Brief documentry of Hazrat Umer Farooq
Imâm Bukhârî became blind at a young age. He had recourse to many famous
and skilled doctors of his time but their treatments made no difference. His
mother was a pious worshipper and a righteous woman. She cried out for help in
the court of Allâh the Almighty, for her child and begged for the restoration
of his eyesight. At last, "the river of mercy flowed over her," and
Almighty Allâh accepted her invocation. One night, she visited Ibrâhîm
`alayhis-salâm in a dream and was told, "Allâh has restored the sight of
your son because of your intense and beautiful invocations." In the
morning, as Imâm Bukhârî got up from his bed, glimmers of light reached out
into his eyes.
Studying with the scholars in and around his hometown,
al-Bukhari immersed himself in hadith studies as well as fiqh,
Islamic jurisprudence he was capable of remembering long and complex chains of
narrations of hadiths. For a hadith to be considered authentic, a reliable
chain of narrators is needed to connect that saying to the Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ. In
this, al-Bukhari excelled.
By his late teens, al-Bukhari
had completed his studies in Bukhara and set out to Makkah to do Hajj with his
mother and brother
He stayed in Makkah and Madinah for several years, where he
continued to collect hadiths from some of the leading hadith scholars of the
world, memorizing the text of the hadiths the chain of narrators and advancing
his understanding of the reliability of those narrators He traveled through Egypt, Syria, and Iraq to
continue his studies throughout his adult life, finally settling in Basra,
where he would compile his monumental hadith collection.
Imam Bukhari’s (R.A) memory was considered to be inhuman, for as soon as the praying of a hadith would finish Imam Bukhari (R.A) would repeat it orally. It has been known that in his childhood he had memorized 2 000 ahaadeeth.
There is one spectacular incident which took place in Baghdad when Imam Bukhari (R.A) took up temporary residence there. The people having heard of his many accomplishments, and the attributes which were issued to him, decided to test him so as to make him prove himself to them. In order to do that they chose one hundred different ahaadeeth and changing the testimonials and the text of the ahaadeeth they were then recited by ten people to Imam Bukhari (R.A).
There was a crowd of gathered people from within and outside the city to witness the outcome of such a test. When the ahaadeeth were recited Imam Bukhari (R.A) replied to all in one manner, "Not to my knowledge." However, after the completion of all the ahaadeeth Imam Bukhari (R.A) repeated each text and testimonial which had been changed followed by the correct text and testimonial, such was the memory of Imam Bukhari (R.A).
Mission of life
One night,
Al-Bukhaari had a strange dream that later had a great impact on his life. He
saw himself standing before the Prophet holding a palm-leaf fan in his hand
with which he pushed all evil away from the Prophet . He was so confused and
surprised that he went to his scholars asking them to interpret his dream. They
said happily: "You will clear the lies and false claims away from the
Prophet." Al-Bukhaari then remembered his teacher, shaykh Is-Haaq Ibn
Raahawayh, the prominent scholar of Khurasaan, when he told his students once:
"It would be great if you can compile a concise and brief book containing
the authentic narrations of the Prophet."
These
words echoed in Al-Bukhaari’s heart and he remembered that dream which was
always in his mind since he started learning the Prophetic narrations.
Thereupon, he immediately made an intention to actively and seriously pursue
this mission and started to strive in his long journey of writing this great
book in 217 AH when he was twenty three.
Because of
that dream, Al-Bukhaari traveled thousands of miles moving from one Islamic
territory to another, undergoing all sorts of difficulties, hardships, and
weariness, sometimes to obtain only one narration of the Prophet . He sometimes
even had to eat grass to satisfy his extreme hunger after he had spent all his
money. Even the few hours of night in which he snatched short naps to rest a
while, were not so resting for him, as he used to wake up fifteen to twenty
times a night to lit his lamp and sit to classify the narrations he had
collected. Al-Bukhaari made a pact with himself that he wouldn’t include a
narration from any narrator until he had personally met him, and listened to
the narration with his own ears. He never accepted narrations except from the
ones who were known for being honest, diligent, accurate, fearing Allaah, and
having a sharp memory. After this process, he would have a ritual bath; pray
two Rak'as and then include only the narration that had met all these
conditions in his book.
After
sixteen years of continuous effort and hard work, Al-Bukhaari finished his
valuable book that comprised around 7000 authentic narrations which he selected
from amongst 600,000 authentic and non-authentic narrations. He
overlooked many authentic narrations so that his book wouldn’t be too long. He
chose to name the book "The Authentic Book Encompassing a Brief Authentic
Narrations of the Prophet, his Tradition and Life" to become the title of
the most authentic book after the Quran. The book is known as 'Saheeh
Al-Bukhaari' This book became well known
and it gave him a high rank that someone like him truly deserved to achieve. He
had a vast knowledge, great manners, a tolerant nature, dignity, and an
untainted tongue. After Imaam Al-Bukhaari became famous throughout the world,
thousands of scholars came to him as students of the leader in memorization of
authentic narrations until the number of people who attended his study circles
in Baghdad reached 20,000. Among the most remarkable figures of his students
were Imaams At-Tirmithi, An-Nasaa'ee, Muslim, and others.
Last days
His death
was on a Friday night, the beginning of the month of Shawwaal, 256 AH (870 AD).
He was sixty-two years old when he died. He was buried in the village of
Khartank which is now known as 'Khawaajah Saaheb'. May Allaah have mercy upon
the great Imaam and may Allaah admit him into Paradise. Aameen.
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