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Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''
hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Alongside ''
Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century '' hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...
'', it is one of the most valued books in
Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disag ...
after the
Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
. Both books are part of the Kutub al-Sittah, the six major Sunni collections of ''hadith'' of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
. The book is also revered by Zaydi Shias. It consists of an estimated 7,563 ''hadith'' narrations across its 97 chapters.


Content

Sources differ on the exact number of hadiths in Sahih al-Bukhari, with definitions of ''
hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
'' varying from a prophetic tradition or '' sunnah'', or a narration of that tradition. Experts have estimated the number of full-'' isnad'' narrations in the Sahih at 7,563, with the number reducing to around 2,600 without considerations to repetitions or different versions of the same ''hadith.'' Bukhari chose these narrations from a collection of 600,000 narrations he had collected over 16 years. The narrations are distributed across 97 chapters covering ''
fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...
'' (Islamic jurisprudence), among other subjects. Each chapter contains references to relevant verses from the Quran. It provides proper Islamic guidance in almost all aspects of
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
life such as the method of performing prayers and other actions of worship directly from
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
.


Development


Collection

It is reported that Bukhari traveled widely throughout the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttal ...
from the age of 16. Bukhari found the earlier ''hadith'' collections including both '' ṣaḥīḥ'' (authentic, sound)' and ''hasan'' narrations. He also found that many of them included ''daʻīf'' (weak) narrations. This aroused his interest in compiling hadith whose authenticity was beyond doubt. What further strengthened his resolve was something his teacher and contemporary ''hadith'' scholar Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh had told him. Bukhari narrates, "We were with Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh who said, "If only you would compile a book of only authentic narrations of the Prophet." This suggestion remained in my heart so I began compiling the ''Sahih''." Bukhari also said, "I saw the Prophet in a dream and it was as if I was standing in front of him. In my hand was a fan with which I was protecting him. I asked some dream interpreters, who said to me, 'You will protect him from lies.' This is what compelled me to produce the ''Sahih''." Bukhari imposed four conditions the narrators of a ''hadith'' must meet, in order for the narration to be included in his Sahih: * being just, * possessing strong memory and all the scholars who possess great knowledge of ''hadith'' must agree upon the narrators' ability to learn and memorize, along with their reporting techniques, * complete '' isnad'' without any missing narrators, * consecutive narrators in the chain must meet each other. Bukhari began organizing his book in the Masjid al-Haram in
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
, before moving to the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in
Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
. Bukhari completed writing the book in
Bukhara Bukhara ( Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city ...
around 846 (232 AH), before showing it to his teachers for examination and verification.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
quoted Abu Jaʿfar al-‘Uqaili as saying, "After Bukhari had written the ''Sahih'', he showed it to Ali ibn al-Madini, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma'in as well as others. They examined it and testified to its authenticity with the exception of four ''hadith''." Ibn Hajar then concluded with al-'Uqaili's saying, "And those four are as Bukhari said, they are authentic." Bukhari spent the last twenty-four years of his life visiting other cities and scholars, making minor revisions to his book and teaching the hadith he had collected. In every city that Bukhari visited, thousands of people would gather to listen to him recite traditions.


Transmission

Each version of the ''Sahih'' is named by its narrator.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
in his book ''Nukat'' asserts the number of narrations is the same in each version. There are many books that noted differences between the different versions, the best known being '' Fath al-Bari''. The version transmitted by Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Firabri (d. 932), a trusted student of Bukhari, is the most famous version of the Sahih al-Bukhari today. All modern printed version are derived from this version.
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit ibn Aḥmad ibn Māhdī al-Shāfiʿī, commonly known as al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī ( ar, الخطيب البغدادي) or "the lecturer from Baghdad" (10 May 1002 – 5 September 1071; 392 AH-463 AH), wa ...
quoted al-Firabri in ''History of Baghdad'': "About seventy thousand people heard ''Sahih Bukhari'' with me." al-Firabri is not the only transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari. Many others narrated the book, including Ibrahim ibn Ma'qal (d. 907), Hammad ibn Shakir (d. 923), Mansur Burduzi (d. 931) and Husain Mahamili (d. 941).


Derived works

The orientalist Manjana said in Cambridge in 1936 that the oldest manuscript he had come across up to that point was written in 984 (370 AH), according to the narration of al-Mirwazi from al-Firabri. The oldest full manuscript is a version on the narration of Abu Dharr al-Heravi (d. 1043) written in Maghrebi script, present in the
Süleymaniye Library This is a list of libraries within the city limits of Istanbul. Some of the most important libraries are: * American Library (Amerikan Kütüphanesi), Tepebaşı * Atatürk Library, Taksim * Beyazıt State Library, Beyazıt * Halide Edip Adıvar ...
in
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...
is from 1155 (550 AH).


Commentaries

The number of detailed commentaries on the Sahih are numbered around 400, including ''Tafsir al-Gharib ma fi al-Sahihayn'' by al-Humaydī (d. 1095), Ibn Kathir's (d. 1373) ''Sharh'', '' Fath al-Bari'' by
Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
(d. 852 AH), ''Al-Tawshih'' by al-Suyuti (d. 1505), ''Irshad al-Sari'' by al-Qastallani (d. 1517), ''Umdat al-Qari by
Badr al-Din al-Ayni Abū Muḥammad Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn Mūsā Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, often quoted simply as al-'Ayni ( ar, بدر الدين العيني, Badr al-ʿAynī; born 762 AH/1360 CE, died 855 AH/1453 CE) was a Sunni Islamic scholar of the Hanafi m ...
'', and ''Al-Tanqih'' by al-Zarkashi (d. 1392). Modern commentaries are also written by Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri, Anwar Shah Kashmiri,' Kausar Yazdani, Muhammad Taqi Usmani,' and Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalawi. Few scholars have commented on Bukhari's reasons behind naming the chapters in his Sahih, known as ''tarjumat al-bab''.''''
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
is noted to be one of them. Shah Waliullah Dehlawi had mentioned 14 reasons, later modified by Mahmud al-Hasan to make it 15''.'' Kandhlawi is noted to have found as many as 70, even writing a book on the topic, ''Al-Abwab wat-Tarajim li Sahih al-Bukhari''.''''


Translations

''Sahih al-Bukhari'' was originally translated into English by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, titled ''The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih al-Bukhari: Arabic-English'' (1971), derived from the Arabic text of '' Fath Al-Bari'', published by the
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
ian Maktabat wa-Maṭbaʻat Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī in 1959. It is published by Al Saadawi Publications and Darussalam Publications and is included in the
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
- MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. Large numbers of ''hadith'' narrations included in Hilali and Khan's work have been translated by Muhammad Ali and Thomas Cleary. The book is also available in numerous languages including
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, Bosnian,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...
,
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...
, Albanian, Malay, and
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, among others. In 2019, the Arabic Virtual Translation Center in New York translated and published the first complete English translation of ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' titled ''Encyclopedia of Sahih Al-Bukhari'', including explanatory notes, a glossary of every term, and biographies of all narrators in the ''isnad''.


Reception

Sunni Muslims regard ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' as one of the two most important books among the Kutub al-Sittah alongside the ''
Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century '' hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...
'', written by al-Bukhari's student
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Asākir ad-Dīn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward ibn Kawshādh al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī ( ar, أبو الحسين عساكر الدين مسلم بن الحجاج بن مسلم بن وَرْد بن كوشاذ ...
. The two books are known as the Sahihayn'' (The Two ''Sahihs'')'. Al-Nawawi wrote about Sahih al-Bukhari, "The scholars, may God have mercy on them, have agreed that the most authentic book after the dear Quran are the two Sahihs of Bukhari and
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
." Siddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1890) wrote, "All of the Salaf and ''Khalaf'' assert that the most authentic book after the book of Allah is Sahih al-Bukhari and then Sahih Muslim." In the '' Introduction to the Science of Hadith'', Ibn al-Salah wrote: "The first to author a ''Sahih'' was
Bukhari Bukhari or Bokhari () means "from Bukhara (Uzbekistan)" in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Hebrew, and may refer to: People * al-Bukhari (810–870), Islamic hadith scholar and author of the *Bukhari Daud (1959–2021), Indonesian academician and reg ...
.. followed by Abū al-Ḥusayn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj an-Naysābūrī al-Qushayrī, who was his student, sharing many of the same teachers. These two books are the most authentic books after the
Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
. As for the statement of Al-Shafi‘i, who said, "I do not know of a book containing knowledge more correct than Malik's book nowiki/>Muwatta_Imam_Malik.html" ;"title="Muwatta_Imam_Malik.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Muwatta Imam Malik">nowiki/>Muwatta Imam Malik">Muwatta_Imam_Malik.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Muwatta Imam Malik">nowiki/>Muwatta Imam Malik" [...] he said this before the books of Bukhari and Muslim. The book of Bukhari is the more authentic of the two and more useful." Ibn al-Salah also quoted Bukhari as having said, "I have not included in the book ahih al-Bukhariother than what is authentic and I did not include other authentic hadith for the sake of brevity." In addition,
al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
quoted Bukhari as having said, "I have memorized one hundred thousand authentic hadith and two hundred thousand which are less than authentic."


Criticism

Criticism has also been directed at apparent contradictions within Bukhari regarding the
ahruf According to Islamic tradition, the Quran was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel (''Jibril '') in seven ''ahruf'' ( ar, أَحْرُف, translit=aḥruf, sing. ''ḥarf''), translated variously as "editions", "styl ...
of the Quran. Some narrations state the Quran was revealed only in the dialect of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
's tribe, the Quraysh, while others state it was revealed in seven ahruf. Certain
prophetic medicine In Islam, prophetic medicine ( ar, الطب النبوي, ') is the advice given by the prophet Muhammad with regards to sickness, treatment and hygiene as found in the hadith. It is usually practiced primarily by non-physician scholars who collec ...
and remedies espoused in Bukhari, such as cupping, have been noted for being unscientific.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
, on the basis of contrary archaeological evidence, criticised a hadith regarding
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
's height and human height. In the 2003 book ''The Idea of Women in Fundamentalist Islam'', Lamia Shehadeh used gender theory to critique an '' ahaad'' hadith about women's leadership. Another hadith reported by Abu Hurairah was criticized by Fatema Mernissi for being reported out of context and without any further clarification in the Sahih. The clarification is given in a hadith reported by
Aisha Aisha ( ar, , translit=ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr; , also , ; ) was Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" ( ar, links=no, , ʾumm al- muʾminīn), referr ...
in al-Zarkashi's (1344–1392) hadith collection. According to
Charles Kurzman Charles Kurzman is a Professor of Sociology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in Middle East and Islamic studies. Education and employment After completing his B.A. at Harvard University in 1986, he completed his M.A. ...
, this case raises the question of whether other narrations in Bukhari have been reported incompletely or lack proper context. In 2017, Rachid Aylal, a
Quranist Quranism ( ar, القرآنية, translit=al-Qurʾāniyya'';'' also known as Quran-only Islam) Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.38-42 is a movement within Islam. It holds the belief that traditional religious cl ...
, published a book criticizing the Sahih, titled ''Sahih Al-Bukhari: The End of a Legend''. It was banned in Morocco for disturbing spiritual security, due to pressure from Islamists.


See also

* Muhammad al-Bukhari, author of ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' * ''
Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century '' hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...
'', another Sahih collection of ''hadith'' narrations and the other of the 'Sahihayn' *
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Asākir ad-Dīn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward ibn Kawshādh al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī ( ar, أبو الحسين عساكر الدين مسلم بن الحجاج بن مسلم بن وَرْد بن كوشاذ ...
, author of ''Sahih Muslim'' and student of Muhammad al-Bukhari * Kutub al-Sittah, six most highly-regarded collections of ''hadith'' in Sunni Islam, one of which is ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' * '' Fath al-Bari'', most highly-regarded commentary on ''Sahih al-Bukhari'' *
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
, 15th-century hadith scholar and author of ''Fath al-Bari''


Notes


References


Citations


External links

*
The Translation and the Meanings of Sahîh Al-Bukhâri: Arabic-English
', trans. by Muhammad Muhsin Khan, ndw edn, 9 vols (Riyadh: Darussalam, 1997); also digitised i
html

Sahih Bukhari
– Translation by Muhammad Muhsin Khan from
Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement The Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE) was a faith-based coalition whose stated mission was to "promote dialogue, understanding and grassroots, congregational and academic partnerships among the oldest and the newest of the Abrahamic fait ...
( USC-MSA)
A Manual of Hadith
by Muhammad Ali
pdf
– a selected compendium of Sahih al-Bukhari with commentary {{Authority control Sunni literature Hadith Hadith studies Hadith collections Sunni hadith collections 9th-century Arabic books