Sahih Bukhari

A checked version of this page, approved on 18 August 2020, was based on this revision.

Sahih Bukhari (in Arabic صحيح البخاري, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī) is a collection of hadiths (narrations) by a central Asian, al-Bukhari, who was born in Bukhara in what is modern-day Uzbekistan around 200 years after the accepted death the prophet Muhammad ^[1]. He collected narrations which were transmitted only orally for generations and collated them into a book of sayings, stories, and traditions about the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. The collection is called "authentic" (sahih) and is considered second only to the Quran in terms of authenticity and authority amongst most Sunni Muslims. The "authenticness" of a narration are judged by for authenticity according to whether the people in the chain of narrators were good, truthful Muslims in the traditional Sunni reckoning. The most common narrators in Sahih Bukhari from Muhammad's generation are Abu Huraira and Aisha. See also [1] and [2].For each Hadith there is always a long list of narrators, listed as "so and so told so and so" etc. It is also part of "the six books" (الكتب الستة, Al-Kutub as-Sittah), the most trusted hadith collections in Sunni Islam. There are over 7000 narrations in the collection, but there are often different versions of the same story, so the actual number of narrations is less than 3000 ^[2].

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (p.b.u.h) said, "Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: "Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?"

Sahih Bukhari 2:21:246

Fairy tales

Animals talk and Muhammad believes it:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying, "While a shepherd was amongst his sheep, a wolf attacked them and took away one sheep. When the shepherd chased the wolf, the wolf turned towards him and said, 'Who will be its guard on the day of wild animals when nobody except I will be its shepherd. And while a man was driving a cow with a load on it, it turned towards him and spoke to him saying, 'I have not been created for this purpose, but for ploughing." The people said, "Glorified be Allah." The Prophet said, "But I believe in it and so does Abu Bakr and `Umar."

Sahih Bukhari 5:57:15

Tall Tales

Monkeys stone a monkey as a punishment for adultery and `Amr bin Maimun joins them:

Narrated `Amr bin Maimun:

During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them.

Sahih Bukhari 5:58:188

Strange Anecdotes

In The Book of Hunting, Slaughtering (كتاب الذبائح والصيد), al-Bukhari wrote at the beginning of chapter 12 (the texts in the beginnings of chapters are usually not translated in English translations):

وَقَالَ أَبُو الدَّرْدَاءِ فِي الْمُرِي ذَبَحَ الْخَمْرَ النِّينَانُ وَالشَّمْسُ

And Abu Darda said regarding the soup: He slaughtered the wine, Nuns and the Sun.

Bukhari, Book of Hunting, Slaughtering, chapter 12 ""Lawful to you is water-game and its use for food .... For the benefit of yourselves" ^[3]

Nun is the Arabic letter ن.

Bukhari's original manuscripts

Bukhari's work is only extant through his student al-Firabri.

Translations

The whole collection was translated to English by Muhsin Khan. His translations uses the 97 books version. The collection was translated into many other languages.^[4]

The English text often isn't a literal translation of the Arabic original. For example the book "كتاب السلم" (kitaab us-sallam, book of payment) is named "A book of Sales in which a Price is paid for Goods to be Delivered Later". Other times they are so literal, that they are actually not translation, but only a transliteration, for example "Khusoomaat" (Quarrels).

Just like in the Qur'an translations, when the Arabic original text is too violent or absurd, the English translation uses euphemisms, transliteration, mis-translation or just doesn't translate it at all.

For example, in the 58th Book (with only a transliterated name) "Jizyah and Mawaada'ah" (the tax and the peace treaty), the first chapter is named:

In English: "Al-Jizya taken from the Dhimmi"
In Arabic: "باب الْجِزْيَةِ وَالْمُوَادَعَةِ مَعَ أَهْلِ الْحَرْبِ"
- باب (baab) - chapter
- الْجِزْيَةِ (al-jizya) - (of) the tax
- وَالْمُوَادَعَةِ (wal-mawaada'ah) - and the peace treaty
- مَعَ (ma'a) - with
- أَهْلِ (ahl) - people
- الْحَرْبِ (al-harbi) - (of) the war

We would expect that the English word "dhimmi" is a transliteration of the Arabic word dhimmi (ذمي), but the name of the chapter actually says "people of war" (أَهْلِ الْحَرْبِ, ahl il-harbi) and doesn't use the word dhimmi (ذمي). This might be even called "mis-transliteration". Also the chapter mentions the Mawaada'ah (الموادعة), the peace treaty (of not killing them), while the translation says only "jizya".

Ambiguous numbering

There is more than one way of numbering the hadiths in this collection. Every hadith has it's own number (from 1 to 7495 ^[5], 7563^[6] or 7658 ^[7]), but the collection was also divided into volumes and books. There are either 93^[8], 97 ^[9] or 98 ^[10] books and there are 9 volumes (in the 93 books version). So for example, if someone tells you about a hadith in the book 98, you might find out your collection has only 93 books and the hadith is actually in the book 93 in your collection. Also what is in one version considered as two separate hadiths might be in other collection considered to be one big hadith. So we can't tell how many hadiths are there.

In the 93 books (USC-MSA) version, the hadith numbering is not from the first hadith of the whole collection, but from the first hadith of the first book of the volume. The hadith identificator is volume:book:hadith. For example, 9:84:53, is the first hadith of the book 84, and it has the number 53, because volume 9 started with the book 83 and the book 83 has 52 hadiths. The same hadith could be described as 88:1, because it is the 1st hadith of the book 88 in the 97 books version (or 89:1 in the 97 books version). It could be also described with one number 6918, as it is the 6918th hadith from the beginning of the whole Sahih Bukhari collection (in the 93 books version). And it could be also described with the number 7004 (more than 6918), because in the 93 books version, some hadiths from the 98 books version, were "joined" and considered to be one hadith.

This is a list of all names used in different versions ^[11]. The first three columns "98", "97" and "93" contain a number of the book with the name "Book name" in the 98, 97 or 93 version. The last three columns Q98, Q97 and Q93 contain the number (Quantity) of hadiths in the book "Book name" in the 98, 97 and 93 books version. "x" means that a book with this name is not a part of that version (the hadiths which would be in that book are in some other book instead).

98	97	93	Volume	Book name	Q98	Q97	Q93
1	1	1	1	Revelation	7	7	6
2	2	2	1	Belief	51	51	49
3	3	3	1	Knowledge	78	76	81
4	4	4	1	Ablutions (wudu)	114	113	111
5	5	5	1	Bathing (ghusl)	44	46	45
6	6	6	1	Menstrual periods	37	40	37
7	7	7	1	Ablution (rubbing hands and feet) with dust (tayammum)	15	15	15
8	8	8	1	Prayer (salat)	165	172	127
x	x	9	1	Virtues of the prayer hall (sutra)	x	x	27
9	9	10	1	Times of prayers	78	82	77
10	10	11	1	Call to prayers	265	273	122
x	x	12	1	Characteristics of prayer	x	x	134
11	11	13	2	Friday prayer	65	66	63
12	12	14	2	Fear prayer	6	6	5
13	13	15	2	The two festivals (eids)	37	42	36
14	14	16	2	Witr prayer	15	15	14
15	15	17	2	Invoking Allah for rain (istisqaa)	34	35	31
16	16	18	2	Eclipses	24	25	23
17	17	19	2	Prostration during recital of Qur'an	13	13	13
18	18	20	2	Shortening the prayers	37	40	35
19	19	21	2	Prayer at night (tajjud)	63	68	68
20	20	x	2	Virtues of prayer at Masjid Makkah and Madinah	9	10	x
21	21	22	2	Actions while praying	27	26	40
22	22	x	2	Forgetfulness in prayer	14	13	x
23	23	23	2	Funerals	149	158	155
24	24	24	2	Obligatory charity tax (Zakat)	116	118	95
x	x	25	2	Zakat ul-Fitr (ramadan charity)	x	x	10
25	25	26	2	Pilgrimage (Hajj)	247	259	235
26	26	27	3	Minor pilgrimage (Umrah)	33	33	32
27	27	28	3	Pilgrims prevented from completing the pilgrimage	17	15	14
28	28	29	3	Penalty of hunting while on pilgrimage	46	46	44
29	29	30	3	Virtues of Madinah	24	24	24
30	30	31	3	Fasting	119	117	111
31	31	32	3	Praying at night in Ramadan	6	6	16
32	32	x	3	Virtues of the night of Qadr	11	x	x
33	33	33	3	Retiring to a mosque for remembrance of Allah	21	21	21
34	34	34	3	Sales and trade	193	192	178
35	35	35	3	Sales in which a price is paid for goods to be delivered later	16	18	20
36	36	x	3	Shuf'a (pre-emption)	3	3	x
37	37	36	3	Hiring	25	26	25
38	38	37	3	Transferance of a debt from one person to another	3	3	10
39	39	x	3	Kafalah	9	9	x
40	40	38	3	Representation, Authorization, Business by proxy	18	21	17
41	41	39	3	Agriculture	28	31	28
42	42	40	3	Distribution of water	31	33	29
43	43	41	3	Loans, payment of loans, freezing of property, bankruptcy	24	25	38
44	44	x	3	Khusoomaat (quarrels)	15	16	x
45	45	42	3	Lost things picked up by someone	15	14	12
46	46	43	3	Oppressions	43	44	43
47	47	44	3	Partnership	22	25	22
48	48	45	3	Mortgaging	8	8	8
49	49	46	3	Manumission (freeing) of slaves	42	43	47
50	50	x	3	Makaatib (slaves trying to be free)	6	6	x
51	51	47	3	Gifts	69	71	65
52	52	48	3	Witnesses	62	53	50
53	53	49	3	Peacemaking	20	21	19
54	54	50	3	Conditions	24	27	22
55	55	51	4	Wills and testaments	45	44	40
56	56	52	4	Fighting for the cause of Allah (jihaad)	311	309	283
57	57	53	4	One-fifth of booty to the cause of Allah	63	65	89
58	58	x	4	Jizyah and mawaada'ah (tax on dhimmis and a peace treaty)	30	34	x
59	59	54	4	Beginning of creation	137	136	130
60	60	55	4	Prophets	156	163	116
61	61	56	4	Virtues and merits of the prophet and his companions / merits of sunnah	152	160	183
62	62	57	5	Companions of the prophet	136	127	118
63	63	58	5	Merits of the helpers in Madinah	179	173	166
64	64	59	5	Military expeditions led by the prophet	510	525	465
65	65	60	6	Prophetic commentary on the Qur'an	516	504	501
66	66	61	6	Virtues of the Qur'an	89	85	81
67	67	62	7	Wedlock, marriage	189	188	177
68	68	63	7	Divorce	101	100	85
69	69	64	7	Supporting the family	23	22	23
70	70	65	7	Food, meals	96	94	89
71	71	66	7	Sacrifice on occasion of birth	9	8	8
72	72	67	7	Hunting, slaughtering	71	70	69
73	73	68	7	Al-Adha festival sacrifice	31	30	28
74	74	69	7	Drinks	67	65	63
75	75	70	7	Patients	38	38	38
76	76	71	7	Medicine	94	105	92
77	77	72	7	Dress	194	187	179
78	78	73	8	Good manners and form	266	257	245
79	79	74	8	Asking permission	78	77	71
80	80	75	8	Invocations	106	108	104
81	81	76	8	To make the heart tender	186	182	172
82	82	77	8	Divine will (qadar)	27	27	25
83	83	78	8	Oaths and vows	89	87	81
84	84	79	8	Expiation for unfulfilled oaths	16	16	18
85	85	80	8	Laws of inheritance	47	49	47
86	86	81	8	Limits and punishments set by Allah	31	88	31
87	x	82	8	Punishments of disbelievers at war with Allah and his apostle / Disbelievers	52	x	49
88	87	83	9	Blood money	55	57	52
89	88	84	9	Dealing with apostates	21	22	20
90	89	85	9	Saying something under compulsion	13	13	12
91	90	86	9	Tricks	28	29	26
92	91	87	9	Interpretation of dreams	68	66	59
93	92	88	9	Afflictions and the end of the world	90	89	81
94	93	89	9	Judgements	87	89	81
95	94	90	9	Wishes	22	20	20
96	95	91	9	Accepting information given by a truthful person	21	22	21
97	96	92	9	Holding fast to the Qur'an and sunnah	98	103	96
98	97	93	9	Oneness, uniqueness of Allah	194	193	184

Conclusion

Sahih Bukhari is a collection of narrations from people who lived with Muhammad. The word "sahih" means "authentic", but since Bukhari started collecting them hundereds of years after Muhammad and all of the narrations have a long chain of narrations (like "someone said, that someone else said, that someone else said, that she said, that he said that Muhammad did something"), it is questionable, whether those narrations are actually authentic. Nevertheless this collection is considered to be the most authentic by sunni Muslims.

The English translation by Muhsin Khan is not very reliable.

The collection is divided into 9 volumes and volumes are divided into books. There are more than 90 books. One book can contain from a few to hundereds of hadiths (narrations). Since the numbering of both books and hadiths is problematic (there are more numbering methods), we can't say how many books and how many hadiths there are. Also we can't say which book contains the biggest number of hadiths. But we can say that (in all numbering methods) the 3 biggest books are:

Military expeditions led by the prophet
Prophetic commentary on the Qur'an
Fighting for the cause of Allah (jihaad)

So two out of three biggest books of narrations about Muhammad's life are about killing people. The book "Military expeditions led by the prophet" contains over 500 hadiths. While the book of "Peacemaking" contains less then 30 hadiths. From this we can conclude that killing people was a very big part of Muhammad's life (of his "sunna").

References

↑ Muhammad died 632. Bukhari was born 810.
↑ A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Foundations of Islam series). Oneworld Publications. p. 32. ISBN 978-1851686636.
↑ https://sunnah.com/bukhari/72
↑ http://www.australianislamiclibrary.org/sahih-bukhari.html
↑ http://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari
↑ https://sunnah.com/bukhari/97
↑ http://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari/98
↑ https://www.sahih-bukhari.com/Pages/Bukhari_2_20.php
↑ https://sunnah.com/bukhari
↑ http://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari
↑ The 98 version is from the web al-islamic.net, the 97 version from sunnah.com and the 93 version from sahih-bukhari.com

[1] Muhammad died 632. Bukhari was born 810.

[2] A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Foundations of Islam series). Oneworld Publications. p. 32. ISBN 978-1851686636.

[3] ttps://sunnah.com/bukhari/72

[4] ttp://www.australianislamiclibrary.org/sahih-bukhari.html

[5] ttp://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari

[6] ttps://sunnah.com/bukhari/97

[7] ttp://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari/98

[8] ttps://www.sahih-bukhari.com/Pages/Bukhari_2_20.php

[9] ttps://sunnah.com/bukhari

[10] ttp://al-islamic.net/hadith/bukhari

[11] The 98 version is from the web al-islamic.net, the 97 version from sunnah.com and the 93 version from sahih-bukhari.com

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