Dear questioner, thank you for your important question. Imam Al-Bukhari was the ever greatest scholar of the narrations from the Prophet (peace be upon him). His collection of Hadith “Sahih Al-Bukhari” is considered the most authentic book in Islam next to the Glorious Qur’an, according to the consensus of Muslim scholars. The high scientific and righteous status that Imam Al-Bukhari attained has not been attained by anyone else. This is clear from his biography.

Imam Al-Bukhari rose up in a family renowned for their uprightness and righteousness. His father Isma`il was a practicing scholar and noble man, but he did not remain long and passed away while his children were too young. At a very early age, Imam Al-Bukhari showed peerless learning capacities and excelled all his classmates. He was once asked, “When did you start seeking Hadith knowledge?” He said, “I was bestowed the talent of memorizing Hadith while I was in the kuttab (small school). He was asked, “How old were you at that time?” He answered, “10 years or less.”

Al-Bukhari was exceptionally talented in memorization which helped him memorizing thousands of hadiths in a very early age. It happened that his classmates once censured him for not writing hadiths like them. He told them that he committed all the hadiths they learned to memory. They tested his memory which proved perfect.

One of the stories circulated about this unique talent is that of Salim ibn Mujahid who said, “I was with Muhammad ibn Salam Al-Baikandari who said to me, “If you came a little while ago, you would saw a young boy memorizing 70000 hadiths.” Salim said, ‘I went out searching for this boy until I met him.” Salim said, “I told him, ‘You allege that you memorize 70000 hadiths?’ The young Al-Bukhari replied in the affirmative and said, “I will not mention a hadith from the Sahabah or their followers but I have knowledge about their birth, death and residence. Actually, Al-Bukhari was a nonpareil seeker of knowledge.

Al-Bukhari’s pursuit of knowledge

Al-Bukhari started knowledge seeking in the Kuttab. He memorized the whole Qur’an at the age of 10 years then he moved to Hadith learning. When he reached 16, he has memorized the entire hadiths narrated by Ibn Al-Mubarak and Waki`. He traveled for narrating hadiths to Balkh and Nishapur. Then, he went to Makkah and remained in it for a while, then traveled to Baghdad, the Levant and Egypt. He got a lot of knowledge and narrated many hadiths. It is reported that his sheikhs is counted as more than 1000 scholars.

Al-Bukhari started teaching Hadith when he was 17 years old.  He used to say, “I memorized one hundred thousand authentic hadiths, and I memorized two hundred inauthentic hadiths.”

Among the Sheikhs of Al-Bukhari were: Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Hammad ibn Shakir, Makki ibn Ibrahim and Abu `Asim An-Nabil. Among those who narrated from Al-Bukhari were: Muslim ibn Al-Hajjaj, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasa’i, Muhammad ibn Nasr Al-Marwazi; and many others.

Scholarly Praise of Al-Bukhari:

–          Raja’ Al-Hafizh said, “He (Al-Bukhari) is one of Allah’s signs walking on the Earth.”

–          Al-Husain As-Samarqandi said, “Muhammad ibn Isma`il is singled out with three characteristics in addition to his praised ones. He was a reserved man, unambitious about what people have and completely bent on seeking knowledge.”

–          An-Najm ibn Al-Fudayl said, “I saw in a dream the Prophet was walking and Muhammad ibn Isma`il was walking behind him, wherever the Prophet place his foot Muhammad Ibn Isma`il would place his foot.”

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For more about the biography of Imam Al-Bukhari and other Imams of hadith, visit the following article:

Al-Bukhari: The Imam of Hadith and Sunnah