IMAM 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 13th 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.