THE METHODOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF SAHIH BUKHARI

The Methodology of the Book of Sahih Bukhari

Mawaddah Fauziah
Islamic Online University
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Abstract

This paper explores the methodology that Imam Bukhari was applied on his Al-Jami’ As-

Sahih. Bukhari is known his excellent memorizing since young. This fine ability and his great

endeavour in seeking hadith produced the remarkable work. The book of Sahih Bukhari is the

most authentic and treasure in the Islamic studies, specifically in the science of hadith.

Because he collected the authentic hadith with high standard of compiling and writing hadith,

it will be explained the details in this paper.

Keywords: Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Authentic Hadith

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Methodology of the Book of Sahih Bukhari

Imam Bukhari is one of the most prominent scholars of hadith. His book Sahih

Bukhari became the first book that compiled the authentic hadith. Moreover, it is considered

as the most correct after the book of Allah due to its validity. Sahih Bukhari is at the first

place for the source of hadith book. His high standard in compiling authentic hadith gives

benefit to know the methodology that he used for writing his Sahih Bukhari.

Biography of Imam Bukhari

Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Al-Mughirah ibn Bardhizbah Al-Bukhari was

born on Friday 13th Shawwal 194 in the city of Bukhara.1 His kunyah is Abu Abdillah. His

father Ismail ibn Ibrahim is the eminent scholar of hadith as mentioned in Tarikh Al-Kabir.

Bukhari started to memorize hadeeth before he was ten years old. His ability in memorizing

was excellent. At the age of sixteen, he had memorized the book of Ibn al-Mubarak and

Waki’ and known their utterance. At the age of eighteen, he started to write the book of the

rulings of the Companion and Tabi’in and their opinions. It is being informed by Muhammad

ibn Khamirwayh that Bukhari had ever said that he memorized 100.000 authentic hadith and

200.000 unauthentic hadith (Farid 1998, 274).

Imam Bukhari started to seek hadith from the scholars of Bukhara, Samarkand,

Taskent. Then, he went to Mecca with his mother and brother to pilgrim and to seek

knowledge as well as went to Madinah in 212 A.H. His great effort is portrayed when he

travelled to various cities and attained knowledge and quest of hadith from such as, Ibn Al-

Jurayj in Mecca, Al-Awza’i in Sham, Sufyan At-Thawri in Kuffah, Ibn Dinar in Bashra (Al-

Asqalani 2013, 7). He went to Bashra four times. He also travelled to Baghdad, Egypt,

1
Bukhara is part of Uzbekistan in this modern day
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Khurasan and so on. From Muhammad ibn Abi Hatim, Bukhari said that he wrote from more

than 1080 scholars of hadith (Farid 1998, 265).

The reputed trial of Bukhari is a maqlub isnad. This trial was a good example that be

repeated by the scholars of Baghdad. The method is listening to each of ten men who narrated

hadith, then refused the correctness of hadith. Later he addressed each person in turn and

recounted to him each of his hadith with its correct isnad. (Hasan n.d., 20).

In the last of his life, he was kicked out from Bukhara by its people, then moved to

Hartank due to the order of Khalid ibn Ahmad. The death of Imam Bukhari on the night of

‘eid al-fitr in 256 A.H.

The Book of Al-Jami’ As-Sahih

Al-Jami As-Sahih Al-Musnad min Hadith Rasulillah wa Sunanihi wa Ayaameehi2 (Al-

Asqalani 2013, 11) as known as Sahih Bukhari is the most excellent of his works. The idea of

compiling hadith is because of his teacher, Ishaq ibn Rahawaayh (d.238 A.H), who wished

compiling the hadith into a comprehensive book. It also mentioned that because Imam

Bukhari got a dream that he protects the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬with a fan on his hand.

He also made revision to his Sahih as like he did revisions to his Tarikh Kabir which

was published three times and every revision published was accompanied with the latest

more accurate (Azmi 1977, 89). The process of writing this compiled book was lengthy, it

took 16 years.

Methodology of Compiling the Hadith

Al-Bukhari did not content himself with memorizing hadith and books of early

2
Other opinion: Al-Jami’ As-Sahih Al-Musnid Al-Mukhtashar min Umoori Rasulillah shallallahu ‘alayhi wa
sallam wa Sunnanihi wa Ayaamihi
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scholars, however he also learned the biography of all narrators who took part in transmission

of any hadith, such as their date of birth, death, place of birth, etc (Azmi 1977, 87). This

portrays himself as the person who is really concerned to the details.

Bukhari mostly recorded from the students of Az-Zuhri (d. 124 A.H). Az-Zuhri had

written all what he heard from his teachers. It is also because of the order of Caliph Umar ibn

Abdul Aziz to record it, although some regarded that the recording has been lost. As known,

one of the famous students of Az-Zuhri is Malik ibn Anas who wrote the book Al-Muwatta.

Back to the student groups of Az-Zuhri, it is divided into five levels. Al-Bukhari took

only the two highest accuracy of those groups. First, the narrators from Zuhri with the

highest accuracy, excellent memory, and lengthy companionship with Zuhri, even in

journeys. Second, the group that did not spend adequate time with Zuhri but still considered

as just (‘adl). This group is below from the first group due to its accuracy of memorization

because of limited duration of companionship (Azmi 1977, 90-91).

In compiling his Sahih Bukhari, he considered a narrator, whose name is Ibn Abi

Layla, as a truthful person. At the other hand, At-Tirmidhi criticised Imam Bukhari about

this. At-Tirmidhi considered Ibn Abi Layla as an untruthful, also At-Tirmidhi did not

transmit hadith from Ibn Abi Layla (Philips 2007, 119). In addition, the different conditions

of authentic hadith in his method that Imam Bukhari applied is insisting the teacher and the

student must ever met directly at least once. It is not sufficiency if only live at the same

period. And this method is different with Imam Muslim.

Another important method that he always brought back the truthfulness to Allah. He

is very deliberated person who gives the maximum effort based on the previous elucidation.

Also, he did not forget to put what his effort with entrusting to Allah. Therefore, before
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putting the hadith into the book of Al-Jami’ As-Sahih, Imam Bukhari always performs the

recommended prayer (two raka’ah) and perform istikhara.

Methodology of the Writing of Sahih Bukhari

Al-Jami’ As-Sahih is divided into 97 books and every book is divided into various

chapters that consists 4061 chapters at the whole. The sequence of sections in the book is

based upon Al-Bukhari also uses the title of chapter with Ayah of Al-Qur’an that related to

the hadith in its chapter.

Repetition of hadith is apparent in the book of Sahih Bukhari with different quotation

due to the proper relation to its title of chapter. The habit of Bukhari was cut down the hadith

and quoted its portion that relevant to its title of chapter, though he also quoted the complete

wording of hadith (Azmi 1977, 77).

Imam Bukhari is very prudent in the method of al-jarh3. He chose to use the lenient

hint, such as tarkoohu,4 ankaruhu an-naas,5 matruk,6 fihee nadhr,7 saktuu ‘anhu,8 and so

forth. It is very rare to find Bukhari said about someone as fabricator or liar. Instead, the

strongest censure that he used in al-jarh is ‘weak hadith’ (munkar al-hadith). This had been

performed by him because his attitude towards mankind and as a form of humility (Farid

1998, 285).

When mentioning a hadith, Al-Bukhari sometimes mentioned some sanad which is

different chains. The aim is to support each other between the different sanad. For example,

he mentioned the hadith with the chain form ‘an-anah, then he also mentioned same hadith

3
Al-Jarh wa Ta’deel is the science of criticising and validating of the hadith and its narrators
4
they left him
5
people reject him
6
being left because serious mistake
7
need to be observed further
8
they keep silent about him
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but with the sanad of hadthana or akhbaranaa, means the transmitter heard directly. It is also

to show the different sanad which brought the different wording, although the point of hadith

is same. This method shows that the hadith that Al-Bukhari put in the Al-Jami’ As-Sahih is

purely high standard and detailed method of research.

Conclusion

Sahih Bukhari is the most authentic book of hadith that the Muslim community

possesses. This is Allah’s blessings that He endowed to Imam Bukhari with the excellent

ability in the research of hadith. Al-Bukhari utilizes the high standard in his research’s

method to derive the authentic hadith and compile it into one comprehensive book. The

proper method can be portrayed since his endeavour in seeking hadith, doing the selection

with the strict conditions that must be reached, even the method of writing style of Al-Jami’

As-Sahih book. He is the first hadith scholar who started to compile the authentic hadith with

such method. Later, it becomes the most frequently used book and as the main source until

right now.

And Allah knows best.

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References

Al-Asqalani, Ibn Hajar. 2013. Hadyu As-Sari Muqaddimah Fath Al-Bari. Vol. 1. Beirut: Ar-

Resalah Al-A'lamiah.

Azmi, Mohammad Mustafa. 1977. Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature. Riyadh:

University of Riyadh.

Farid, Ahmad. 1998. Min A'laam As-Salaf. Vol. 2. Iskandaria: Dar Al-Iman.

Hasan, Suaib. n.d. An Introduction to the Science of Hadith. London: Al-Qur'an Society.

Philips, Bilal. 2007. Usool Al-Hadeeth: The Methodology of Hadith Evaluation. Riyadh:

International Islamic Publishing House.