Al-Bukhari: biography and writings

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Muhammad al-Bukhari is a well-known author of a collection of hadiths. He died without converting to Islam. His son named al-Mugirat did not follow the path of his father and became a supporter of this religion. He never once regretted it. In this article, you will be presented with a biography of al-Bukhari. So let's get started.

Childhood and studies

Al-Bukhari was born in 194 Hijri. In early childhood, the future imam lost his sight. However, his mother's long and sincere prayers miraculously healed him. She learned about getting rid of the disease in a dream. Hazrat Ibrahim came to her and said: “Thanks to the saints and plentiful prayers, Allah restored the sight to your son.” In the morning it became clear that this dream was prophetic.

The boy's father Ismail was a very educated man. Unfortunately, he did not have time to teach his son much, as he died early. The upbringing of Muhammad was taken up by his mother. She was also well educated, so she controlled the process of his education. At the age of 16, the young man, together with his brother and mother, made a pilgrimage to Mecca. The relatives of the future imam returned home, and he decided to stay in the holy city for two years. Medina - that's wherewent to 18 years of Al-Bukhari. The books compiled by the young man at the tomb of the Prophet were called Tarikh-ul-Kabir and Qadayas-Sahaba wat-Tabiyin. He did not stop working even at night, as the moonlight provided an excellent source of illumination.

To gain new knowledge, Imam Al-Bukhari was forced to travel a lot. He traveled to Egypt, Syria and lived in Arabia for six years. The hero of this article visited Kufa, Baghdad and Basra four times. Sometimes he could stay in a certain city for several years. Only one thing was constant - during the Hajj period, the imam always returned to Mecca.

Teachers

Hadith al-Bukhari began to study and listen in 205. And after 5 years, having received some amount of knowledge from the Ulama of his native city, he went on a journey. He had a lot of teachers. Muhammad himself spoke of this as follows: “1080 different people dictated hadith to me. Each of them was a scientist. But the imam received the most valuable knowledge from two people - Ali ibn Madini and Ishak ibn Rakhway. Also, al-Bukhari transmitted hadith from his students. He believed that legends should be spread from people of the younger, middle and older generations. Only in this way can one become a scholar of hadith.

Followers

The imam had a great many of them. About 9,000 people attended his classes based on Sahih al-Bukhari. To gain unique knowledge from this book, wanderers flocked to the Imam's lessons from all over the world.

Amazing memory

Al-Bukhari had a good memory,ingenuity and insight. By the age of 7 he had memorized the entire Quran, and by the age of 10 he knew more than a thousand hadiths. Having heard the legend once, the boy memorized it and, if necessary, could easily reproduce it.

Somehow in Baghdad a significant case happened to him. People who heard from others about the imam's many qualities and achievements decided to test him. For this, one hundred different hadiths were chosen. In each of them, the text and chains of transmitters were changed. Then ten people read them like this to the imam.

A huge number of people gathered to get acquainted with the result of the experiment. After reading each tradition, Muhammad answered in the same way: "As far as I know, this is not true." Once all the hadiths were recited, al-Bukhari recited each of them correctly, following the altered chain of narrators. The imam had such a phenomenal memory.

Temperance

Muhammad had an unshakable and incomparable asceticism. He inherited a huge fortune from his father, but due to his generosity, the imam quickly squandered the money. Left without funds, al-Bukhari ate only a couple of almonds a day.

The Imam has many times had the chance to take advantage of the generosity of the rulers, but he never did. One day Muhammad fell ill. The doctor, having studied the analyzes of his urine, found out that al-Bukhari did not use curry for a very long time. During a conversation with a patient, the doctor learned about the imam's abstinence from this product for the past forty years.

Special qualities

Al-Bukhari (PDF books of the imam on thematic sitespopular) has always put the satisfaction of others above his own. This confirms the incident with the slave. As she approached the door of the room where the Imam was sitting, she stumbled. Muhammad warned her, "Watch where you are going." She replied: “How can you walk if there is no place?” After that, al-Bukhari threw up his hands and said: “Now you can go wherever you want, I give you freedom.”

The Imam always paid attention to the little things that would help him achieve greater pleasure from Allah. A similar incident happened to him in the mosque. A man standing in the crowd found a feather in his beard and threw it on the floor. This was noticed by al-Bukhari. Choosing a moment when no one was watching him, the imam picked up the pen and put it in his pocket. After leaving the mosque, Muhammad threw it away, realizing that he helped keep the place of worship clean.

Another significant incident occurred during the performance of the Zuhr prayer by the Imam. After its completion, al-Bukhari performed nafl. Then he turned to his comrades, lifted his shirt and asked if anyone was there. Suddenly, a wasp flew out from under the clothes. She left seventeen bites on al-Bukhari's body. One of the comrades asked the imam why he did not interrupt the prayer. The hadith expert stated that he experienced a certain pleasure from prayer and did not want to be interrupted because of such a trifle.

Relentless

This quality of the Imam is perfectly demonstrated by the situation with the ruler of Bukhara. Once he asked Muhammad to teach his children. Al-Bukhari declined the request, stating that he showed more respect for knowledge than for people. It is they who should strive to receive them, and not vice versa.

The head of the city did not like the answer. The ruler again asked the imam to work separately with his children. But Muhammad was adamant. The second refusal greatly angered the head of Bukhara. He ordered the imam to be driven out of the city. Upon learning of this, the residents of Samarkand immediately sent al-Bukhari an invitation to stay with them. But even in this city, Muhammad had enemies. As a result, the hadith expert went to Hartang.

Main work

Imam has written a lot of books. But only one collection of hadiths of al-Bukhari enjoys special respect and honor. In the field of study of legends, he has the highest status. And this work is called "Sahih al-Bukhari".

No one knows the exact start date of its compilation. But it is reliably known that after completing the work on the collection, the imam submitted it to three of his teachers for consideration: Ibn Main (died in 233), Ibn-ul-Madini (died in 234) and Ahmad ibn Khaldal (died in 241). There is also evidence that al-Bukhari has been compiling the collection for 16 years. This indicates the approximate date of the start of work on the book - 217. Imam was then only 23 years old.

Even before the publication of al-Bukhari's collection, there were many books with hadith. Muhammad studied them carefully and found out that there are traditions with both strong and weak chains of narrators. This led the imam to the idea of creating a collection that would include only hadiths exclusively with a strong isnad. This idea was supported by his teacher Ishaq ibnRahwai, which strengthened al-Bukhari in his decision. Additionally, this desire was strengthened by a dream that the Imam had. Muhammad stood with a fan next to the Prophet and brushed off midges from him. Waking up in the morning, the hadith expert went to several interpreters to get an interpretation of night vision. They all answered him in the same way: in the future, Muhammad will cleanse the Prophet from the lies of people who convey misunderstood traditions. This calmed the imam and gave strength to write the collection Sahih al-Bukhari. It includes the texts of traditions that tell about the actions, sayings and life of the Prophet.

It is important to note that these were extremely reliable hadiths of al-Bukhari. That is, the imam chose only those traditions that met the established conditions and standards. The main criterion was a strong chain of transmitters. During all the years of work on the book, Muhammad edited it three times. Some said that the imam began writing the collection in Bukhara, others talked about Mecca, others said about Basra, and the fourth saw him compiling the collection in Medina. However, the imam himself indicated the true place of writing the book. It was the Al-Haram Mosque. Let's move on.

Before including hadiths in the collection, al-Bukhari performed ghusl and indulged in prayers. He asked Allah for guidance, performing two rak'ahs of nafl prayer. Then the imam thoroughly examined and analyzed the available traditions, and only if the result satisfied him, the hadiths were included in the collection. Because of such a careful and careful attitude to the texts, people got the feeling that Muhammad heard them personally from the Prophet.

Compilation nameindicates that only hadiths with a strong chain of narrators are included. On the other hand, al-Bukhari tried to explain to readers all the difficult moments for perception. Therefore, if a difficult word was present in a sentence, the imam immediately published a lot of its meanings for convenience. In Sahih al-Bukhari one can observe the mastery of Muhammad in the transmission of hadith collected in eight chapters. The latter were divided into topics, subdivided, in turn, into subheadings and known for their original way of formulating them.

Reason for popularity

Why is the collection of hadiths "Sahih al-Bukhari" especially distinguished from the rest? Why is he so highly respected? The reasons are as follows:

1. If there was a need to suspend work on the collection, then al-Bukhari resumed it only after writing the Bismillah. Therefore, this expression was often mentioned on the pages of his book.
2. At the end of each chapter, the imam deliberately used a word in a sentence that would make the reader think and more consciously approach his main life goal. For example, immediately after the first part of Sahih al-Bukhari, he included a word suggestive of short life and death.
3. The imam attached great importance to including a suitable hadith at the beginning and end of the collection. He considered it extremely important. The very first hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari is about intention. This gives the reader the opportunity not to lie to himself about what he wants to get by studying the words of the Prophet presented in the book. ATIn the last chapter en titled “Kitab-ut-Tawhid”, Muhammad praised the oneness of Allah many times. This, according to the imam, will be the salvation of people on the Day of Judgment, when they will be forced to report to him for their own sins.

According to Allama Nawawi, Islamic scholars have recognized "Sahih al-Bukhari" as the most reliable book after the Holy Quran. This collection includes 7275 hadiths, including recurring traditions. If we exclude them, then we get exactly 4000.

Hafiz Ibn Hajar recounted the traditions and came to the conclusion that 7397 hadiths were transmitted directly from the Prophet. Taking into account the narrations from the Tabieen, Sahaba, etc., this figure increased to 9407. If we exclude repetitions, then, according to Ibn Hajar, there will remain 160 messages from the Sahaba and 2353 narrations from the Prophet. In total, this gives 2513 lore.

Inclusion conditions

This or that hadith could get into the collection only if its narrator met the requirements established by al-Bukhari. One of the conditions was the presence of an excellent memory. Also among the requirements were certain restrictions:

1. The chain of narrators must not be missing links of transmitters.
2. All authoritative muhadisses must unanimously agree on the candidacy of the narrator of legends. They need to find out if the narrator is capable of memorizing, memorizing and transmitting hadith authentically.
3. If a legend has two different transmitters (and it came to them from the Sahab), then it must be given a high rank. Whenhaving only one narrator, but with strong evidence, the hadeeth should also be accepted without any doubt.

Death

On the way to Samarkand al-Bukhari, whose biography is presented in the article, wrote a will, prayed and departed to another world. The Imam was buried in the village of Khartank. Eyewitnesses said that during this event, a fragrance spread from the grave, and an image of a wall rising to heaven appeared around. The smell hovered for several days, and people came to look at this miracle. The envious of al-Bukhari also visited the grave. Realizing his level, they repented.

One day Samarkand was overtaken by a severe drought. Even though the people prayed, it didn't rain. Then one righteous man advised the imam along with the people to go to the grave of al-Bukhari and pray to Allah there. They took his advice. As a result, all residents of Samarkand had to stay in Khartak, as it rained heavily for several days.

Reviews

Many scholars (contemporaries of al-Bukhari) appreciated the works of Muhammad very well. Suffice it to say that in the field of hadith science he was called the "commander of the faithful." There is a story that confirms this nickname of Al-Bukhari. Muslim (another imam), kissing Muhammad on the forehead, said to him: “O teacher of teachers, let me kiss your feet too.” After that, he asked al-Bukhari a question about the hadeeth about atonement for the meeting. The Imam pointed out to him the shortcomings of this tradition. When Muhammad finished speaking, Muslim declared: “Only envious people can hate al-Bukhari!I testify that there is simply no one like you in the world!” Another scholar named Bindar said, “I only know the four best Muhaddiths. These are ad-Darimi from Samarkand, Muslim from Nishapur, Abu Zur from Ray and al-Bukhari from Bukhara.” According to Ishaq bin Rahawiya, even if Muhammad lived during the time of al-Hasan, people would still need his traditions and knowledge of fiqh. Abu Hatim ar-Razi considered al-Bukhari the most knowledgeable scholar among those who visited Baghdad. According to At-Tirmidhi, neither in Khorasan nor in Iraq was there a person who knew history so well and understood the shortcomings of the hadith as Muhammad. Ibn Khuzayma said: “Under the firmament I have not yet met either a Messenger of Allah more knowledgeable in the traditions, nor one who memorized as many stories as Muhammad.” Abu-l-Abbas ad-Dalavi passed on to his descendants a couple of lines from the message of the people of Baghdad to Muhammad: “As long as you are with the Muslims, good will not leave them. You will be missed and no one better than al-Bukhari will be found." Imam Ahmad said: “There has never been anything like him in Khorasan.”

Interesting facts

• The life and work of al-Bukhari was directed to the search for hadith. He traveled a lot. Those who accompanied the imam on the way told about his unexpected rises at night 15-20 times to repeat the written hadiths. Although, to memorize the page, it was enough for him to look at it only once. Why did he reread and repeat hadiths? It's simple - al-Bukhari loved the speech of the Prophet. The imam also performed up to thirteen rak'ah prayers a night. And this despitedifficulties encountered along the way.
• Al-Nawawi wrote that all the virtues of the Imam are simply impossible to enumerate. A separate treatise can be written about each of its qualities. These are piety, asceticism, excellent memory, diligence in acquiring hadith, miracles performed, etc.
• Al-Bukhari was hardy and well developed physically. He was an excellent archer and rarely missed. The imam also rode a horse very well. If he had to cross dangerous terrain on the way, he went to bed early. So the imam stocked up on strength in case of an attack by robbers.
• At that time, a real miracle was that al-Bukhari managed to finish reading the entire Qur'an during the day, and mastered one third of this book at night. It was physically impossible for ordinary people, but Allah gave his beloved imam grace in time.
• To criticize a person, al-Bukhari used moderate language. When someone told false hadiths to others, the imam did not accuse him of lying. He only said: “These hadiths are not taken into account” or “Not accepted.”
• Al-Bukhari stated that he wanted to meet with Allah without gibat (the sin of blasphemy behind his back). That is, never in his life did the imam say something behind people's backs that they might not like.