Introduction to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī | Pt. I
Mawlānā Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Sahāranpūrī | Translated by Ustadha Sarah Salih
Translator’s Introduction
أبدأ بسم الله
والصلاة والسلام على حبيبنا المصطفى
وما توفيقي إلا بالرب الأعلى
Imām Khalīl Aḥmad al-Sahāranpurī (d. 1927) was one of the most erudite scholars of recent centuries, known for his seminal contributions to the hadith sciences. Having written a 20-volume commentary on Sunan Abī Dāwūd and a celebrated marginalia (ḥāshiyah) on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, there is no doubt he was distinguished in his time. His critical edition of the Ṣaḥīḥ is notable due to his access to ten different manuscripts of the work, including the well-known Sāghānī manuscript. Even though this edition is primarily studied for his commentary, he appends to it a useful and comprehensive introduction. This article is the first in a series translating al-Sahāranpūrī’s introduction to his edition of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. The objective of this translation series is to share the author’s insights with students of knowledge and help them gain a better appreciation of one of the greatest texts they will study with Allah’s permission.
An Introduction to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
by Mawlāna Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Sahāranpurī (may Allāh have mercy on him)
All praise is due to the One who allowed us to serve the words and life of the Prophet - may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, his family and those who accompanied him.
To proceed: the destitute slave of God, the humbled servant of prophetic hadith - Aḥmad ʿAlī — a man from Sahāranpūr, a student of [Muḥammad] Isḥāq [Dihlawī], and an adherent of the Ḥanafī school — says:
Through the divine aid of Allah and His excellent grace, I have spent a number of years editing the Ṣaḥīḥ of the great Imām, the foremost among scholars of ḥadīth, Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī. I’ve annotated it with comments that are sufficient to decipher the book and its intent, as well as uncover the link between each chapter’s heading and its contents. Therefore, I decided to include a comprehensive introduction that covers essential topics for the reader and have divided it into several chapters.
Chapter One: About the Author
He is the leading figure in hadith, Shaykh al-Islām Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm b. al-Mughīrah b. Bardizbah. “Bardizbah” is a Persian word that means “farmer”. Bardizbah was a Zoroastrian who died upon that faith. His son, al-Mughīra, accepted Islam through al-Yamān al-Bukhārī al-Juʿfī, who was the leader of Bukhara. This al-Yamān is [known as] Abū Jadd ʿAbd-Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Yamān al-Masnadī - the teacher of al-Bukhārī. Al-Bukhārī is also known as al-Juʿfī because al-Yamān al-Juʿfī was his guardian (mawla) as recognised in Islām.
Imām al-Bukhārī was slim in his build, and neither short nor tall. He was an ascetic who was characterized by abstinence. He inherited abundant wealth from his father and would give it away in charity. He would eat little and show [nothing but] excellence to his students, unrestricted in his generosity. There is a consensus [among historians] that he was born after the Friday prayer on the 13th of Shawwāl in the year 194AH, and that he passed away on a Saturday night at the time of ʿIshāʾ, the night before ʿĪd al-Fiṭr. He was buried on the day of ʿĪd after Ẓuhr in the year 256AH, just 13 days shy of turning 63. He was buried in Khartanak, a village a few miles away from Samarqand. He did not leave behind any children. After the funeral prayer was conducted and he was placed to rest, a pleasant smell - the likes of musk - emanated from the soil of his grave. People would frequent his grave and take from its soil, amazed by what they saw. How fitting is the statement of the one who said:
جمال ہم نشیں در من اثر کرد
وگرنہ من ہماں حنا کم کہ ہستمThe beauty of my companion influenced me;
Otherwise, I am the same dust I have always been.
One person narrates:
I saw the Prophet ﷺ along with his companions in a dream. He ﷺ was standing, so I gave him salām and he returned the salām. Upon asking the Prophet ﷺ why he was standing there, he ﷺ replied: “I am waiting for Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl.” A few days later, I heard of Imām Bukhārī’s passing. I later discovered that he had passed away at the exact time that I saw the dream.
It was reported that Yaḥyā b. Jaʿfar b. Aʿyan al-Azdī said: “If I was able to take from my lifespan and add it to the lifespan of al-Bukhārī, I would have done so. My death is but the death of one person, but the death of al-Bukhārī is the obsolescence of knowledge and the death of the world.” One poet appropriately said:
إذا ما مات ذو علم وفتوى فقد وقعت من الإسلام ثُلمة
When a true scholar passes away, Islam suffers a wound
Poetry has also been composed on the birth, life, and death of Imām al-Bukhārī:
كان البخاري حافظا ومحدثا جمع الصحيح مكمل التحرير
ميلاده صدق ومدة عمره فيها حميد وانقضى في نور
Al-Bukhārī was a ḥāfiẓ and scholar of hadith
With perfect precision he compiled the Ṣaḥīḥ
His birth was a gift to humanity
The whole span of his life so praiseworthy
Engulfed in light, did it finally cease
Al-Farabrī said: “I saw Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī in my dream behind the Prophet ﷺ. he Prophet ﷺ was walking forth, and when he ﷺ raised his foot, al-Bukhārī would place his own foot in the same place [where the Prophet ﷺ stepped].” Muḥammad b. Ḥamdawayh said: “I heard Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl say: "I have memorised 100,000 ṣaḥīḥ hadiths and 200,000 that are not ṣaḥīḥ.”
Muḥammad b. Bashshār — the teacher of both Bukhārī and Muslim — said: “The huffāẓ[1] of the world are four: Abu Zurʿah from Rayy, Muslim b. Ḥajjāj from Nishapur, ʿAbd-Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al Dārimī from Samarqand, and Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl from Bukhara.
ʿAlī b. Ḥijr said: “Khorasan has produced three: Abū Zurʿah from Rayy, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl from Bukhara and al-Dārimī from Samarqand.” He then said, “Al-Bukhārī is the most learned, most intelligent, and the sharpest of them.”
Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal said: “Khorasan has not produced anyone [superior to] Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl”.
Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh said: “O people of hadith, look at this young man and write down what he says, for if he was in the time of al-Hasan al-Baṣrī, [al-Ḥasan] would be in need of him because of his proficiency in hadith and his deep understanding of the religion”.
Abū ʿIsā al-Tirmidhī said: “I have not seen - in Iraq nor Khorasan - anyone more knowledgeable than Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl in regards to hadith criticism, history, or chains of transmission”.
It is reported that Imām Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj said to al-Bukhārī, “Only those who are jealous dislike you. I bear witness that there is no one in this world quite like you.” Abū ʿAbd-Allāh al-Ḥākim narrates in his Tārīkh Naysābūr with his chain of transmission from Aḥmad b. Ḥamdūn that, “Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj came to al-Bukhārī, kissed him on his forehead, and said, ‘Allow me to kiss your feet, O teacher of teachers, O leader of the muḥaddithīn, O doctor of defects in hadith!” Al-Imām Muḥammad b. Isḥāq b. Khuzaymah said: “I have not seen on the face of this earth anyone more knowledgeable of the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ than Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī said, “The statement of the Imām of all Imāms - Ibn Khuzayma - is sufficient in regards to [al-Bukhārī], for he has met the scholars of the east and the west.”
It has been recorded in al-Tahdhīb that al-Ḥakim Abū ʿAbd-Allāh said in Tārīkh Naysābūr: “Al-Bukhārī heard hadith from [the following people]:
In Makkah: Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Azraqī, ʿAbd-Allāh b. Yazīd al Muqriʾ, Ismāʿīl b. Sālim al-Ṣāʾigh, Abū Bakr ʿAbd-Allāh b. al-Zubayr al-Ḥumaydī, and their contemporaries.
In Madinah: Ibrāhīm b. al-Mundhir al-Ḥizāmī, Muṭarrif b. ʿAbd-Allāh, Ibrāhīm b. Ḥamzah, Abū Thābit Muḥammad b. ʿUbayd-Allāh, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿAbd-Allāh al-Uwaysī, and their contemporaries.
In al-Shām: Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Farabrī, Abū al-Naṣr Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm, Ādam b. Abī Iyās, Abū al-Yamān al-Ḥakam b. Nāfiʿ, Ḥaywah b. Shurayḥ, and their contemporaries.
In Bukhara: Muḥammad b. Salām al-Bīkandī, ʿAbd-Allāh b. Muḥammad b. al-Musnadī, Hārūn b. al-Ashʿath, and their contemporaries.
In Marw: ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan Ibn Shafīq, ʿAbdān, Muḥammad b. Muqātil, and their contemporaries.
In Balkh: Makki b. Ibrāhīm, Yaḥya b. Bishr, Muḥammad b. Abān, al-Ḥassan Ibn Shujāʿ, Yaḥyā b. Mūsā, Qutaybah, and their contemporaries. [Al-Bukhārī] heard from many people here.
In Herat: Aḥmad b. Abī al-Walīd al-Ḥanafī.
In Nishapur: Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā, Bishr b. al-Ḥakam, Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh, Muḥammad b. Rāfiʿ, Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī, and their contemporaries.
In Rayy: Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā.
In Baghdad: Muḥmmad b. ʿIsā al-Ṭabbāʿ, Muḥmmad b. Sābiq, Surayj b. al-Nuʿmān, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, and their contemporaries.
In Wāsiṭ: Ḥassān b. Ḥassān, Ḥassān b. ʿAbd-Allāh, Saʿīd b. Sulaymān, and their contemporaries.
In Basra: Abū ʿĀsim al-Nabīl, Ṣafwān b. ʿĪsā, Badal b. al-Muḥabbar, Ḥaramī b. ʿUmārah, ʿAffān b. Muslim, Muḥammad b. ʿArʿarah, Sulaymān b. Ḥarb, Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, ʿĀrim, Muḥammad b. Sinān, and their contemporaries.
In Kufa: ʿUbayd-Allāh b. Mūsā, Abū Nuʿaym, Aḥmad b. Yaʿqūb, Ismāʿīl b. Abān, al-Ḥasan b. al-Rabīʿ, Khālid b. Makhlad, Saʿd b. Ḥafṣ, Ṭalq b. Ghannām, ʿUmar b. Ḥafṣ, Farwah, Qabīṣah b. ʿUqbah, Abū Ghassān, and their contemporaries.
In Egypt: ʿUthmān b. Ṣāliḥ, Saʿīd b. Abī Maryam, ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ṣāliḥ, Aḥmad b. Shabīb, Aṣbagh b. al-Faraj, Saʿīd b. ʿIsā, Saʿīd b. Kathīr b. Ghafīr, Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Bukāyr, and their contemporaries.
In the Arabian peninsula: Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Malik, al-Ḥarrānī, Aḥmad b. Yazīd al-Ḥarrānī, ʿUmar b. Khalaf, Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbd-Allāh al-Raqqī, and their contemporaries.”
Al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAbd-Allāh goes on to say:
“Imām Bukhārī travelled to all of the aforementioned lands in pursuit of knowledge and he stayed with the scholars of each city. I have only mentioned the foremost from each city to show how short his chains of transmission were; success is only granted by Allah. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions: “Imām al-Bukhārī travelled to the hadith scholars of every knowledge hub. He wrote in Khorasan, the mountains and cities of Iraq, the Ḥijāz, Shām, and in Egypt, and he went to Baghdad multiple times.” Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Qaṭṭān narrates: “I heard al-Bukhārī say: I have written from more than a thousand scholars, and I remember/mention the chain of narration of every hadith.”
As for those who narrated from al-Bukhārī, they cannot be enumerated and are so well-known that their mention is superfluous. Al-Farabrī said: “Ninety-thousand people heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from Imām Bukhārī. There is no one left to narrate it, save myself.” Others also narrated [the Ṣaḥīḥ] from al-Bukhārī, however.[2] The most famous of those who narrated from al-Bukhārī are:
Abū al-Ḥusayn Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj, the author of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim
Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī
Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī
Imām Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq al-Ḥarbī
Ḥāfiẓ Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad b. Jazarah
Abū Bakr b. Khuzaymah
Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. Ṣāʾid
Muḥammad b. ʿAbd-Allāh Muṭayyan
All of the above are huffāẓ, and there are others of their caliber who also narrated from al-Bukhārī.”
Al-Taysīr mentions:
Al-Bukhārī said: “I compiled the Ṣaḥīḥ by drawing upon a body of 600,000 hadiths, and I did not place a narration within it except that I (first) prayed two rakāhs.”
When al-Bukhārī arrived in Baghdad, a group of hadith scholars came to him intending to test him. They gathered 100 hadiths and mismatched the chains of transmission with the contents (matn). Ten men were sent to him and presented the (tampered) narrations before him. When each person asked him about these narrations, he would say, “I am not familiar with this,” until all ten men had presented ten of the tampered narrations to him. The scholars in the gathering knew from his response that al-Bukhārī knew what was happening, though others were confused. After the ten had finished their round of questioning, al-Bukhārī turned to the first man and said, “As for the first narration you presented, it is actually as follows…and as for the second you presented, it is actually as follows.'' He continued to do this until he organized all of the narrations that were presented to him, matching each matn with the correct isnād. Thereafter, the people accepted his expertise and conceded his status.
Al-Bukhārī authored many books alongside the Ṣaḥīḥ, including:
Al-Adab al-Mufrad
Rafʾ al-Yadayn fi al-Ṣalah
Al-Qirāʿa Khalf al-Imām
Birr al-Walidayn
Al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr wal-Awsaṭ al-Saghīr
Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād
Kitāb al Ḍuʿafāʾ
Al-Jāmiʿ al Kabīr
Al-Musnad al-Kabīr
Kitab al-Ashribah
Kitab al-Hibah
Asāmī al-Ṣaḥabah
Kitāb al-ʿIlal
Kitāb al-Wijdān
Kitāb al Mabsūṭ
It has been narrated that al-Bukhārī said, “I have narrated hadith from 1,800 muḥaddithūn.” A vast number of students narrated directly from him, some saying that they numbered 100,000.
Above is a brief summary of al-Bukhārī’s background and character. Al-Nawawī writes in al-Tahdhīb:
His virtues cannot be examined in full because they cannot be counted. They are multifaceted and include his precision, understanding, dedication, devotion, the benefit he brought, abstinence, rigour, knowledge, spiritual station, miracles, and many more accolades. May Allah be pleased with him, and gather us and all those that we love in the abode of His blessings with those who He has chosen. May Allah grant him on behalf of myself and all Muslims the most complete reward, and may He bestow upon him the most gracious of gifts.
والحمد لله رب العالمين
Translator’s Notes
[1] The term ḥāfiẓ was used classically among scholars of hadith to refer to a scholar of very high caliber. Ibn Ḥajar lists several conditions for one to be considered a ḥāfiẓ, including having knowledge of the strata of narrators (ṭabaqāt and marātib al-ruwāh) and al-jarḥ wal-taʿdīl, as well as being able to distinguish sound from inauthentic narrations. Al-Munāwī states that a ḥāfiẓ is someone who has memorized at least 100,000 hadiths with their matn and isnād. See Ismāʿīl al-ʿAjlūnī, Al-Fayḍ al-jārī bi-sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-imām al-bukhārī (ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm, 2018), 7:7151; accessed via bukhari-pedia.net.
[2] Al-Farabrī’s comment should be understood as saying that he was the last of al-Bukhārī’s direct students who was alive to transmit the Ṣaḥīḥ, though this has been disputed. In his book, The Textual Integrity of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Mufti Muntasir Zaman explains that al-Farabrī’s recension of the Ṣaḥīḥ is the only extant one, but dozens of other students are confirmed to have transmitted recensions of the Ṣaḥīḥ directly from al-Bukhārī. See pg. 16.
About the Author: Ustadha Sarah Salih is an instructor at the Qalam Seminary, as well as a graduate of the Seminary ʿĀlimiyyah Program.
