The Life of Imam ul Bukhari
Muhammad bin Ismail bin Ibrahim bin Mugira bin Bardisba
- He was an amazing person after the companions
- Those who criticize him and say his hadith are not authentic do not know the process of authenticating hadith and how much effort is put into it
- This is a Persian name
- His great grandfather was the first to accept Islam in his family
- Before that they were fire worshippers
- Al Mughira accepts Islam on the hands of Bukhara’s governor
- Bukhara became known as Al Naman al Jovfee
- When you accept Islam in the hands of governor then you adobt their nickname because they are family now
- They come from the region of Khurassan
Khursaan
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It includes the region of Modern day
- Iran
- Afghanistan
- Uzbekistan
- Turkmenistan
Bukhara
- The capital of Uzbekistan
- It is over 5,000 years old
- One of the oldest cities in the world
- It was called many names
- The city of Merchants
- It is located on the silk road
- It used to be at the same level of Baghdad and Cairo
- It was conquered in the year 650
- Islam entered there very early
- It was rich with paganism
- They were slow to give them dawah to Islam
- There used to be a large pagan festival
- Later on they abandoned paganism on their own
- They praised the character of the Muslims and Sahaba
- It was not known to produce many scholar
The Conquest of the Mongols
- In the 11th century Gengis Khan entered the city of Bukhara
- He massacred the people
- The destroyed every masjid there
- They took many people as slaves
Ibn Batuta
- Went to Bukhara in 1133
- He did not find a single scholar
- The people had completely lost their identity
- After the mongols
Family Lineage of Imam Bukhari
- He has righteous parents
- His father is considered from the greatest scholars of Hadith
- His father spent time with Imam Malik and Hamad
- His father met with Abdul Mubarak
- He has a section dedicated to his father as narrators of Hadith
- His father died very young
- He left that which is doubtful
- He never used to backbite
- He never fought with anyone
- He had no haram money
- He lived off his entire life from the inheritance of his father
- He was on the day of Jummah 13th of Shawwal 194 after hijrah
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He was named Muhammad because of the intention
- He would love the Prophet
- He was included in the 3 best generations
- It ends in the year 220
- His father passed away before he was born or at that time
Physical Characteristics of Imam Bukhari
- He had very weak eyesight
- Then he went completely blind
- The eyes do not go blind but the hearts go blind
- Bukhari had an older brother that was fine
- Then his mother made dua for Bukhari all night every night
- His mother was very close to him
- Being blind increases a person’s memory
- Then Allah restored his eyesight
- His mother never gave up hope in Allah
- Then one night Ibrahim comes to the mother of Bukhari
- Ibrahim says Allah gives you the glad tidings that Allah has restored his eyesight because of your dua
- She goes to him and he wakes up and sees everything
Why Ibrahim and not Muhammad?
- It was Ibrahim because all his children were miraculous birth
- Ibrahim never gave up hope in Allah
- Bukhari’s father’s name was Ismail ibn Ibrahim
Bukhari’s eyesight was restored and he could see better than anyone else
He wrote entire books with just the moonlight
Allah gave this boy perfect vision
His mother took him to memorize the Quran
Then she noticed in him natural love for the Hadith
Then she nurtured that love for him
She invested her full time in him
He had an incredible memory
He could memorize 7,000 hadith by the age of 12
Before the age 16 he studied under 1,600 teachers
Imam Al Daqilee
- He wrote in his own scrolls
- His own hadith
- Bukhari was just 11 years old
- Al Daqilee goes to the chain of narrators
- Bukhari says ya imam Az Zubair never met Ibrahim
- He corrected the hadith he narrated
- Daqilee went home through all scrolls to the hadith
- All the students are waiting and getting angry
- Imam comes back laughing
- He said who is the right narrator
- Bukhari gave him the correct chain
- Imam was impressed by him
Bukhari did not take any notes
He memorized everything
Some of the other students said why don’t you write
Are you wasting your time?
Bukhari just smiles and says nothing
Then one day as they are mocking Bukhari
Bukhari stops them and says you have gone too far now
He says go ahead and read to me everything you wrote
They took out there scrolls and read the 15,000 Hadith
Bukhari said all those Hadith without looking
They corrected themselves
The Dream of Bukhari
- He sees a dream while he is a teenager
- He saw himself walking behind the Prophet
- When Prophet put his foot down Bukhari would put his foot down
- Other scholars saw that dream too
- Bukhari exhausted all the resources of Bukhara
- Then he went out
Muhammad ibn Salam Al Bikandi
- The friend of Bukhari’s father
- A comtemporary of Imam Malik and Imam Mubarak
- He studied under sufyan bin uyanan
- He met some of the tabiyeen
- He was known for his generosity
- He was known to spend money on his students
- He would write very fast as a young man
- He does not want to miss a single
- Then his pen broke
- He screamed someone sell me a pen for a dinar
- All the other students through their pens at them
- After the dars was over he wiped off the sweat and gave him a dinar
- He was so dedicated to capture everything he learned
- He taught Bukhari extensively
Sulam
- He saw his teacher very happy
- He said may Allah keep you happy
- He asked his teacher why you are happy
- His teacher said he saw a man that memorized 70,000 hadith
- He wanted to meet this man
- He just left
- He looked for him and found him
- He asked him and said did you memorize it
- He said yes and much more detail than that
- He tested Bukhari and he passed with flying colors
Imam al Bikandi used to teach and he would be very nervous
Then he was very comfortable
Because if he made a mistake Imam al Bukhari would correct him
Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Musnadi
- He died in the year 229
- At the age of 120 years old
- He was a sharp Muhadith at the day of his death
- He died immediately after a dars of Hadith he gave
Ibrahim ibn Ashab
- He was the teacher of Imam Al Humaidi
- Imam Al Humaidi wrote a very popular book
- He was very humble
- He got in argument with another scholar
- A man will come and will judge between us
- Bukhari was 12 years
- Bukhari judged between
Bukhari surpassed his teachers
Bukhari made Hajj with his mother and older brother at the age of 16
They almost died on the way to hajj
They ran out of food
But they made it to Hajj
When he got to Hajj and asked her mothers permission to stay in Makkah
His mother and older brother go back to Bukhara after Hajj
Bukhari stays in Makkah and learns from the scholars there
He stayed in Hejaz
He got to Madinah at the age of 18 years old
He wrote his first 2 books at the grave of the Prophet
He writes about the virtues of the Sahaba
Any time he would run out of money he would receive a gift rom someone
He did not beg people for money
Then people sent him money
Ishaq ibn Rahaway
- He is Sheik ul Bukhari
- Also from Khurassan
- Very famous scholar
Ali ibn Medini
- A great scholar
Qualities of Imam ul Bukhari’s Teachers
- Integrity of Hadith
- Steadfastness in face of trials and tribulations
- Implementation of Hadith
The teachers were impressed by Imam ul Bukhari
Bukhari knew all the Hadith like we know Surah Al Ikhlas
Every city would test Bukhari when he would come at 28 years old
They put out 10 scholars of Hadith
He had to say whether it is Authentic or weak
People give him basic Hadith and Bukhari says I don’t know that Hadith
What the scholars did was changed the narrators
Then Bukhari narrated to them the correct narrations for all 100
Special Attributes of Bukhari
- Perfectionist in everything he did
- Very disciplined individual
- He was an excellent archer and never missed an arrow
- Bukhari split the pillar when shooting the arrow
- The people go to the owner and tell him
- The owner said really Bukhari its ok
- He says I wish he broke all the pillars
- Bukhari was so happy that the man forgave him
- So he narrated to them 500 Hadith
Once a man in the masjid was picking his beard as he pulls out the hair from his beard he throws it on the ground Bukhari gets very annoyed and he waited there until everyone left then he went and picked up every single hair
Bukhari excelled in everything he did
Bukhari’s character was the best
He could not say bad things about a person
One time Bukhari offered his salah he prayed nafl after he finished a bee stung him 17 times when his companions asked him why he did not stop praying he said I did not realize it stung me
Bukhari once went on a boat and he had all his money with him, which is 1000 gold coins than one man devises a plan that he told everyone 1000 dinars was stolen from him He described Bukhari bag so everyone searched the whole boat and found nothing Bukhari threw the money overboard
The man asked where did the bag of money go then later Bukhari tells him I threw it overboard
The man was shocked and said why aren’t you depressed
Bukhari said O ignorant man don’t you know that I spent my entire life collecting the Hadith of the Prophet and the world knows me as a trustworthy man
You want me to sell all that for a 100 dinars
It will ruined his credibility
He was known for his generosity
One time Bukhari out of 25,000 dirhams
- Bukhari was told that he should go to the governor and have the dispute settled
- He said If I go to the governor to have it settled it might be for a worldly purpose
- He said I do not want to sell my akhira
- So he did not complain
- The people went up to the man and said fear Allah this is Bukhari
- The man agreed to pay 10 dirhams a month
- Bukhari said ok
He followed the footsteps of his father
He was cautious about everything
Bukhari had a blind student
The student stayed with Bukhari after a long time
Bukhari called the student after the lecture
The student was very proud
Everyone leaves the masjid and he asks for the student’s forgiveness
The student says why what did you do
Bukhari was narrating a Hadith and the student was dancing
Bukhari smiled and he thought it was backbiting because he was blind
The student forgave him
Bukhari was a madhab in himself
He mastered both fiqh and Hadith
He takes a literal approach to fiqh
Imam Muslim is the best student of Imam Bukhari
Imam Muslim went to the teachers of Imam Bukhari
All the students of Imam Bukhari said he is the best teacher
Al Bukhari was 200 years of the after Prophet
Hadith were collected way before Al Bukhari
Sahih Al Bukhari
- Bukhari is sitting in a circle
- Someone said I wish someone could put all the authentic Hadith together
- So everyone could benefit
- So Bukhari said he will write the book
- Buhkari sees a dream of Prophet and there is a fly
- Bukhari is moving all the flies from the Prophets face
- He goes to a dream interpreter
- He said you are deflecting away all the lies of the Prophet
- He wrote this book at the age of 21 years old
- He went through 600,000 Hadith and finds the most authentic ones
- He makes ghusl puts on perfume and puts on his best clothes
- He prays 2 rakah before starting
- Al Jame Al Sahih Al Musnad Al Mukhtasar min Hadeesi Rasool Allah wa min umoori Rasool Allah wa sunani hi ayamihi
- The Abridged Collection of Authentic Ahadiths with connected chains regarding the saying of the Prophet his practices and his times
- He sends a copy to Ahmad bin Hannibal and 2 other scholars to be checked
- They disagreed on 4 Hadith
- But Bukhari proved them wrong
- This book is the most authentic book after the Quran
- It consists of 7,275 Hadith which includes the ones that have been repeated
- Excluding repetitions is 2,353 Hadiths add 160 narrations from companions
- In total there are 2,500 Hadith removing the repetitons
- Every title is so meaningful
- It has over 300 commentaries
- The greatest book every written
Bismillah is at random because it took him 25 years to write Sahih Bukhari so he begins with Bismillah every time
He had a lot of haters
Bukhari had the good manners
But he also gains haters
Yahya Zuhari
- He was teacher of Imam Muslim until Imam bukhari came in
- He got jealous of Bukhari
- Then he pread a rumor that Bukhari was from a deviant group
- He was successful in turning the town against Bukhari
- Imam Muslim had volumes of Hadith from him and sent it all back to him
- Bukhari kept a Hadith because it was authentic
- He could have been the most famous scholar alive but he slandered him
Bukhari came back home
- He came back to Bukhara
- The governor said to teach the kids at home
- Bukhari said no come to the masjid
- Bukhari said can I have a special section in masjid
- Bukhari said no if you want to learn hadith you have to sit in circle of Hadith
- The governor of Bukhara threatened him
- He said that I will sell knowledge for my own integrity
- Khalid al Zuhri spreads a rumor against him too
- Khalid spreads fake fatwas against Imam Bukhari
First fake Fatwa they made of Bukhari was that they said Bukhari said if you drink the milk of a sheep then that sheep is Mahram to you
Bukhari is sitting in the masjid he is 60 years old and some young men walk in and before he could give his answers they beat him up
Bukhari left the city and made a dua against them and he said O Allah avenge me for what they have done and put it back on them for everything they accuse me of and their children and their families
When Bukhari left Bukhara the very next year Az Zuhri got caught with corruption and not only did the governor order to kill but to tie him to the back of a donkey
Bukhari goes to the people of Samurkand
- They spread rumors about him again
- Then Bukhari went elsewhere
Bukhari went to a small town
He made dua in last 10 nights of Ramadhan
He is being rejected from everyone
When Alah loves a people Allah tests them
Bukhari says in a dua for Allah to take him back
Ramadhan just finished and Bukhari passes away
Bukhari’s brother saw a dream and the Prophet and the Sahaba are waiting for Bukhari the night he passed away 1st Shawwal 256 at age of 62 years
One of the largest Janazas in all history
Until today the grave of Imam Bukhari smell of a great fragrance