Sahih Bukhari- Selected Chapters

Biography of Imam Bukhari

Since Sahih Bukhari is a collection of hadiths by imam Bukhari, it is only fair to learn a bit about this amazing imam.

Imam Bukhari's real name wasn't Bukhari but rather Muhammad. But because he was from a place called Bukhara (modern day Uzbekistan), he was given the name Bukhari. Iman Bukhari was born about 200 years after the prophet pbuh migrated to Medinah. He was born on the 13th of Shawwal in 810 CE after Jummah salah in Bukhara. His father was Isma'il b. Ibrahim, who was a student of hadith (Muhaddith) and a student of Imam Malik. Thus both father and son were students of hadith (Muhaddith) which is very rare. His father was a merchant who use to travel a lot for his business but when he travelled he didn't just travel for money but also for knowledge. He would find out who the big scholars who lived there were and he would learn from them. He didn't become a great Muhaddith but he worked hard to make good money which he spent on his family. Not everyone can be a scholar but they can make significant contribution to the ummah. As a man, he had responsibility to look after his family. Sadly, his father passed away when imam Bukhari was very young. But he left them money so with that money imam Bukhari was able to travel and learn and even do hajj with his mom.

His mother was a very righteous lady who made a lot of du'aas. She played a great role in imam Bukhari's life as she was the one who made sure he got a good education. Imam Bukhari became blind as a kid and because of his mother's du'aa, he got his eyesight back. His mother sent him to study Arabic and at the young age of 10, he was fluent in Arabic, had memorised the Qur'an and wanted to also memorise the hadiths. He went to do hajj with his mom at 16 and he never returned home after hajj; rather he stayed in Makkah.

By the age of 16, he had memorised 70,000 hadiths and also knew the chains of the hadiths. He knew all the details of the hadiths he had memorised that hadith narrators were nervous to narrate when he was present. By the age of 18, he had completed writing his first book of hadiths.

After doing hajj at 16, he decided to stay in Makkah and spent 10 years in the city of Hijaz. After that he travelled to other places such as Iraq, Egypt and Syria in search of knowledge.

It's reported that Imam Bukhari learnt hadiths from about 1,080 different scholars. Some of them being: Ishaaq ibn Rahway, Ali ibn Madeeni, and Yahya ibn Ma'een.

Imam Bukhari had an amazing memory. He never used a manuscript to teach. He memorised 15,000 hadiths in 16 days while visiting Baghdad. According to Ibn Katheer, he could look at a book once and memorize its contents. Many scholars considered his memory to be inhuman! He was able to repeat a hadith immediately after it was recited to him and could tell false narrations apart from right narrations.

Imam Bukhari taught Sahih Bukhari to over 90,000 students. Some if his students were Muslim ibn Al-Hajjaj, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasaa'i and Ibn Khuzaymah.

The characteristics of Imam Bukhari were:

Remarkable memory

Slept little at night

Did his work himself

Simplicity in food

Respectful of Masajid

Very careful in criticism

Guarded against backbiting

Held himself accountable

Guarded his character

His sacrifices

An excellent archer

Devout worshipper