The Preservation of Hadith by Ibrahim Madani

Some people think that a hadith is only authentic if it is in Bukhari and Muslim. Some even insist that the whole din [religion] of Islam is to be found only in Bukhari.

Once, a bedouin came to the Blessed Prophet (PBUH). He accepted Islam and prayed Salat. Once he completed his Salat, he prayed, “O Allah (PBUH), have mercy on me and the Blessed Prophet (PBUH) and no one else.” His thinking was that, “If I pray for everyone’s mercy, the mercy of Allah (PBUH) on me will decrease.” The Blessed Prophet (PBUH) said to him, “You have confined the vast.”38 The mercy of Allah (PBUH) is vast and so is the knowledge of our din. It is absolute ignorance to confine the whole din into Bukhari. According to this view, twenty three years of the Blessed Prophet’s (PBUH) prophethood is limited to the ahadith of Bukhari, and everything he every said or did in twenty three years is in Bukhari and nowhere else. It is like saying that “it is too difficult to follow the whole Qur’an; let’s just follow the twenty fourth chapter.” Now if someone asks about a ruling, this person asks if it is in the twenty-fourth chapter. If he is told, “No, it is in the twenty-first chapter,” he says, “Oh, I can’t accept that because I only follow the twenty fourth chapter of the Qur’an.” This is the same way some people treat the ahadith. If a hadith is in Bukhari, they accept it; but if it is not, it is rejected. All the hadith masters and scholars are unanimous that there are many authentic ahadith besides the ahadith of Bukhari and Muslim. Even Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim never made any such claim.

If anything, they opposed such radical claims. Imam Bukhari said, “I have only put authentic hadith in my book, but also left many authentic hadith for fear of the book becoming too drawn- out.”39 Imam Muslim writes, “I have not put the whole collection of authentic ahadith in my book.”40 This is why Hafiz Ibn Hajar writes in Tadrib al-Rawi, “Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim did not include all the authentic hadith in their books, nor did they intend to do so.”41

Not only that, Imam Bukhari named his book, al-Jami‘ al-Sahih al-Musnad al-Mukhtasar min Umur Rasul Allah (SWTH) wa Ayyamihī [The Authentic and Continuous, Abridged Collection (of ahadith) from the Blessed Prophet (PBUH) and his Days].

The word Mukhtasar [abridged] clearly indicates that Bukhari is condensed and does not include the whole gamut of authentic hadith.