A Simple Guide to ISLAM
Hadith – Traditions
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traditionists to be the most authentic book in Hadith literature. The
author himself read it out to 90,000 students. It made his name
immortal.
Imam Bukhari devoted the greatest care and attention to this great
work. He is said to have got the idea of compiling the
Sahih
from a
remark of his teacher, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh (782-852) that he
wished that some of the traditionists would compile short but
comprehensive books containing only genuine traditions. After
hearing these words from his teacher, Al-Bukhari resolved to work
at this great task. He devoted his entire life to it. He explored all
the traditions known to him and selected only those which were
entirely authentic. He collected 600,000 traditions from 1000
sheikhs during sixteen years of hard work. From this collection he
selected only 7275 traditions.
Imam Bukhari took such great care in selecting traditions that he
used to record each tradition in his book only after ablution and a
two rakah prayer. Every tradition was subjected to the closest
scrutiny. He accepted a tradition only when he was fully satisfied
that all the narrators were completely reliable. He also made it a
point to see that all these reporters had met one another. That is,
there was proof that one narrator had heard the hadith from
another narrator.
Another feature of his collection is that his chapters are arranged
according to their subject matter under separate headings. These
headings are mostly taken from some verse from the Quran.
