was he right? I hope not.

 I am all happy about your post because it is well written and truth and good description of the events. Thanks.

The problem is with the ahle hadith people of today not giving any credense to the works of Abu Hanifah r.a.

 Thank you very much. I am talking from what I am seeing myself with my own eyes.i.e. by observing things with my own eyes and experience with the Hadith people.

 The persons who have not seen the disparity between the ahle Sunnah and the ahle hadith do not know much about the problem at hand. I do not blame any one. I believe that Sunnah is different from Hadith and it takes priority over the sayings of the prophet s.a.w.s. Sunnah comes next after the Quran. The Hadith or the sayings of the prophet s.a.w.s. are also very useful and binding on us after the Sunnah.

 The Hadith (sayings) is to support the Sunnah and the Hadith are meant to serve the Sunnah (The practice) of the holy prophet s.a.w.s.  Thanks again.  Period

Jazmine wrote: If Imam Bukhari met Imam Hambali it means they were of the same generation?  As Brother Minuteman said :  �Imam Bukhari himself was not acting on any Hadith. He knew and was doing everything as per the practice of the holy prophet s.a.w.s. The collection of the narrations was an extra subject. Before he did such a great job,, he was still performing his wudhu and salat etc. He was acting on the Sunnah of the prophet s.a.w.s. which was in circulation all over the muslim countries (areas)�� (inviting attention to the life story of Imam Bukhari) So this means that even Imam Hambali and the rest of those Imams were not acting on any Hadith as there were no Sahih Bukhari yet exist as it is still on the process of compilation etc,  but was acting on the Sunnah. So why not follow the same and lets be united into one? Quran and Sunnah and no more fanatical  Imam followers and no more labeling? Are we making things hard on us? Please no more insults, just tell me if am right or wrong  ** Sunnah accordingly is the saying and deeds of the Prophet while Hadith is the sayings (included the instructions and inspirations) of the prophet; it means that hadith is one part of Sunnah. So if we put it into equation:- Sunnah = sayings + Deeds of the Prophet but Hadith = sayings of the prophet therefore:- Sunnah = Hadith + Deeds of the Prophet am I right? Mr Minuteman & Mr Abdul-Azeem'876

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