Few persons in the world have even
been endowed with a proverbial memory. One of them is Bukhari, the greatest
compiler of Hadith (narratives pertaining to the Prophet’s life and his
sayings) that Islam has produced. He is said to have retained in his memory
one million Ahadith (plural of Hadith) with full details of all the different
sources and reporters of each Hadith which came down to him. His Sahih
Bukhari (collection of Hadith) is universally recognised as the most authentic
collection of Ahadith of the Holy Prophet of Islam (sws).
Abu‘abd Allah Muhammad ibn Isma‘il,
later known as Imam Bukhari, was born in Bukhara on 13 Shawwal, 194 A.H.
(July 21 810 A.C).
The newly-born child had scarcely
opened his eyes in the world when he lost his eyesight. His father was
immensely grieved at it. His pious mother wept and prayed to God to restore
the eyesight of her newly-born child. And by the Grace of God, the eyesight
of the newly-born child was fully restored.
He lost his father when he was still
a child. He was brought up by his illustrious and virtuous mother.
He began his study of the Hadith at
the early age of eleven. In his 16th year he made pilgrimage of the Holy
places along with his mother and elder brother. There he attended the lectures
of the great teachers of Hadith in Makkah and Madinah. He was still 18
years old, when he wrote a book on the decisions made by the Companions
of the Prophet (sws) and their followers.
His elder brother, Rashid ibn Isma‘il
reports that the young Bukhari used to attend the lectures and discourses
of learned men along with him and other pupils. But, unlike other pupils
he never took notes of these discourses. They criticised him for not taking
notes of the lectures and thus wasted his time. Bukhari did not give any
reply. One day, being annoyed by their consistent criticism of his carelessness,
Bukhari asked his felllow pupils to bring all they had noted down. By that
time, his fellow pupils had taken down more than 15 thousand Ahadith. Young
Bukhari, to the amazement of all, narrated all the 15 thousand Ahadith
from his memory with minutest details which had not been noted down by
the follow pupils.
Later, he started on a study pilgrimage
of the world of Islam, which lasted 16 years. Of this period, he spend
five years in Basrah, visitng Egypt, Hijaz, Kufa and Baghdad several times
and wandered all over Western Asia in quest of knowledge and learning .
During his travels he reported Ahadith from 80,000 persons. With the help
of his exceptional memory he could retain these Ahadith with all their
sources in his mind to be penned down at an opportune times.
The fame of young Bukhari had soon
reached the distant parts of the Islamic world and wherever he went he
was received with great veneration. People were wonderstruck by his deep
learning and extraordinary memory.
A large number of learned and pious
men throughout the world of Islam became the disciples of young Bukhari.
Darami, who was a spiritual teacher
of Bukhari admits that his learned pupil had deeper insight into the Hadith.
Bukhari devoted not only his entire
intelligence and exceptional memory to the writng of the momentous work,
Sahih Bukhari, he attended to the task with utmost dedication and piety.
He used to take 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 Prophet’s grave
at Madinah.
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 one 30 Ramadan, 256 A.H.
(31 August 870 A.C.)
The entire populace of the town and
the vicinity came out to pay their last homage to one of the greatest sons
of Islam. His grave is still a favourite place of Muslim pilgrimage.
His monumental work, Sahih Bukhari
established his reputation as the one of the greatest compilers of Ahadith
in Islam.
It is said that Bukhari retained in
his memory one million Ahadith of the Holy Prophet of Islam (sws) with
all the details of their sources and reporters. Out of the million Ahadith
which he had learnt from some 80,000 reporters, he selected 7,275 Ahadith
and, according to Ibn Hajar, 9,082 for his monumental work, Sahih Bukhari.
He took 16 years to complete it.
This monumental work of Bukharai has
been acclaimed by thousands of scholars, and erudite theologians as a rate
accomplishment. More than 53 commentaries, some of these in around 14 volumes,
have been written on Sahih Bukhari.
This book is divided in various chapters,
for which he had planned a complete scheme. In his selection of Ahadith,
he exercised great prudence on his part.
Bukhari is the author of about two
dozen other books on religion, Islamic philosophy and history. But his
monumental work in Sahih Bukhari, whose hundreds of commentaries and translations
have appeared in different languages during the last one thousand years.
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