The Credibility of Imam Bukhari

Opening

He says: O believers, have taqwa in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And taqwa means that we should be conscious of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We should be aware of Him. And we shouldn't allow ourselves to die except in a state of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ.

I begin my khutbah by asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first and foremost to send blessings and prayers upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ تَعَالَى وَبَرَكَاتُهُ.

The Life of Imam Al-Bukhari

The lessons and the life of Imam Al-Bukhari رحمة الله عليه is a subject of so many books. And in today's khutbah insha'Allah ta'ala I'm going to give you a very quick overview about his life and about one of the most beautiful qualities that Imam Al-Bukhari had.

His Name and Lineage

Imam Al-Bukhari's name is Abu Abdullah — that's his kunya. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Ismail Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Al-Mughira Al-Bukhari — that's his full name. His grandfather, Al-Mughira, was one of the people who witnessed the Sahabah and reverted to Islam at that time.

Imam Al-Bukhari was very passionate about one subject, and that is Al-Hadith. And we're going to go in depth with this insha'Allah ta'ala.

His Childhood and Early Signs of Greatness

Imam Al-Bukhari's childhood was very interesting. He lost his eyesight at the age of three. And then, with the tremendous du'a that his mother made for him, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala returned his eyesight back. In the Islamic books, in the turath, we don't have a lot of information about who his mother was — but we know her through this du'a that she made to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for her child to gain his eyesight back.

SubhanAllah — just think about this. At a very young age, Allah gave him this huge ibtila. All of the legends, all of the heroes in human history had to go through these kinds of hardships. No one actually made it the easy way. If there are no hardships, there is no development. So Imam Al-Bukhari had to experience this at a very young age.

And then he had a dream one time — that he was one of the people who actually got to change the world. And he woke up from that dream and said, "I want to be that one who actually changed the world." He had that passion. How, and when, and all of these questions — he did not have answers at that time. But he said that he had that dream at a very young age.

And then he realized that he had a lot of passion to memorize al-Hadith. At the age of six, one time he was in a halaqa, and his teacher was a scholar of hadith, and he was reciting one of the hadith with the chain of narration — saying: Zubayr, Sufyan, Ismail, Ibrahim. So Imam Al-Bukhari, at that time a six-year-old child, raised his hand and told him: "By the way, there is something wrong with this chain of narration — someone has to be missing." And then his teacher looked at him as if to say, "Who is this child that wants to correct me in my halaqa?" He told him, "Go and review your lawh, your notes." And then the sheikh went and checked his lawh, and came back and realized that Imam Al-Bukhari was right.

So he told him, "You're right. But now tell me — what is actually the chain of narration? The correct one?" And then Imam Al-Bukhari told him, "It is Sufyan, and Zubayr, and Uday — and you forgot Uday — and then Ibrahim." And then the teacher looked at Imam Al-Bukhari and told him, "You have a great future — a bright future ahead of you."

His Journey in Seeking Knowledge

At the age of 16, he decided to travel to Mecca to study hadith. That was his passion — "I want to actually study the words of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم." He had that passion. So he went and he started his journey there.

Fast forward a little bit — at the age of 22, he decided to go to receive the blessing of meeting Al-Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal رضي الله عنه in Baghdad. So he traveled about a thousand miles, from Mecca to Baghdad, to seek knowledge from Imam Ibn Hanbal before his death.

Now, Imam Al-Bukhari at that time was well knowledgeable about hadith. Towards the age of 30, he was a great scholar — everybody knew who he was. If they actually wanted to check any of the hadith or the authenticity of hadith, they would travel all the way to Baghdad to look for Imam Al-Bukhari and ask him questions.

The Public Test in Baghdad

And now there was some jealousy around, and some people were questioning the qualifications of Imam Al-Bukhari. They said there was so much hype around him and they weren't sure if this hype was true. So they decided to quiz him in public one time. In Masjid Al-Kabir in Baghdad — one of the biggest masjids in Baghdad at that time — they told him, "Come, and we will test you in the hadith."

And as humans we love drama — so a lot of people came and showed up to the masjid at that time, just to watch this kind of public test with Imam Al-Bukhari. And then the sheikh started reciting 100 hadith from the time of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. But he did something — he wanted to trick Imam Al-Bukhari. He mixed the sanad with the matn.

I promise this is not a mustalah al-hadith class — but the sanad is the chain of narrators, and the matn is the actual words of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. So the sheikh wanted to trick Imam Al-Bukhari by mixing the two. He would say A, B, and C narrated — when in fact D, E, and F were the ones who narrated that hadith. For me and you, if we heard it, we would say, "Yeah, that makes sense — this is a hadith." But for Imam Al-Bukhari, because he was a master of this knowledge, it would not make sense — because there was something wrong with the narrators.

So every single hadith that the sheikh recited, Imam Al-Bukhari said, "I don't know this hadith. I don't know this hadith. I don't know this hadith." Until he completed all one hundred. And then he was in a position where people might say he was ignorant — that he didn't know hundreds of hadith, that he denied all of these hadith. But then, because he had this incredible sharp memory, Imam Al-Bukhari recited back to the sheikh all one hundred hadith — with the wrong narrators that the sheikh had given him — and then corrected each one, giving back all one hundred hadith with the right narrations. The scholars said: this is an incredible, incredible talent that Imam Al-Bukhari had.

The Concept of Credibility

Fast forward a little bit — Imam Al-Bukhari was not just very knowledgeable about the field of hadith. He got this honor to actually preserve our deen, because we derive our religion from Al-Quran and Hadith. Not only was he mastering that knowledge — but he had one unique quality. SubhanAllah.

You know, I was just doing research about this concept of credibility. At the University of Nevada, they had a study spanning about three decades. They asked people very simple questions. They said: "What makes a company very sustainable? What makes you buy a product from a specific company?" And the second question was: "What makes you follow a leader?" Two questions.

They asked these questions to around 7,000 CEOs and managers in the US. And then they asked the same questions to people living overseas — Africans, Asians, Latinos, Europeans — people from different social classes, people of different professions: engineers, doctors. They asked every single one, from different ethnicities and different backgrounds.

And of course they got a lot of answers. But what was very interesting is that at the top of this list was this concept of credibility. They said: "If a company has credibility — if the company has built that trust, has this good reputation — it makes me go and buy their products." And then they said: "For me to follow a leader, he has to have this sense of credibility. If he doesn't have this sense of credibility, nobody will follow — they will see him as fake." Those are the words. That is the summarization of this study.

SubhanAllah — right before the khutbah I was talking to one of my friends who is the CEO of a big company here. And I told him: "Would you hire someone who has all the qualifications — he will get your job done, he is very knowledgeable about the field, he will meet all of your needs for that work, he has incredible skills — would you hire that person if he doesn't have the sense of credibility?" He told me: "Absolutely not." Credibility for him, he said, is a veto power. If he doesn't have credibility, he is not qualified for that job.

What Made Sahih Al-Bukhari What It Is

Now let's go back to Imam Al-Bukhari — specifically to his credibility. I will say this, and you can quote me on this: What made Sahih Al-Bukhari what it is today — even though so many scholars and sheikhs tried to write books like Sahih Al-Bukhari and it never received the same authenticity — what made Sahih Al-Bukhari what it is was not because Imam Al-Bukhari was the most knowledgeable man, not because he had the sharpest memory ever. It is because of all of those reasons — in addition to his credibility. His credibility.

The Story of the 100,000 Dinars

SubhanAllah — I'll give you a story. It is a very unique story from his life that actually summarizes his concern about his credibility.

One time, towards the end of his life, Imam Al-Bukhari was on a journey for a business transaction — he was going on a business trip — and he was on a ship. He was just sitting there, and then a random man came up to him and started chatting. Imam Al-Bukhari told him: "I am going to that place for business purposes, and I have with me 100,000 dinars." 100,000 dinars — equivalent to a quarter of a million dollars. That is a lot of money at that time. "I have this 100,000 dinars and I am pursuing that business." So they were traveling towards their destination.

This man who was talking to Imam Al-Bukhari was a man of low character — he was actually a thief. So what he did was he spread the news that he had lost 100,000 dinars. Do you see what he did there? He flipped it around. He said to everybody, "I lost 100,000 dinars." Now when the captain and the authorities would search for this 100,000 dinars, they would find it with whom? With Imam Al-Bukhari.

So Imam Al-Bukhari was in a very difficult situation. The captain decided to search the ship from top to bottom. They wanted to find who had taken this 100,000 dinars.

Imam Al-Bukhari at this point did something very unexpected. He put the money in his sleeve, went all the way to the top of the ship, and threw the money into the water. Why would you put the money in your sleeve, go all the way to the top, and throw a quarter of a million dollars into the water? And then when they searched the ship, they couldn't find anything.

So the thief came to Imam Al-Bukhari and told him, "Come on — where did you hide the money? I know you have that money." So Imam Al-Bukhari told him, "I threw the money in the water." The man said, "Are you a fool? You just threw all of this money into the water? You could have just defended yourself." And honestly, he could have — Imam Al-Bukhari knew the characteristics and details of this money; he could easily have proven it was his.

But listen to what Imam Al-Bukhari said. He said:

"I have worked all of my life to keep my credibility clean — so that the hadith of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم would be accepted from me. And I am not willing — I am not willing — to compromise this. This is worth more than 100,000 dinars. So I would rather get rid of the 100,000 dinars for my credibility to remain very clean, for my reputation to not be tarnished."

Closing and Du'a

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among those who are very cautious about our credibility. Jazakumullahu khair.

Brothers and sisters, every one of us has a record. And this record will be determined based on our credibility. And this record affects us in our lifetime — and even after our death. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us to keep that record very clean, so that we go to Him as exactly as we were born.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us barakah in our lives. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us all with acceptance. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us all.