Introduction to Translation of Sahih Bukhari
Translator: M. Muhsin Khan
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.
