Muhammad al-Bukhari




Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju‘fī al-Bukhārī, or Bukhārī, commonly referred to as Imam al-Bukhari or Imam Bukhari, was a Persian Islamic scholar who was born in Bukhara. He authored the hadith collection known as Sahih al-Bukhari, regarded by Sunni Muslims as the most authentic hadith collections. He also wrote other books such as Al-Adab al-Mufrad..

Biography

Birth

Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari al-Juʿfi was born after the Jumu'ah prayer on Friday, 21 July 810 in the city of Bukhara in Transoxiana.
His father, Ismail ibn Ibrahim, a scholar of hadith, was a student and associate of Malik ibn Anas. Some Iraqi scholars related hadith narrations from him.

Lineage

Imam Bukhari's great-grandfather, al-Mughirah, settled in Bukhara after accepting Islam at the hands of Bukhara's governor, Yaman al-Juʿfi. As was the custom, he became a mawla of Yaman, and his family continued to carry the nisbah of "al-Juʿfi".
Al-Mughirah's father, Bardizbah, is the earliest known ancestor of Bukhari according to most scholars and historians. He was a Zoroastrian Magi, and died as such. As-Subki is the only scholar to name Bardizbah's father, who he says was named Bazzabah. Little is known of either Bardizbah or Bazzabah, except that they were Persian and followed the religion of their people. Historians have also not come across any information on Bukhari's grandfather, Ibrahim ibn al-Mughirah.

Hadith studies and travels

The historian al-Dhahabi described his early academic life:
At the 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 said that he heard from over 1,000 men, and learned over 600,000 traditions.
After sixteen years absence, he returned to Bukhara, and there he drew up his al-Jami' as-Sahih, a collection of 7,275 tested traditions, arranged in chapters so as to afford a basis 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, even ahead of the Muwatta Imam Malik and Sahih Muslim of Bukhari's student Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. Most Sunni scholars consider it second only to the Quran 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

In the year 864/250, he settled in Nishapur. It was in Nishapur that he met Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. He would be considered his student, and eventually collector and organiser of hadith collection Sahih Muslim which is considered second only to that of al-Bukhari. Political problems led him to move to Khartank, a village near Samarkand where he died in the year 870/256.

Mausoleum

Today his tomb lies within the Imam al-Bukhari Complex, in Hartang Village, 25 kilometers from Samarkand. It was restored in 1998 after centuries of neglect and dilapidation. The mausoleum complex consists of Imam al-Bukhari's tomb, a mosque, a madrassah, library, and a small collection of Qurans. The modern ground level mausoleum tombstone of Imam Bukhari is only a cenotaph, the actual grave lies within a small burial crypt below the modern structure.

Writings

Below is a summary of the discussion of Bukhari's available works in Fihrist Muṣannafāt al-Bukhāri by Umm 'Abdullāh bint Maḥrūs, Muḥammad ibn Ḥamza and Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad.

Works describing narrators of hadith

Bukhari wrote three works discussing narrators of hadith with respect to their ability in conveying their material: the "brief compendium of hadith narrators," "the medium compendium" and the "large compendium". The large compendium is published and well-identified. The medium compendium was thought to be the brief collection and was published as such. The brief compendium has yet to be found. Another work, al-Kunā, is on patronymics: identifying people who are commonly known as "Father of so-and-so". Then there is a brief work on weak narrators: al-Ḍu'afā al-Ṣaghīr.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukharī & extant hadith

Two of Bukhari's works on hadith survive:
Bukhari has been claimed as a follower of the Hanbali school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence, although members of the Shafi'i and Ẓāhirī schools levy this claim as well.
Scott Lucas argues that Bukhari's legal positions were similar to those of the Ẓāhirīs and Hanbalis of his time, suggesting Bukhari rejected qiyas and other forms of ra'y completely. He makes comparisons between Bukhari's positions and those of Ibn Hazm.

Early Islamic scholars

Citations

Primary