Government College University, Lahore

Department of Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies

Programme: Master of Philosophy in Philosophy

Course Convenor: Doctor Sobia Tahir

Course Name: Live Issues of Contemporary Muslim Philosophy

Course Code: PHIL: 7208 (PLE1)

Session: 2022-2024

Credit Hour: 3

Semester: II

Book Review: The Bukhari Gate

Name: Junaid Faizan

Roll Number: 0755-MPHIL-PHIL-22

 The Bukhari Gate

Introduction

This discussion is not new but is very widespread and it is quite common in the Muslim world especially Arabic
and Urdu speaking world. There are vast numbers of scholars critiquing Bukhari massively. Before critically analysing
Bukhari, brief but succinct light would be shed on the sources of primary sources Islamic teachings which are only two viz
Divine Revelation i.e. Qur’an and Sunnah. Hadiths encompass Sunnah but it does not solely comprise Sunnah and not
every Hadith reflects Sunnah or Islamic teachings. There are two attitudes towards Hadiths namely Hadiths absolutism
and relativism. Categorising Hadith especially Bukhari as secondary revelation is an innovation. But people who are not
privy to this may feel that this is a deviation. Principally there are two categories of scholars who have taken up this
discourse. The first one comprises of actual scholars who have studied and trained in the science of Hadiths known as
Muhadithiin. The second category encompass who are not necessarily traditionally trained scholars, but they are like
academics. Sometimes when the latter category takes this discourse up, they utterly throw everything of Hadith more
specifically Bukhari. this is due to their limitation of research and lack of training in Islamic sciences. I belong to this
category but does not necessarily agree with his extreme approach per se because I am a Hadith relativist. People who
opt for this kind of discourse need transparency and honesty and should be free form bias and prejudices because we are
in an age of information and covering up things is not going to fruitful. Other people know this discussion is wild and
actually very healthy. Religion of Islam does not become any diminished by Bukhari being questioned.

Divinity of Bukhari

This review of Bukhari will shed light on four major premises. Firstly, Bukhari has been given a divine status
whether one agrees with this or not. If any scholar of either kind criticises some other hadith books for e.g. Ibn Maja, or
Muwatta Imam Malik nobody would care. This disparity is due to the semi-divine status of Bukhari even people do not
explicitly claim that, but it is the de facto rule. In in the real Muslim world Bukhari is treated on it is on par with the Qur’an
unfortunately due to the last 100 years of propaganda people have pushed Bukhari up there with the Qur’an in theory and
practice. This thought is so widespread especially in Ahl-ul-Sunnah wal Jama’at which comprises overwhelming majority
of Muslims. Most of the people in theory will say it is just slightly below the Qur’an, but reality is otherwise. My view is that
in practice Bukhari is actually above the Qur’an because people will never dismiss a problematic hadith in Bukhari
because it clashes with the Qur’an, rather they will dismiss a verse of the Qur’an if it clashes with Bukhari. Prime example
is to ponder that how many verses are there in the Qur’an which condemns the coercion in choice of religion 1. Yet when
they have one hadith in Bukhari through a problematic narrator Ikrama who was an extremist (Khawarij) transmitting a
hadith that Ali said kill apostates by burning them2. In practice the Bukhari sanctifiers accept this ruling to be in
consonance with teachings of Islam. Great scholars like Imam Shatibi, Imam Malik, etc declared Qur’an always takes
precedence but it seems to have flooded with all this propaganda The divine status of Bukhari need to be gone. This
religion does not allow Bukhari or any Hadith book to be more powerful than the Qur’an or even on par with the Qur’an or
even just slightly below the Qur’an that is utter nonsense it is nothing. Bukhari is just like the rest of other hadith books.

Material Errors

The second premise is that Bukhari contains numerous hadiths which are massively problematic that are
blasphemous, insulting, irrational and make this religion look stupid. I would discuss some not all problematic hadiths to
illustrate what is this book we are dealing with. Sahih Bukhari contains lot of actual and factual errors. A hadith in it speaks
about the night journey of the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬from the Mecca to Jerusalem before he was even a Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬3. This is
unacceptable and rejected by every scholar. There are several narrations which disrespects Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬and I will show
not all but some of these narrations. In the hadith which says that Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬comes to the house of a woman, and he

1 The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary by Abdullah Yousaf Ali 02:256, 09:66, 10:99, 11:28, 18:29, 88:21-
22
2 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 260.
3 .
says to her give yourself to me to which she responds ‘’Can a princess give herself in marriage to an ordinary man?’’ The
Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬raised his hand to pat her. She said, ‘’I seek refuge with Allah from you.’’4 This is utter nonsense, blasphemy
and disrespecting Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬. When in another hadith Umar is saying that the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬is ill and talking no sense5.
The next example is much controversial especially in this era which is qua marriage of Aisha with the Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬. The
hadith states Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬married Aisha and consummated when she was six and nine years old respectively 6. The
Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬is looking at a six-year-old child with the intent of sexual intimacy, which is disgusting, and it is an attack on
the honour of Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬by labelling him paedophile. Another disrespecting hadith avows that magic was worked on
Allah's Messenger (‫ )ﷺ‬so that he used to think that he had sexual relations with his wives while he had not in reality7. This
is the repayment towards the Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬. Where does testimony go about those people who came to the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬and
said we committed adultery why was the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬taking them to task of judicial trial. Where does Shari’a remain in
practical framework. Not just Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬is disrespected but other prophets are also insulted when the hadith asserts that
the Prophet Solomon vowed on one pretext that he will go and have sex with 90 women and all of them will bring him a
cavalier who will fight in the path of Allah, but his companion told Solomon to say In sha Allah, nonetheless Solomon did
not said that. Solomon had sex that night with 90 women only one woman gave birth to a handicapped child. Then the
Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬says if Solomon had said In sha Allah they would have all been born as warriors 8. This shows prophet
Solomon is being reminded by a companion to say In sha Allah which he cannot be bothered to say and as a result Allah
punished Solomon. Another example wherein it is stated that Moses bathe in seclusion because he had swollen testicles
and once Moses went out to take a bath and put his clothes over a stone and then that stone ran away with his clothes.
Moses followed that stone till the people of Bani Israel saw him. Moses took his clothes and began to beat the stone9.Now
ُ ‫’‘وقَا َُل أَبو الد َّْردَاءُ في ا ْلمر‬.
َّ ‫ي ذَبَ َحُ ا ْل َخ ْم َرُ النِّينَانُ َوال‬
comes the hilarious hadith which depicts gibberish Arabic which states ‘’ُ‫ش ْمس‬ َ 10. This
is non-sensical Arabic which speaks about slaughtering of alcohol and ُ‫ النِّينَان‬is neither Arabic nor word of any known
language in this world. Here is illustration in Bukhari wherein it depicts how revelation operated. It states that Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬
said call somebody that revelation has come up write down that write: ‘’Not equal are those believers who sit (at home)
and those who strive and fight in the Cause of Allah’’. A person was sitting behind the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬and he I am a blind
man. So, there was revealed in the place of that Verse, "Not equal are those of the believers who sit (at home) except
those who are disabled (by injury or are blind or lame etc.) and those who strive and fight in the Cause of Allah 11. The
Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬and Allah did not know that there is a blind man there so why not reveal the verse properly. There is a hadith
wherein Umar apparently utters that he still remembers the extra verse of the Qur’an about stoning married people who
committed adultery12. The next hadith which will be quoted is very funny concerning monkey ethics and moralities by
mentioning that one monkey was stoned by other monkeys as she had committed adultery 13. What on earth is monkey
adultery, ethics and moralities. The institution of marriage does not exist in the animal world okay these are human
psycho-social constructs. The last hadith which I would refer regards the filthy act wherein Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬advised a person
to drink camel urine14. This is the effort of showing what kind of non-sense, blasphemy and idiotic narrations Bukhari has.
It is pertinent to mention here that due to the sake of brevity, not all the factual and actual errors which clashes with Islam
are mentioned here.

Methodology of Imam Bukhari

The third premise deals with the issues in the application of Imam Bukhari’s methodology of Sahih Bukhari. Imam
Bukhari himself there some important points to highlight. Firstly, Imam himself used collect hadith with meaning (Riwayah
bi al-Ma'na) and he would do that himself as well. Imam Ad-Dhahabi mentions discussion governor of Bukhara Ibn Abi
Jaffar with Imam Bukhari and latter says that he heard many hadith in Busra and Sham but wrote them when he reached

4 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 7, Book 63, Hadith 182.

5 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 1, Book 3, Hadith 114.
6 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 7, Book 62, Hadith 64.
7 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 7, Book 71, Hadith 660.
8 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 8, Book 78, Hadith 634.
9 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 1, Book 5, Hadith 277.
10 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 7, Book 67, Chapter 12.
11 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 6, Book 60, Hadith 118.
12 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 8, Book 82, Hadith 817.
13 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 5, Book 58, Hadith 188.
14 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 7, Book 71, Hadith 590.
Sham and Egypt respectively. The governor asks Imam was writing of these hadiths were with their entirety. In response
Imam went on silent, to which Shoaib Ar-Naouth comments in the margin that it is permissible to transmit Riwayah bi al-
Ma'na according to Imam Bukhari15. Another issue is that if based on bona fide motives, Imam Bukhari permitted to do
hide name(s) of narrators (Tadlees) so reader cannot who the writer is talking about. Here is an example wherein Ad-
Dhahabi writes that Imam Bukhari would transmit from Abdullah ibne Saleh Al-Juhni but Imam Bukhari would just say
Abdullah and would not give full name 16 because he knew people would find problems with him. Then Ad-Dhahabi goes
on to that Imam Bukhari would transmit vastly and numerously from one of the teachers of viz Muhammad bin Yahya Az-
Zuhli, but refer to him as either Muhammad, Muhammad ibne Abullah (grandfather of Az-Zuhli) or Muhammad ibne Khalid
(great grandfather of Az-Zuhli)17. As Imam Bukhari transmits from over thirty Muhammad(s), one cannot know for sure
Imam Bukhari is referring to which Muhammad.

Imam Bukhari came up with this hardcore gold standard but he himself did not always stick by his own rules and
standard. This is among other reasons that Imam Muslim severely criticizes Imam Bukhari as well. An example this is this
book uh is a book by Daraqutni in his book Kitab al-tatabbu' deemed 217 hadiths of Sahih Bukhari to be flawed.
Furthermore, Daraqutni mentions that on some occasions Imam Bukhari would take from weird people. He gives example
that Bukhari took from Imran ibn Hittaan an extremist (key sympathiser of Khawarij)18. Yet Imam Bukhari and other
Muhadithiin postulated that these khawarij are acceptable narrators because they are so upstanding when it comes to
hadith as they believe this to be a sin. This reasoning is stupid because anybody who can justify murder lying is no big
deal. Moreover, this premise that Khawarij do not lie as Ibn Hajjar in his book Tehzeeb ul Tehzeeb mentions that Ibn Abi
Hatim transmits that many Khawarij openly admitted later that if they desired something then they actually used to make
up hadith. Another interesting point is regarding the chain of narrators Imam Bukhari postulated a criteria that every
narrator is authentic. But there is a little surprise wherein Imam Bukhari wrote that Muhammad ibn Ismael narrated from
Al-Firabri.19 This is funny because the former is author himself and the latter is the student of author. So how on earth
Imam Bukhari is in his own chain in his own book of narration. This is mentioned here to show even Imam Buhari’s
standard did beat the other standards, nonetheless Bukhari had many shortcomings in his own theory opted in practice.

Imam Bukhari is not the key problem and he tried hard to put together a huge project. If one see what happens
towards the end of his life. Imam Bukhari is tortured (both physically and mentally), ostracized and was forced to leave his
hometown. The irony is that people at that time alleged that he was a deviant. Interestingly two main groups who hated on
him were the Hanafis because Imam Bukhari attacked Abu Hanifa and secondly the proto-Wahhabis (Hambali in creed).
The irony of history by the way is these are the same two groups today trying to establish semi-divine status of Bukhari.
Had they not persecuted Imam Bukhari then his book might have reached us quite with certainty. Due to the persecution
suffered Imam Buhari was no longer able to teach in his last years of life. In his last years any name associated with Imam
Bukhari became so toxic that people at large refused to promote his teaching and to transmit hadith from him. Even Imam
Muslim criticised and boycotts. If Imam Bukhari continued to teach up until his dying breath maybe more people would
have transmitted Bukhari. Unfortunately, Bukhari is only transmitted really through one person Al-Farabri and this is the
key part.

Chain of Causation

The fourth and key premise is that can one establish Bukhari back to the Imam Bukhari with confidence beyond
reasonable doubt and the answer is in the negative as there is way too much conflict. The whole Bukhari rests on one
person viz Muhammad ibn Yusuf Al-Firabri. Much controversy revolves around the transmission of this book. Foremost is
that Firabri was unvouched for in his time and nobody seems to recognize his credibility. Secondly Firabri’s students admit
his copy being incomplete. Thirdly his students made alterations to Bukhari. Fourthly all the students of Faribri are copying
from one manuscript yet all of them disagree amongst themselves 20. Fifthly all these disagreements are not just in chapter

15 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī. Siyar 'Alaam an-Nubalaae Volume 21 pg 411.

16 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī. Mizan al-I'tidal fi Naqd ar-Rijal Volume 2 pg 440-442.
17 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī. Siyar 'Alaam an-Nubalaae Volume 12 pg 275.
18 Ali ibn Umar al-Daraqutni. Kitab al-Tatabbu' pg 403.
19 Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 1, Book 3, Chapter 6.
20 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. Fatḥ al-Bārī fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, pg 6.
headings but there is dissent in the chains of narrators and their names. There are several hadiths missing between the
copies of students of Al-Firabri and much more. Sixthly that this all these different tertiary manuscripts and fourth layer
manuscripts met with this great makeover project by Sharaf-ud-Din-al-Yunini (1242-1326) who was commissioned to do
this Bukhari project. He gets whatever narrations he could find and then he starts to patch up things. Al-Yunini himself
admits the alteration of content and correcting grammatical and Arabic linguistic mistakes with the help of the grammarian
Ibn Malik. What was the need for this project because if all those great legends of manuscripts were so expert in their
scholarship, why there were the Arabic errors that need amendments. The problem continues because even Al-Yunini's
copy is even not available on the record. One of the students of Al-Yunini viz Nuaary copied from former’s copy which
latter used for commercial purposes. Why could Nuaary not make mistakes when all these great scholars before him
wrote manuscripts made mistakes. Then the final Sultania is resulted in the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid. This final version
has also undergone several rectifications and amendments. In its first amendment the editors found more than hundred
mistakes highlighted by Al-Azhari board.

Transmission Ambiguity

Now there would be detailed discussion on the transmission of Sahih Bukhari. Ad-Dhahabi states that Al-Firabri
claim to hear the whole compendium of Sahih Bukhari in 248 A.H 21 more than 8 years before the death of Imam Bukhari
i.e. 256 A.H. Many early Muhadithiin assert that Imam Bukhari edited his final version during his last years. That is not
very big issue, the main problem is that Sahih Bukhari is transmitted only through one transmitter viz Al-Firabri even
though Imam Bukhari had many students. Many scholars claim that Bukhari was transmitted by many students of Imam
Bukhari but it is no so. Khatib-ul-Bhagdai brings a chain quoting Al-Firabri that the latter claims that Imam Bukhari had
over 90,000 students during his teaching, but none of them remained alive except Al-Firabri. This claim if not impossible is
way much dubious. Before digressing, there is a need to shed light on some students of Imam Bukhari who transmitted
few hadiths of Sahih Bukhari. One of them is Ibrahim Ibn Ma’akal who was Muhadith and one of the main early senior
transmitters of Imam Bukhari and he certainly was vouched for by scholars like Abu Ya’alal Al-Khalili. The issue is that Ibn
Ma’akal did transmit Sahih Bukhari but it was incomplete. The 1,200 narrations of Sahih Bukhari transmitted by Ibn
Ma’akal was brought by Al-Khattabi in his book22. In introduction Al-Khattabi writes that the entire copy of Ibn Ma’akal did
not reach Al-Khattabi even though there was only one person between Al-Khattabi and Al-Firabri. So out of 7,700 of Sahih
Bukhari, only 1200 hadiths are transmitted from Ibn Ma’akal. Hammad bin Shakir Al-Naswi another student of Bukhari and
who is also vouched for by scholars like Al-Mustagfiri yet nothing really reaches us through Ibn Shakir via bis’sama’a
(reaching through teaching). This point need shedding light brief nut succinct light regarding the Islamic sciences
especially hadith. The legend Qadi Iyyad opined that if a scholar finds a book that is certainly written by the handwriting of
an Imam a reliable person signed by him still one cannot teach from that23. This strict standard is maintained because one
cannot know for certainty if the words are really of the Prophet (‫ )ﷺ‬In reply to this criticism some modern absolutist
propagators of Sahih Bukhari claim that Al-Firabri was the most junior student of Imam Bukhari. Unfortunately, the
evidence corroborates otherwise because the youngest student of Imam Bukhari was Abu Talha Mansur Al-Bazdawi who
was declared reliable by Ibn Ma’akula 24. Ibn Hajjar writes that he undergone through all the transmissions of Sahih
Bukhari that reaches him and only transmission of Al-Firabri reached him through teaching in these ages and those ages
before him25. Same goes with the Qadi Iyyad26 and Ibn Rushyad27 even though the latter was one who was trying very
hard to justify for Al-Firabri and Sahih Bukhari by misrepresenting truth.

Reliability of Al-Firabri

Now the reliability of Al-Firabri will be discussed in detail. Almost no classical scholar of his era vouched him for
and declared him to be reliable. Al-Firabri lived in era where many people he is rubbing shoulders were some of the great

21 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī. Siyar 'Alaam an-Nubalaae.

22 Hamd Ibn Muhammed al-Khattab al-Khattabi al-Busti. Kitab A'lam al-Sunan fi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari.
23 ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā. Al-Ilma` ila Ma`rifa Usul al-Riwaya wa Taqyid al-Sama`, pg 49.
24 Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī. Siyar 'Alaam an-Nubalaae.
25 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. Fatḥ al-Bārī fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Introduction.
26 ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā. Mashariq al-Anwar `ala Sahih al-Athar, pg 63.
27 Muhammad ibn Rushayd. Ifadah-tun-Nasheeh pg 18, 70.
scholars of Islam like Imam Tarmidhi, Abu Dawood, Nasai Ibn Jose and his teacher Imam Bukhari. Some centuries later
earlier mentioned scholar Ibn Rushyad tries to justify Al-Firabri’s reliability by mentioning the contemporary scholars who
said Al-Firabri was reliable. Ibn Rushyad states first of all that Abu al-Walid al-Baji claimed that Al-Firabri was reliable28.
The problem is nobody ever quoted that even the Ad-Dhahabi or Ibn Hajjar who quotes Al-Baji in other issues, never
quoted Al-Baji in this respect. So where has Al-Baji said this because it is not in any of Al-Baji’s books that is known.
Moreover, Ibn Rushyad came three centuries after Al-Baji. None of the other scholars who are contemporary to him ever
quote Al-Bajias saying that. This cast high suspicion because Al-Baji wrote book on Sahih Bukhari. Then Ibn Rushyad
wrote that Abu Bakar Al-Sama’ani declared Al-Firabri to be reliable29. This alleged claim too is not devoid of problems.
Firstly, of all Al-Sama’ani never met Al-Firabri in person as the former was boen at least a century after the latter.
Secondly, in the manuscript B of Ibn Rushyad’s book this sentence of Al-Sama’ani is missing. Thirdly, Al-Sama’ani’s son
Sa’ad wrote a book on hadith narrators (Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal) in which wile discussing Al-Firabri, Sa’ad did not
declared Al-Firabri as reliable, nor he mentions any declaration of reliability from his father Al-Sama’ani30. Furthermore,
Sa’ad mentions another Abu Bakr ibn A’isha ibn Muqray Al-Frabri to be reliable but not transmitter of Sahih Bukhari Al-
Firabri to be reliable. In response Bukhari absolutists claim Al-Firabri is reliable because people or at least one scholar of
hadith called Al-Hafiz ibn Sakhan took directly from Al-Firabri and transmitted from him even though ibn Sakhan did not
declare Al-Firabri to be reliable. This principle is categorically devoid of any foundation in hadith or Islamic sciences. Al-
Khatib al-Baghdadi opines that if a scholar transmits from somebody this does not mean they are declaring that person
reliable31 as it could be for other reasons. If this principle is applied strictly then it would mean every transmitter would be
reliable if any Muhadith takes hadith from that person. Furthermore, same rule should be applied for every book of hadith
and why this principle is applied just for Sahih Bukhari. The same goes with Ibn Hajjar32.

Conclusion

In the concluding remarks the need for this review and discussion is that one must analyse the claim is that Sahih
Bukhari is the most authentic book on planet earth for Muslims putting the Qur’an aside on planet earth and this is utterly
absurd. This does not mean to throw Sahih Bukhari or any hadith book away but only contention is that this book is a
suspect. Firstly, hadith is not among the primary sources of Islam as the only sources are Qur’an and Sunnah. the
Sunnah does not mean hadith in its entirety. The hadith encapsulates Sunnah but is primarily came via Fiqh
(jurisprudence). Secondly the Muslims does not need to take Deen (religion) From Sahih Bukhari or any other book
because Deen had already come from the living tradition through continuous practise because one generation inherits
Deen to previous generation. Thirdly the science of hadith was devised and documented at least two centuries after the
demise of Prophet (‫)ﷺ‬. The Sahih Bukhari is no different to other hadith books and is just like any other book of hadith and
Islamic episteme. Not everything in Sahih Bukhari is false and rejected outrightly. The overwhelming content of Sahih
Bukhari complements and encompass Islamic teaching. Sahih Bukhari should be viewed and judged according to the
three criteria as devised by eminent scholars especially Muhadithiin and Fuqaha’ah (jurists). Firstly, it cannot go against
Manqool (Qur’an and Sunnah). Secondly it cannot clash with the voice of reason and thirdly it cannot uproot established
Islamic principles. The hadith absolutist approach should be abandoned and instead hadith relativism attitude should be
opted. The Divine, semi-Divine attitude of Sahih Bukhari should be deserted and need to be gone. Religion of Islam does
not become any diminished by Bukhari being questioned.

Total Words: 4029

Peace Out

28 Ibid pg 43.
29 Ibid pg 47.
30 Abd al-Raḥīm Sa’ad. Al-Ansar lis Sama’ani, pg 3006.
31Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi . Al-Sabik wa 'l-lahik, pg 84
32 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. Nukhbat al-Fikar.