Who is not aware of Imam Bukhari and his work Saheeh-ul- Bukhari? However, in the present day, a majority of Muslims use his kitaab to refer to whenever in need of a supporting reference for their actions or deeds without the knowledge of the life of the great author.
Kitaab-e-Bukhari has been given the status of being the most authentic book only next to the Holy Qur’ān. But why?
How much do we actually know about this great, rather exceptional scholar of Islam?
More importantly, what can we learn from the exemplary life he led?
Imam Bukhari was born on Friday, 13th Shawwaal 194 A.H. He lost the use of his eyes in his early childhood. However, thanks to the pious and lengthy prayers of his mother, his eyesight was restored miraculously.
Ismail, the father of Imam Bukhari, died in Imam Bukhari’s childhood, leaving him to the care of his mother who brought him up with love and care. At the age of 16 after having memorised the compiled books of Imam Waki and Abdullah Ibn Mubarak, he performed Haj with his elder brother and mother. After the completion of Haj, Imam Bukhari remained in Makkah for two more years; and, upon reaching the age of 18, headed for Medinah, and spent his nights next to the grave of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam compiling the books of Qadhaayas-Sahaabah Wat-Taabi’een and Taareekhul-Kabeer with the moonlight as the only means of light.
Imam Bukhari travelled a great deal in order to expand his knowledge. He made two trips to Syria and Egypt and stayed six years in Arabia. He also happened to return to Kufa, Baghdad and Basra four times and at times remained there for a period of five years. Also at Haj season he used to return to Makkah.
Among the most powerful tools that accompanied him on his mission to study Islam and collect ahadith was his exceptionally powerful memory. There is one spectacular incident which took place in Baghdad when Imam Bukhari took up temporary residence there. The people having heard of his many accomplishments, and the attributes which were issued to him, decided to test him so as to make him prove himself to them. In order to do that they chose one hundred different ahadith and changing the testimonials and the text of the ahadith they were then recited by ten people to Imam Bukhari.
There was a crowd of people from within and outside the city to witness the outcome of such a test. When the ahadith were recited, Imam Bukhari replied to all in one manner, “Not to my knowledge.” However, after the completion of all the ahadith Imam Bukhari repeated each text and testimonial which had been changed, followed by the correct text and testimonial. Such was the memory of Imam Bukhari (may Allah be pleased with him).
There are a number of books compiled by Imam Bukhari. However, Bukhari has gained great esteem and high status in the learning and memorising of ahadith. Imam Bukhari memorised over 2,00,000 traditions and written over 3,00,000. Unfortunately, some of these traditions were not genuinely authentic and thus unreliable, for he was born at a time when traditions of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) were being forged and distorted either to please kings and rulers or to corrupt the religion of Islam.
It was because of this reason that Imam Bukhari decided to dedicate the rest of his life to 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.
Imam Bukhari devoted not only his entire intelligence and exceptional memory to the writing of the momentous work, Sahih Bukhari, he attended to the task with utmost dedication and piety. He used to take a bath and pray whenever he sat down to write the book. A part of this book was written by him sitting by the side of the Prophet’s grave at Madinah.
An interesting aspect of his memory power can be observed from the life of Imam Bukhari. He started learning the Ahadith at a very early age and kept learning till an age that is considered to be beyond the learning age. This shows us that the more a person keeps learning, the more his learning power increases even at an extremely old age.
Imam Bukhari returned to his native place, Bukhara, at last and was given a rousing reception by the entire populace of this great cultural city. But he was not destined to live here for long. He was asked by the Ruler of Bukhara to teach him and his children the Ahadith of the Prophet at his palace. This he declined and migrated to a town near Samarkand. Here he breathed his last on 30th Ramadan, 256 A.H. (31 August 870 A.C.)
There are several qualitative aspects of the Imam’s life from which we can learn a lot.
In today’s world, a person with doctorates, Ph.Ds, and holders of various other degrees are accorded with a lot of respect. It is interesting that the same respect was given to the muhadditheen (scholars of the Ahadith) in the bygone era of the Muslim glory. The knowledge of the Qur’ān and the hadith along with that of this world are on equal footing and there should be no doubt or misconception in relation to this.
It seems that the moment our Ummah stopped studying the Qur’ān and hadith and all those research centres were forgotten and the Muslims started to ignore them, did the downfall of Muslims come about. In today’s world we have an excess of huffaz but lack of muhadditheen. True scholars who can rightly interpret the Hadith are the need of the day. Hence it is of utmost importance that today, we learn the hadith and more importantly implement it.
The life of Imam Bukhari truly embodies the importance of the Prophet’s traditions that we so blatantly ignore today. We must realise that it was the hard work and patience of these early scholars that enable us to access the ahadith so easily.
It also brings out an important aspect of our lives. The scholars of the bygone days devoted their entire lives to the study of the Prophetic traditions. Today we do not lack huffaz of the Qur’ān but how many scholars of the hadith do we have? Is it not imperative on us that we make a studious venture into this extremely important world of the Prophet’s traditions?
After all it is the ahadith that help us interpret the Qur’ān, Islam and most importantly the various laws of the Islamic jurisprudence that cannot be interpreted in a clear and lucid fashion.
Imam Bukhari’s life is truly a model for us. Lessons should be learned from the Imam’s steadfastness, piety and manners. May Allah strengthen our love for the beautiful traditions of the Chosen Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) and may Allah bless us and accept our efforts in the cause of Islam like He accepted the man who has left a mark on the pages of Hadith forever.