Imam Bukhari:
An Introduction For New Muslims and Western-educated Muslims
by Kaukab Siddique, Ph.D
Shawwal 13, 1421/January 8, 2001, is the anniversary of Imam
Bukhari's birth in 194 Hijri. His name is Muhammad and he was known as
Abu
Abdullah. "Bukhari" refers to his place of birth, the city of Bukhara,
located in Tajikistan, 38 miles west of Samarkand.
I'll begin with two authentic Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh)
collected by Imam Bukhari. These teachings are very important in the
Islamic
culture around the world:
Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him)
narrates:
The messenger of Allah was asked: Who is
deserving of loving care and concern? He (the Prophet)
replied:
YOUR MOTHER. And then whom (he was asked). He said:
Your MOTHER. And then? (he was asked)
Your
Mother (he said). And then? (the questioner
continued). He
said:
Your father. (al-adab al-mufrad by Imam
Bukhari)
(Abi Bakra, Allah be pleased with him,
narrates
about Prophet Muhammad):
He said:
Your blood, your goods and
your
honor are as much protected and safe (forever) as in this
day (of Arafa) in this month (of Hajj). Be aware and those of
you who
are here (today) should pass this on to those who
are
not here.
(Sahih of Imam Bukhari)
The revolutionary impact of these teachings can be understood if
one
realizes that Arabia (and the world) was a male dominated society in
which
there was no concept of basic human rights. The first Hadith puts a
woman
(the mother) as three times more important than the dominant male. The
second
hadith gives the protection of Islamic law to life, property and honor
(especially the rights of women) and makes these rights as sacred as
the
holiest days of the Islamic pilgrimage.
Who was the man who made sure that these were authentic
teachings of
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and hence teachings which must be integral to
any
Islamic community?
Abu Abdullah Muhammad, son of Ismail, al-Bukhari was sharp of
intellect with a memory which has had few equals. HE MEMORIZED THE
ENTIRE
QUR'AN at the AGE OF 9. At the age of 10, he turned his attention to
the
study of Hadith. At the age of 16, following the performance of Hajj,
he
decided to stay in Makka and make the holy city the center of his
studies.
A remarkable fact about Imam Bukhari's early life is that his
basic
teacher was his mother, a woman of great learning and Islamic
awareness. His
father Ismail was also an Islamic teacher of piety and learning but he
died when the Imam was little.
As he forayed into his study, research and collection of
Hadith,
Imam Bukhari studied in the schools of Hadith led by the greatest
teachers of
his era Later, he himself became the teacher of the greatest scholars
of his
era. His final book of Hadith, known as al-jami us-Sahih, has been
recognized around the world as a source book of Islam SECOND ONLY TO THE QU'RAN.
At that time Islam was a world power and the great and the
powerful
wanted to use the Qur'an and the Hadith to support their own version
of
Islam. The last of the SAHABA (companions of the Prophet) died in the
year
110 after Hijrah. Hence the possibility of people misquoting the
Prophet
became very real.
Imam Bukhari understood that sponsorship by vested interests is
detrimental to objective Islamic teachings. HENCE THE IMAM STAYED
STRICTLY
AWAY FROM THE POWER STRUCTURE. He was never a servant or courtier of
any
ruler, local, regional or national.
Secondly, IMAM BUKHARI AVOIDED USING HIS KNOWLEDGE TO ENRICH
HIMSELF.
Like Allama Iqbal in our own times, he seemed to have lived in the
light of a
(not so well authenticated) hadith of the Prophet that:
"Poverty is my
pride." This is a self-imposed poverty for the sake of independence and
openness to all ways of thinking beyond the "party line."
He would earn his living by trade and as a merchant and then
would give
away his profits, thus returning to his meagre means. On some of his
journeys, he almost died of starvation rather than beg the local
bigwigs for
help.
In his research on Hadith, he set standards which are stricter
than any
known even in our own times of immediate technologically available
information. Some of these need to be mentioned here:
1. Did a person who narrated Hadith from a Companion of the
Prophet
actually meet the Companion, and was that Companion with the Prophet in
such-and-such incident?
2. What was the character of a narrator of Hadith?
3. What was his/her memory like? What was his/her age at the
time of
narration?
4. Was the chain of narrators complete, had a missing link in it
or
was it fabricated?
5. Which Hadith are linked to which verses of the Qur'an?
6. Sometimes partisans can speak the truth. How does
one
accept Hadith from narrators who were Shi'ite, Khariji or pro-Caliph?
7. Honest collection of Hadith if objective rules apply but the
content is not appealing. (Thus the Hadith literature is an uncensored
account of how the SAHABA saw, heard and thought of the Prophet and his
era.
It leaves critical commentary to scholars and
application/implementation to
mujtahideen who use their reason to understand the Qur'an and the
Hadith.)
FALSE IDEAS ABOUT IMAM BUKHARI:
The Zionist Jews who want to destroy Islam have been spreading
doubts
about Hadith. Goldziher and Schacht's work against Hadith has been fed
into
missionary publications. From here some sincere but mislead Muslim
scholars
picked up the attack on Hadith. One important misled but sincere person
was
Ghulam Ahmed Pervez who wrote extensively against Hadith. Dr. Fazlur
Rahman
sincerely believed that the ISNAD or chains of narration of Hadith had
been
invented in the third century of Islam. His work gained popularity
among
western-educated Muslims till Dr. Azmi published his research which
showed
not only authenticity of ISNAD but also that Hadith was written down in
every
era of early Islam, starting with the time of the Prophet and the
Sahaba.
Some misled sectarians believe that Bukhari's Hadith narration
was
meant to help the Ummayed rulers who had, according to the sectarian
line,
"usurped the right of hazrat Ali" to be the Caliph. This idea is
totally
absurd because Imam Bukhari was not alive during the entire Ummayad
dynasty.
The Ummayeds ruled Rajab 60 hijri to zulhijjah 132 hijri and 4 years
of
turmoil after that. Imam Bukhari was born in 194. So he could not have
been
influenced by the political power of the "ruling Ummayads."
There are others who see traces of Shi'ism in Imam Bukhari's
collection. These again are off the mark. The Abbasids established
their
regime in 136. When the greatest Abbasi, Haroon ar-Rasheed, began his
rule,
Imam Bukhari's birth was still one year away. When the powerful Mamun
ar-Rasheed was ruling, Imam Bukhari had just started his studies and
had
moved to Makka, which was outside the Baghdad orbit of Abbasid
influence.
Some misled people believe that most Hadith must have been false
and
hence Imam Bukhari selected so few out of "six million." This idea is
based
on total lack of understanding of Hadith. In Hadith studies, not only
the mtn
(the text) of what the Prophet said but also each chain of narration
(sanad)
of that hadith counts as one hadith. Thus the first text in Bukhari's
SAHIH:
"Actions shall be judged by intentions ..." had 700 chains of narration;
hence in Hadith literature that one text would count as 700 hadith.
Some people justify their own ignorance. They think that
Bukhari was
a narrator of Hadith which he was not. He was a researcher, compiler
and
collector.
Still others attack Bukhari to INDIRECTLY ABUSE, INSULT and
DISCREDIT the sahaba (again a sectarian hand is often at work here).
How come
Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) narrated so many hadith? Didn't
he
live in Ameer Muawiyyah's palace? etc. The life of the Prophet (pbuh)
(other
than what Imam Bukhari compiled) shows that Abu Huraira used to spent
a
maximum of his time listening to and collecting the teachings of the
Prophet,
memorizing and writing down, while others lived more "normal" lives.
Hazrat 'Ayesha, Abu Huraira and other mukassirin (those who have
narrated many hadith of the Prophet), lived for many more years than
some of
the key figures among the Prophet's companions. They were asked
questions by
newcomers who were flooding into Islam and hence taught much more.
Other
greats like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali (Allah be pleased with them)
were not
available to so many people after the Prophet died. The last three were
assassinated. Hence owing to historical reasons, some narrators
narrated more
than others.
Some readers among our westernized elites object to the
pre-scientific
and pre-"modern" lifestyle which often appears in the Hadith literature
including that of Bukhari. The Prophet had to go out into the desert to
urinate, etc. The Prophet bathed out of a bucket along with his wife
(shocking! eh). The Prophet talked about women's menses and women among
his
companions talked about Muslim's duties related to sex and "private"
life. On
expeditions when food ran out, the Muslims had to decide whether to eat
lizards. The Prophet had fine tastes but did not want his companions to
starve. What happens if a fly falls into a bucket full of food or solid
shortening? Worse, what if a rat falls in? Should the entire food
supply be
thrown away? (in a culture of scarcity).
Also many readers find Hadith irksome simply because they don't
want to
study patiently. They rush to the assumption that the headlines
provided by
Imam Bukhari are also Hadith. Or they take it that the words of a
Sahabi and
the words of the Prophet are supposedly of equal value because they are
in
Sahih Bukhari.
Where Imam Bukhari provides a narration which shows the low
esteem in
which women were held at that time and then a narration from the
blessed
'Ayesha which shows the Prophet changing those attitudes with his
authoritative words, our misled friends do not see the connection and
consider it a "contradiction." Same applies to war time lack of rules
in
those days (taking slaves, taking part-time mistresses, muta',
temporary
marriage, etc.). The misled people see the narration about what used to
happen and DO NOT SEE what the Prophet did to stop them and how he went
about
it stage by stage.
Scholarship of HADITH of course preceded Imam Bukhari and he was
one of
a galaxy of greats, even though the greatest. I am presenting Imam
Bukhari
because Shawwal 13 is coming up and because the misled people think
they can
destroy the entire corpus of Hadith by attacking Imam Bukhari.
(Note: The Jews think they have done enough against Hadith, leaving the
Munkareene Hadith to do the rest. They have started concentrated
attacks on
the Qur'an. The Hindus have joined them.)
I offer this article to the Ummah with all humility. If you like
it,
please distribute it. If you find errors, do let me know.
And Allah is the only One Who knows all.
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2001-01-04 Thu 06:09ct