Sahih al-Bukhari

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Most famous

Sunni six major collections
(Al-Sihah al-Sittah):

  1. Sahih al-Bukhari
  2. Sahih Muslim
  3. al-Sunan al-Sughra
  4. Sunan Abi Dawood
  5. Sunan al-Tirmidhi
  6. Sunan Ibn Maja/Al-Muwatta

Shi'a Twelver collections:

  1. Kitab al-Kafi of Kulainy
  2. Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih of Shaikh Saduq
  3. Tahdhib al-Ahkam by Shaikh Tusi
  4. al-Istibsar by Shaykh Tusi

Ibadi collections:

  • al-Jami' as-Sahih by al-Rabi' ibn Habib
  • Tartib al-Musnad by al-Warijlani
Sunni collections
Shi'a Twelver collections
Mu'tazili collections

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 ). Most Sunni Muslims view this as their most trusted collection of hadith and it has been called "The most authentic book after the Qur'an[citation needed]."

Contents

[edit] 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 [1]. 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 [2] [3] [4]

It is said that before he placed a hadith in his collection, he would perform ghusl (full\greater ritual ablution) and prayed two Rakah (Islamic unit for form of prayer) Nafl (voluntary prayer) to ask God for guidance[citation needed].

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 [1] [2]. 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.

[edit] Commentaries

Several Muslim scholars have written full commentaries on this collection, such as:

[edit] Translations

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links