A piece of Poetry of none other than Bukhari himself:
" Avail yourself (my dear child) in leasure of the benefit of a rak`at
For it may happen that your death will be sudden.
How many a sound one did I see without ailment
Whose sound soul departed unexpectedly!
They are like the beasts who see not their ends
Until driven to the slaughterhouse to be sacrificed.
If you wish to stay (in the world)
you will be quickly helped by all your dear ones
And the annihilation of your soul
-- it cares not for you -- is faster.
He who grows old finds in himself
What he would wish for his enemies.
And here comes the reward of a man
Whose peers departed before him:
Wish then for spaciousness of time.

The following text is based on excerpts from "Tabaqat Al Shafi`iyya al-kubra" 2:212-241
[The major biographical layers of the Shafi`i School] by Shaykh al-Islam
Imam Taj al-Din Abu Nasr `Abd al-Wahhab `Ali ibn `Abd al-Kafi al-Subki (727-771 H)

ABU `ABD ALLAH MUHAMMAD IBN ISMA`IL IBN IBRAHIM IBN AL-MUGHIRA IBN BARDIZBAH
AL-BUKHARI

We often read from many Hadith texts related by Bukhari, one of the foremost authority on the recorded texts of Hadith of the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). One of the so-called 'Sittah' , i.e, the unanimously approved six works of narration and compilation of Hadith from our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that includes: Imam Muslim, Nasaa'i, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Maajah, if Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal is included, makes the list , 'Sab'ah', the top seven compilers. Out of which Bukhari is considered the most unanimous if not the number One among them....

The Imam of Muslims, the Examplar of those who say he is the Shaykh of the Believers, he who is relied upon concerning the sayings of the Master of Messengers, a.k.a. the keeper of the Rule of Religion, Abu `Abd Allah al-Ju`fi al-Bukhari, the author of "Al Jami` As-Sahih" [The Compendium of Sound Traditions], famously known in learning circles as Sahih Al Bukhari...Which is unanimously declared by the scholars of the Sunnah as the second most authentic text on our religion after the Qur'an

He heard traditions directly from Malik ibn Anas, and he met Hammad ibn Zayd and Salih ibn al-Mubarak...

Ahmad ibn Hafs narrated traditions from him and said: I went into his house to see him before he died and he said to me: "I don't know in all my possessions of a single dirham the legitimacy of which I am not sure about." Ahmad ibn Hafs said: "When I heard this, I was humbled to my soul."

Al-Bukhari was born in 194 H and was raised an orphan, who was raised by his mother. The beginning of his study of hadith was at the age of 10 in 205H at which time he began memorizing the compilations of Ibn al-Mubarak [a leading traditionist]. He loved learning from his tender age and he was helped in this by his tremendous intelligence. He began to travel in 210 after he studied hadith from many people in his own land (Bukhara), present day Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, whereof he got his Kunya named after, Bukhari. Ibn `Adi said: I heard al-Bazzar say: I saw al-Bukhari in his old age. He was thin, neither tall nor short. He lived upto the age of 62 years less thirteen days at his death.

He travelled to Mecca when he was 16 years old accompanied by his mother and elder brother. It seems he fell in love with Mecca and yearned to learn from its learned scholars. He remained behind and bid farewell to his family. He stayed in Mecca two years, and then went to Medina. After a total of six years in Hijaz, he left for Basra, Kufa, and Baghdad. He visited many other places in Egypt, Balkh, Marw, Nisabur, Rayy. In Mecca he heard from al-Humaydi, and received the school of al-Shafi`i from him [as well as from al-Za`farani and Abu Thawr al-Karabisi].

He also took hadith from innumerable transmitters in Damascus, Caesarea, `Asqalan, and Hims. He mentioned that he heard from 1,000 people in all.

He related hadith to the scholars of that science in the Hijaz, in `Iraq, Khorasan, and Transoxiana, with nary a hair on his face.

Among those that related hadith from him are: Abu Zur`a, Abu Hatim, Tirmidhi, Muslim (outside his sahih), al-Marwazi, Salih Ibn Muhammad Jazara, Ibn Khuzayma, al-Sarraj...

Ahmad ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi said: When he was young he lost his eyesight. His mother saw the Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) in her dream, and he said to her: Allah has returned your son his eyesight due to your profuse weeping or due to your many invocations.

Bukhari said to Abu Ja`far Muhammad ibn Abu Hatim al-Warraq: "I learned the books of Ibn al-Mubarak and Waki` and knew their sayings by heart at age sixteen. When I became eighteen, I started to compile the deeds of the Companions of Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, (Sahaabah) and the Followers (Taabi'iin), i.e, those who came in the generation following the Sahabah, and their sayings. It was in the time of `Ubayd Allah ibn Musa that I compiled the "Kitab al-tarikh" [Book of History] by the grave of the Prophet (PBUH) during moonlit nights. There is hardly a name in Islamic history except I mentioned a story in relation to him, except that I hated to make the book too long."

`Umar ibn Hafs al-Ashqar said: We were in Basra writing hadith. One day we visited him and we found him in a house without a thread on his back. He had exhausted all his resources. We chipped in and we clothed him.

`Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Bukhari said: I heard Muhammad ibn Isma`il say: "I met more than 1,000 men from Hijaz, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Khurasan," and so on until he said: "I never saw one of them differ on the following: "Religion consists in words and deeds, and the Qur'an is Allah's Speech.""

Al-Warraq said: I heard Hashid ibn Isma`il and another say: "Al- Bukhari used to come with us to the hadith sessions when he was a boy. He did not use to write anything. After a while we mentioned it to him. He said: You think it is beyond me; show me what you have written. We produced what we had, which was more than 15,000 hadiths. He recited them all to us from memory, until we took to correcting what we had according to his recital. Then he said: Am I studying in vain, or wasting my time? Then we realized that no-one could overtake him."

They continued: "The people of knowledge used to put him forward in the study of hadith when he was but a young man, even against his will. They would make him sit by the roadside until thousands would gather around him. Most of them would write his narrations. He was yet beardless."

Al-Warraq said: I heard Salim ibn Mujahid say: I was visiting Muhammad ibn Sallam al-Bikandi and he said to me: "If you had come earlier you would have seen a boy who has memorized 70,000 hadiths." I went out looking for him. When I found him I said: "Are you the one who says: I memorized 70,000 hadiths?" He said: "Yes, and more than that, and I will not cite you a hadith from the Companions (Sahabah) or Followers (Tabi'iin) except I know the date and place of birth of most of them and that of their death, and where they lived. Nor do I narrate from them except what I know for certain to be based on a principle of the Religion from Allah's Book or the Sunnah of His Messenger (PBUH)." [i.e. he was not merely a muhaddith, recorder of hadith, but a faqih of the highest caliber].

Ghunjaz said: al-Muqri related to us: Muhammad ibn Ya`qub ibn Yusuf al-Bikandi related to us: I heard `Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn `Asim al-Bikandi say: "Muhammad ibn Isma`il came to see us and we gathered around him. One of us said: "I hear Ishaq ibn Rahawayh [Bukhari's shaykh] say: I have recorded about 70,000 hadiths." Muhammad said: "Does this surprise you? There may be in our own time someone who has recorded 200,000 hadiths." This is what he himself had done."

Ibn `Adi said: Muhammad ibn Ahmd al-Qumisi related to me: I heard Muhammad ibn Hamdawayh say: I heard Muhammad ibn Isma`il say: "I know by memory 100,000 sahih hadiths, and 200,000 non- sahih hadiths."

The Imam of Imams Ibn Khuzayma said: "I never saw under the sky more knowledgeable a person in hadith than Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-Bukhari."

Ibn `Adi said: "A number of shaykhs heard that Bukhari was coming to Baghdad. They chose 100 hadiths and shuffled their chains of transmission and their texts, giving each text a different chain than its original one. Each took ten of these hadiths and prepared to test Bukhari with them during their gathering. The people assembled, and one of the scholars confronted Bukhari with one of these hadiths. He replied: "I don't know it." Then he asked him about another. He replied "I don't know it." Then another:"I don't know it." And so forth until he finished his ten. Those in the know looked at each other saying: "The man understands." The rest thought he knew nothing. Then another scholar read his ten, then another his ten, then another until they read 100 hadiths and Bukhari kept saying each time: "I don't know it, I don't know it, I don't know it." When he saw that they had finished, he turned to the first scholar and said: "The correct chain of your first hadith is such-and-such; the correct chain of your second hadith is..." then he turned to the second scholar, then the third, and so on with every single one of the one hundred hadiths. At that time the people agreed that he was a hafiz (memorizer)."

Ahmed ibn Hanbal said: "The apex of memorization is in four people of Khurasan: Abu Zur`a, Muhammad ibn Isma`il, al-Darimi, and al-Hasan ibn Shuja` al-Balkhi."

Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Bukhari said: "I was visiting Muhammad ibn Isma`il in his house that night. I counted that he got up and lit his lamp eighteen times to remind himself or jot down something during the night."

Al-Warraq said: "When I travelled with Abu `Abd Allah, if we happened to sleep in the same house, I would see him get up in the same night between fifteen and twenty times. Every time he would light his lamp and extract ahadith and annotate them. Then he would lay his head down again. Around the time before dawn entered, he would pray thirteen rak`at (prayer-cycles). He would never wake me up. I said to him once: "You endure all this yourself, why don't you wake me up?" He replied: "You are a young man, and I don't like to ruin your sleep."

Al-Farabari said: Muhammad ibn Isma`il said to me: "I never included in the Sahih a hadith except I made a ghusl (major ablution) and prayed two rak`at beforehand."

Ibrahim ibn Ma`qil said: I heard him say: "I was with Ishaq ibn Rahawayh (his shaykh), and a man said: "Why don't you compile an epitome (mukhtasar) of the prophetic ways?" This stayed with me, and was the reason why I compiled this book (As Sahih)."

[M.M. Azami writes: "Al-Bukhari did not claim that what he left out were the spurious, nor that there were no authentic traditions outside his collection. On the contrary, he said: "I only included in my book _al-Jami`_ those that were authentic, and I left out many more authentic traditions than this to avoid unnecessary length." He had no intention of collecting all the authentic traditions. He only wanted to compile a manual of _Hadith_, according to the wishes of his shaykh Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, and his function is quite clear from the title of his book _Al-Jami`, al-Musnad, al-Sahih, al-Mukhtasar, min umur Rasul Allah wa Sunanihi, wa ayyamih_ [The Compendium Linked Back Sound and Epitomized of the Matters of the Messenger of God, His Ways, and His Times]. The word "al-mukhtasar," epitome, itself explains that al-Bukhari did not make any attempt at a comprehensive collection." "Studies in Early Hadith Literature" p. 304-305]

Our shaykh Abu `Abd Allah the hafiz said (this is al-Dhahabi): "It has been narrated through two firm channels of transmission that Bukhari said: "I extracted this book from about 600,000 (sound) hadiths, and I compiled it over sixteen years, and I made it a plea for what lies between myself and Allah."

Abu `Amr Ahmad ibn Nasr al- Khaffaf said: "Muhammad ibn Isma`il is twenty degrees more knowledgeable in hadith than Ahmed (ibn Hanbal) and Ishaq (ibn Rahawayh), and whoever has doubts about it, let him be cursed by me 1,000 times!"

Abu `Isa al-Tirmidhi said: `Abd Allah ibn Munir said to Muhammad ibn Isma`il when he was about to leave him: "O Abu `Abd Allah, may Allah make you the adornment of this Community!" Abu `Isa said: His wish has been granted.

Imaam Bukhari left a great legacy of learning for generations of later students and scholars alike. His contributions to the preservation of the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet (PBUH) are still not paralleled as he set a very high standard for authentication and recording the Hadith of our beloved Prophet (PBUH). Although he has written many more gems of works of Ahadith, Imaam Bukhari is known for the following timeless classics:

1. Al Jaami' Sahih: best known as the number one hadith collection, Sahih Bukhari.
2. At Tarikh al Kabiir: An excellent collection of biographies of both reliable and unreliable hadith narrators.
3. Adabul Mufrad: another popular collection of ahadith mainly of topic of Islamic manners and etiquette.

O Allah bestow Thy never-ending Mercy on Thy servant Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-Bukhari, AMEEN !

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