Introduction to Translation of
Sahih Bukhari
Translator: M. Muhsin Khan
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Sahih
Bukhari is a collection of sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh),
also known as the sunnah. The reports of the Prophet's sayings and deeds
are called ahadith. Bukhari lived a couple of centuries after the Prophet's
death and worked extremely hard to collect his ahadith. Each report
in his collection was checked for compatibility with the Qur'an, and
the veracity of the chain of reporters had to be painstakingly established.
Bukhari's collection is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the
Muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the Sunnah
of the Prophet (pbuh).
Bukhari
(full name Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail bin Ibrahim bin al-Mughira
al-Ja'fai) was born in 194 A.H. and died in 256 A.H. His collection
of hadith is considered second to none. He spent sixteen years compiling
it, and ended up with 2,602 hadith (9,082 with repetition). His criteria
for acceptance into the collection were amongst the most stringent of
all the scholars of ahadith.
It
is important to realize, however, that Bukhari's collection is not complete:
there are other scholars who worked as Bukhari did and collected other
authentic reports.
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