|
Famous
Personalities of the Global Islamic Movement Throughout History
His full name is
Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn
Bardizbah al-Bukhari.
Early life (810-820)
Bukhari was born in July 20, 810 CE (Shawal 13, 194 AH )
in the city of Bukhara, in what is today Uzbekistan. His
father, Ismail Ibn Ibrahim, was a known hadith scholar
that died while Bukhari was young.
Sunnis praise his memory, saying he was:
'endowed by nature with great intellectual powers,
although he was physically frail. He possessed a sharp
and photographic memory, and a great tenacity of
purpose, which served him well in his academic life'.
It is said by the age of ten, Imam Bukhari had memorised
70,000 hadith by heart with their complete chain of
narrations going from him to his teacher, and his
teacher's teacher, all the way to the Prophet Muhammad
(Allah bless him and give him peace).
Early education (820-826)
He underwent his early education under the guidance of
his mother in his native city and by the age of eleven
he finished his elementary studies and started to study
hadith.
During those studies, he at one time he corrected one of
his teachers, who laughed at the audacity of the young
student. Bukhari persisted and referred to the books,
who showed him to be correct. At the age of sixteen, he
had learned the knowledge of all the scholars of hadith
of Bukhara, as well as everything contained in the books
which were available to him.
Arabian peninsula travels
At age of sixteen, he, together with his brother and
widowed mother made the pilgrimage to Mecca. From there
he made a series of travels in order to increase his
knowledge of hadith. He went through all the important
centres of Islamic learning of his time, talked to
scholars and exchanged information on hadith. It is
recorded that he stayed at Basrah for four or five
years, and in the Hijaz for six; while he travelled to
Egypt twice and to Kufah and Baghdad many times.
When the authorities in Basrah received information of
his arrival, they fixed a time for him to deliver a
lecture. At the lecture, he was able to confine himself
only to such Hadith as he had received on the authority
of the early Hadith scholars of Basrah, and had
nonetheless been unknown to the audience.
While in Baghdad, he was tested by ten Hadith scholars.
They changed the Isnad and text of one hundred hadith,
and asked Bukhari about them during a public meeting. He
said that he was not familiar with those hadith, recited
the un-changed versions and said that they had probably
inadvertently recited them wrongly. This was repeated by
four hundred scholars in Samarkand.
Travels in the Islamic world
Already, in his eighteenth year, he had devoted himself
to the collection, study, proof-reading, organizing
(arrangement) of traditions (Hadiths). For that purpose
he travelled all over the Islamic world, all the way to
Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Iraq, seeking hadith narrators
and listening to them. It is said that he heard from
over 1,000 men, and learned over 600,000 traditions,
both authentic and rejected ones, and thus became the
acknowledged authority on the subject. After sixteen
years' absence he returned to Bukhara, and there drew up
his al-Jami' al-Sahih, a collection of 7,275 tested
traditions, arranged in chapters so as to afford bases
for a complete system of jurisprudence without the use
of speculative law. His book is highly regarded among
Sunni Muslims, and considered the most authentic
collection of hadith (a minority of Sunni scholars
consider Sahih Muslim, compiled by Bukhari's student
Imam Muslim, more authentic). Most Sunni scholars
consider it second only to the Qur'an in terms of
authenticity. He also composed other books, including
al-Adab al-Mufrad, which is a collection of hadiths on
ethics and manners, as well as two books containing
biographies of hadith narrators .
Last years (864-870)
At the age of 54, in the year 864 CE (250 AH), he came
to the great Central Asian city of Neesaaboor (Nishapur).
He received a "grand reception" , wished to settle down
there and devoted himself to teaching hadith.
It was in Neesaaboor that he met Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj.
He would be considered his student, and eventually
author of Sahih Muslim.
Khalid ibn Ahmad al-Dhuhali summoned Bukhari to hold
lectures at his palace, but Bukhari declined. This
resulted in Bukhari being obliged to leave the town, and
he travelled to Khartank, a village near Bukhara, at the
request of its inhabitants. He settled there and died in
the year 870 CE (256 AH), 62 years old.
His grave is still visited, and some believe that
prayers are heard there. [citation needed]
Personality
Sunni sources portray that his collection of hadith
became sort of an obsession of his. He used all of his
money to travel, and at one occasion, he was so short of
money that he lived on wild herbs for three days.
On one occasion, it is said that he was travelling on a
boat and had 500 gold coins with him to get him through
his journey. While at sea, one of the people on the boat
saw his money, and out of greed, he began screaming "I
had 500 gold coins and someone has stolen it". At that
moment, Imam Bukhari threw his 500 gold coins in to the
ocean. The whole boat was searched and no 500 gold coins
was found. After arriving at their destination, the man
asked Imam Bukhari, "what did you do with the money?",
he replied, "I threw it in the ocean". Out of shock the
man asked why. Imam Bukhari replied, "I am compiling a
book of the hadith of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be
upon him), I cannot allow anything to damage my
reputation and discredit me".
Theological position
His theological position was conservative and anti-Mu'tazili;
he enjoyed the friendship and respect of Ahmad Ibn
Hanbal, and was persecuted because he held to Ibn
Hanbal's views in matter of creed (Arabic: Aqidah),
specially that the Qur'an is not created. His legal
views appear to have been Shafi'ite and he has been
verified by notable scholars (Ibn Hajar, Imam Subki) as
a Shafi'ite.
Sahih al-Bukhari
Muslims view this as their most trusted collection,
calling it "The most authentic book after the Holy
Qur'an".
Muslims believe that al-Bukhari spent sixteen years
collecting and writing down those traditions he thought
trustworthy. They recount that Bukhari collected over
300,000 hadith and transmitted only 2,602 traditions
that he believed to be Sahih. It is said that before he
placed a hadith in his collection, he would perform
ghusl (full\greater ritual ablution) and prayed two
Rakah (Islamic unit for form of prayer) Nafl (voluntary
prayer) to ask God for guidance.
Muslims believe that al-Bukhari finished his work in
846, and that he spent the last twenty-four years of his
life visiting other cities and scholars, teaching the
hadith he had collected. They say that in every city
that he visited, thousands of people would gather in the
main mosque to listen to him recite traditions.
Regarding Western academic doubts as to the actual date
and authorship of the book that bears his name, Sunni
say that notable hadith scholars of that time, such as
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 855, Ibn Maīn 847, and Ibn Madīni 848,
all accepted the authenticity of his book. Thus, the
collection's immediate fame makes arguments regarding
its being changed after the author's death highly
improbable.
Nine volumes of Sahih al-BukhariDuring this long period
of twenty-four years, Bukhari made minor changes to his
book, in particular its chapter headings. Each version
is named by its narrator. According to Ibn Hajar
Asqalani in his book Nukat, the number of hadiths in all
narrations (versions) is the same. The most famous one
today is the version narrated by al-Firabri (d. 932),
who is a trusted student of Bukhari. Khatib al-Baghdadi
in his book History of Baghdad had quoted Firabri
saying: "There were about seventy thousand people who
have heard Sahih Bukhari with me".
Firabri is not the only transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari.
There were many others that narrated that book to later
generations, such as Ibrahim ibn Ma'qal (d. 907), Hammad
ibn Shaker (d. 923), Mansur Burduzi (d. 931), and Husain
Mahamili (d. 941). There are many books that noted
differences between these versions; Fath al-Bari is the
most famous among them.
Prominent Muslims scholars have written commentaries on
this collection, most notably Fath al-Bari by Ibn Hajar
Asqalani.
Works
- Sahih Bukhari
- Al Adab Al
Mufrad الأدب المفرد
- al-Tarikh al-Kabir
The big history, containing biographies of
narrators, with a rating of each
- al-Tarikh al-Saghir
The little history
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If
you would like to add well renowned personalities please email
us your request. |
The
Khilafah Movement