1. Imam Bukhari’s service to Hadith Literature
By the Star when it goes down,- your companion is neither astray nor
being mislead, nor does he say (Aught) of (his own) Desire. It is no less than
inspiration sent down to him: He was taught by one Mighty in Power,
endued with wisdom: For he appeared (in stately form) While he was in the
highest part of the horizon: then he approached and was at a distance of but
two bow-lengths or (even) nearer; so did (Allah) convey the inspiration to
his servant-(conveyed) What he (meant) to convey. (An-Najam: 1-10)
The words of the prophet of Allah are not same as that of an ordinary
person: he is inspired by Allah: his words have fragrance of divinity and as
such should handled with sublimity and with due reverence.
Imam Bukhari: Imam al-muhaddithîn Hadrat Imam Abû `Abdullâh
Muhammad ibn Ismâ`îl al-Bukhari was born on the 13th of the Shawwâl,
194AH, in the famous city of Bukhara, present day Uzbekistan. The father
of Imam Bukhari, Ismâ`îl ibn Ibrâhîm ibn Mughîrah al-Ja`fî, was a great
muhaddith from whom he inherited his literary zeal and excellence. During
infancy his father passed away and his mother took on the entire
responsibility of bringing him up. Imam Bukhari became blind at a young
age. His mother, who was a pious woman, prayed to Allah and begged for
the restoration of his eyesight, Allah listened to her prayer and restored his
eyesight.
At the age of eighteen he visited Makkah accompanied by his mother
and elder brother, Ahmad ibn Ismâ`îl. After performing the pilgrimage, his
brother returned with his mother, but Imam Bukhari stayed there for further
2. education. Meanwhile, he wrote a book called, Qadâyâ as-Sahâbah wat-
Tâbi`în. After this he went to Madînah al-munawwarah to compile the
famous book of Asmâ` ar-rijâl (Names of men of transmission) called,
Târîkh al-kabîr, while sitting by the tomb of the Holy Prophet (SAW) during
moonlight hours. Muhammad ibn Yûsaf al-Furyâbî said that at the time he
had copied Târîkh al-kabîr, Imam Bukhari did not yet have any facial hair.
The problem of forging of Hadith:
During the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), emphasis was on the
penning down of Quran and as such the Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed
(SAW) were simply committed to memory. Though on individual level there
were some attempts to scribe the Hadith, e.g. Abu Hurayraha R.A. had made
a private compilation, on official level the first attempt was made by Umar
bin Abdul Aziz (R.A.) for the compilation of the Hadith. It would be
erroneous to think that the Su’ha’ba did not take pains for preservation of
Hadith, in fact some of the Su’ha’ba (Companions of prophet {SAW})
dedicated their lives to this cause. The reasons behind not writing down the
Hadith during the life time of prophet Muhammad (SAW) is a different topic
and needs a separate discussion.
The absence of any complete compilation of Ahadith encouraged some
unscrupulous persons, in the later period, to attribute many sayings to
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) which he never had said. These sayings got
currency among people and soon it became difficult to differentiate the
Sahih Ahadith from the forged ones. When the menace of forged Ahadith
spread its ugly head, the Muhaddithin took upon them the task of
maintaining the purity of Hadith literature. The Muhaddithin developed
3. criterion by which to categorise the Ahadith into different categories like
Sahih, Hassan, Ghareeb, Mauzu (forged) etc. it was made compulsory to
narrate the Hadith with complete chain of narrators, then the Muhaddith
would go into the credentials of each of the narrator in the chain and
accordingly the Hadith would be categorized. Later on when the chain of
narration began to be forged, the Muhaddithin would enquire whether the
person narrating from had met him or not. The incompletion of the chain
would raise doubts about the authenticity of the Hadith. Some of the
Muhaddithin had developed the spiritual insight to identify a Hadith, for the
Hadith had an aura of sublimity which is lacking in the words of the
common human being. (“It is no less than inspiration sent down to him: He
was taught by one Mighty in Power,”)
Role of Imam Bukhari:
Imam Bukhari had memorized over 200,000 traditions and written over
300,000. Unfortunately, some of these traditions were not genuinely
authentic and were unreliable, for he was born at a time when traditions of
the Holy Prophet (SAW) were being forged and distorted either to please
kings and rulers or to corrupt the religion of Islam. Or to prove the
superiority of one school of thought over the other or simply to achieve
some private end.
Imam Bukhari decided to dedicate the rest of his life in compiling a
book that would strictly comprise of authentic traditions. The Imam’s
mission was further strengthened when he was advised by his respected
teacher, Sheikh-ul-Hadith Ishaaq Ibn Rahway to compile such a book that
would exclusively contain ‘Sahih’ (authentic) Prophetic traditions. The
4. Imam’s determination grew stronger after seeing himself in a dream,
standing in front of the Noble Messenger of Allah (SAW). He had a fan in
his hand and was driving away the flies from the Messenger of Allah
(SAW). After relating the dream to numerous Scholars who were experts in
interpreting dreams, he was told that the dream meant that he would drive
away and remove the false traditions that were claimed to have been heard
from the Blessed Messenger of Allah (SAW). It was this dream that fuelled
his determination to compile the book that the world recognizes today as
‘Sahih Al-Bukhari.
There is a famous happening in the life of Imam Bukhari by which one
can get an idea of how much care the Muhaddithin took in ascertaining the
authenticity of the Hadith. One day Imam Bukhari heard that he could get
information about a Hadith from a particular person. Imam Sahib went to
that person so that he could get the requisite information. From some
distance the Imam Sahib saw that the person had folded his garments and
was beckoning his camel towards it and posing as if there were something in
the fold. The animal, enticed by it, came forward and the person caught hold
of the animal. Imam Sahib saw that there was nothing in the fold of his
garments. He returned without meeting that person thinking how could he
believe a person, in the matter of Hadith, who had deceived an animal.
After sixteen years of exceptionally hard work, his famous book had
been completed. Despite the excessive number of traditions that the Imam
had memorized, he only selected 7275 Ahadith because these were the
traditions that held strong testimonials as well as having no doubt in their
authenticity. The above number consists of traditions that have been
repeated. If the repeated Ahadith were to be excluded, the number of
5. traditions will then become a total of 4,000. It is reported that the Imam
would first have a bath then perform two rakat salaah and pray for guidance
before inserting a new tradition to his book. The book was reviewed and
approved of by great Scholars of his time including Imam Ahmad Ibn
Hanbal, Ali Ibn Madeeni and Yahya Ibn Mu’een
On 1 Shawwal 256 AH / 870 CE whilst on a journey from Kartank to
Samarqand the great Imam Bukhari departed from this world (To Allah we
belong and to Him we shall return).
About Imam Muslim: writing about Hadith and not mentioning Imam
Muslim appears to be an unjust endeavour. He too compiled Sahih Muslim
the authenticity of which is only next to Sahih Bukhari. He himself says that
he compiled Sahih Muslim from among 3,00,000 Ahadith which he had
heard.
Finale: Notwithstanding the love the Su’ha’ba had for prophet
Mohammad (SAW) and the dedication they had for promotion of Hadith,
they observed great care in narrating it, fearing they might not make some
error in the narration and thereby, unwittingly, attribute something to
Prophet which he had not said. They preferred others to narrate. They would
not even tolerate that the order of words would be altered or that they would
use their own words. If they had any doubt regarding the order of the words
or were not confident of their memory, they would mention even that.
From the above discussion one can get an idea of how delicate is the
matter of Ahadith and how much care has been observed by the
Muhaddithin in narrating Hadith. In our times and particularly in Kashmir,
6. Hadith are being narrated carelessly. To prove the superiority of ones cult or
of some particular school of thought, Hadith are being narrated without
caring for their authenticity. When a person hears a Hadith which suits his
ideas, he narrates them in public carelessly and nobody dares to object,
fearing contempt.
Caution is needed in the narration of the Hadith. Only that person who
is well versed with the Hadith literature should narrate Hadith and at least
should know the difference between various categories of Hadith and that he
should narrate from an authentic compilation and that Hadith should be
narrated along with Takh’reej. One should desist from narrating Hadith
which one has simply heard from someone else. There is a Hadith of Prophet
Muhammad (SAW), narrated by Bukhari, which I have loosely translated as:
“….whoever attributed a lie to me should make hell as his dwelling place.”
Authored by:
Master Manzoor Ahmad Dar
7. Hadith are being narrated carelessly. To prove the superiority of ones cult or
of some particular school of thought, Hadith are being narrated without
caring for their authenticity. When a person hears a Hadith which suits his
ideas, he narrates them in public carelessly and nobody dares to object,
fearing contempt.
Caution is needed in the narration of the Hadith. Only that person who
is well versed with the Hadith literature should narrate Hadith and at least
should know the difference between various categories of Hadith and that he
should narrate from an authentic compilation and that Hadith should be
narrated along with Takh’reej. One should desist from narrating Hadith
which one has simply heard from someone else. There is a Hadith of Prophet
Muhammad (SAW), narrated by Bukhari, which I have loosely translated as:
“….whoever attributed a lie to me should make hell as his dwelling place.”
Authored by:
Master Manzoor Ahmad Dar
