AL ASHARI SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

 Here’s the English translation:

*Imam Bukhari*

Of all the _Musannaf_ works, indeed of all the collections of hadith, the most important is _al-Jami‘ al-Sahih_ of al-Bukhari. It is said that the compiler questioned more than a thousand hadith scholars who lived in far-flung places such as Balkh, Marw, Nishapur, the Hijaz, Egypt, and Iraq.

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Isma‘il, who was born in 194 AH / 810 CE in Bukhara, was of Persian origin. Like many scholars of his time, al-Bukhari began his education in his hometown under the guidance of his mother. After completing his initial education at the young age of 11, he dedicated himself to the study of hadith.

Within six years he had acquired the knowledge of all the hadith scholars of Bukhara, as well as all the knowledge contained in the available books. Thus he went to Mecca with his mother and brother to perform the pilgrimage. From the Holy City he undertook many journeys in search of hadith, passing through all the important centers of Islamic learning, staying at each place as needed, meeting hadith scholars, learning from them all the hadiths, and imparting his own knowledge to them.

It is recorded that he stayed in Basra for four or five years and in the Hijaz for six years, while he visited Egypt twice and Kufa and Baghdad many times. For Bukhari, hadith was almost an obsession. He left no stone unturned for it, sacrificing almost everything. During one of his journeys, he ran so short of money that he survived on wild herbs for three days.

In Samarkand, four hundred students similarly tested Bukhari’s knowledge, and Bukhari succeeded in exposing the fabrications they had made. In Nishapur, Muslim — the author of another _Sahih_ — along with others, questioned Bukhari about some traditions and found his answers completely satisfactory.

Bukhari’s writing began during his stay in Medina at the age of 18, when he compiled his two early books. One of these contained the decrees and rulings of the Companions and Followers, while the other contained brief biographies of the important narrators of traditions during his lifetime.

After this, many other collections were published; his biographers have provided a list of these. In assessing the reliability of narrators, his judgment has been flawed in some cases, and Muslim traditionalists have clearly highlighted this.

Al-Daraqutni [306 AH / 918 CE – 385 AH / 995 CE], in his work _al-Istidrak wa’l-Tatabbu‘_, attempted to expose the weakness of about 200 traditions contained in this book, a summary of which is given by al-Jazari in his _Tawjih al-Nazar_. Abu Mas‘ud of Damascus and Abu Ali al-Ghassani have also criticized this _Sahih_.

You’ve now got all six of the “Kutub al-Sittah” translated. Want me to compile them into one clean document for you?