With time, many aḥādīth became mixed with the sayings of the ṣaḥābah and the fatāwā of the tābiʿīn and those who came after them. Imām al-Bukhārī also found that many existing collections had taken in weak aḥādīth, and so he made a firm resolve to compile a ṣaḥīḥ. He was strengthened in this resolve by what he had heard from his teacher, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥanẓalī, known as Ibn Rāhawayh, the leader of the believers in ḥadīth and fiqh. The work was also the wish of his teacher.1
Although the book is more commonly known as Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, the title Imām al-Bukhārī himself gave to it is الجامع الصحيح المسند من حديث رسول الله ﷺ وسننه وأيامه (al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Musnad min Ḥadīth Rasūl Allāh ﷺ wa-Sunanihi wa-Ayyāmihi), which may be rendered as the abridged collection of authentic narrations with connected chains, on matters concerning the Prophet ﷺ, his practices, and his times.
It is said that Imām al-Bukhārī's ṣaḥīḥ is the most authentic book after the Qurʾān. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī contains 7,275 aḥādīth, with 4,000 repeats.2 The work took Imām al-Bukhārī sixteen years to complete.3 Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firabrī reports Imām al-Bukhārī as saying that he did not write a single ḥadīth in his ṣaḥīḥ except after first performing ghusl and praying two rakʿah of ṣalāh before writing it.4
There is some disagreement over where Imām al-Bukhārī wrote the work. Some say Baṣrah, some Bukhārā, and others Masjid al-Ḥarām. According to Imām al-Nawawī, he wrote it across all four of the following: Makkah, Madīnah, Baṣrah, and Bukhārā.5
Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī narrates that Imām al-Bukhārī said he had drawn his ṣaḥīḥ from six hundred thousand aḥādīth. Imām al-Bukhārī is also reported to have said that he removed nothing from the book except ṣaḥīḥ aḥādīth, and that what he left out is more than what he kept in.6
When the work was complete, Imām al-Bukhārī presented it to Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, and others. They testified to its authenticity, with the exception of four. The most correct view is that those four were sayings of Imām al-Bukhārī himself, not ḥadīth.7
The number of commentaries on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī runs to more than a hundred.8 Among the most famous is Fatḥ al-Bārī of Imām Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī. There is also the work of ʿAllāmah Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, ʿUmdat al-Qārī.
The highest sanad in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is one of three narrators; the lowest is the ḥadīth of Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj, with nine narrators.9
A biographical sketch of Imām al-Bukhārī: his lineage, character, scholarly competence, teachers, students, madhhab, writings, and death.
The opening ḥadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, narrated by ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, on the principle that deeds are judged by their intentions, with notes on the Bukhārī isnād.
The opening chapter of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: why Imām al-Bukhārī begins with revelation, the meaning of waḥy, and the forms it takes.
Why Imām al-Bukhārī opens his Ṣaḥīḥ with the tasmiyah alone, and how the ḥadīth of niyyah fulfils the rights of both tasmiyah and ḥamd.
