Recordings › BukhariGate Part 2: Sahih Bukhari is NOT so Sahih -Mufti Abu Layth · 1 Sep 2018 › Segment 1 of 10
What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imam bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imaam imams prayer leader muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice muhaddith muhaddithun muhadith muhaddithoon hadith scholar al-muwatta muwatta malik muwatta imam malik muwata jahannam jahanam jahannum koran quraan al-quran ulama ulema ulamaa alhamdulillah alhamdulilah al-hamdu lillah alhumdulillah alhamdulillaah al-din ad-deen ad-din religionWhat BukhariGate is: doctored transmission, Malik's standards and al-Farabri
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This segment0:00 to 5:10 · 5 min 10 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenSahih al-Bukhari cannot reliably be traced to its author because it reaches us through one transmitter, al-Farabri, whom nobody vouched for in his lifetime, and because transmission and memory reconstruct what they pass on. Mufti Abu Layth accepts hadith by the scholars' own standards, that a report not contradict reason, the Quran or an Islamic principle, while relying on the living tradition that Imam Malik called the Sunnah.
In more detail
Asked what he says about BukhariGate, Mufti Abu Layth explains that it is part of his expose showing that Sahih al-Bukhari is not so sahih and cannot reliably be traced back to Imam al-Bukhari: it most likely passed through many hands that doctored, added to and manipulated it, like a game of Chinese whispers, and he cites Bartlett's psychology of memory as an active, reconstructive process rather than passive recall. Much in it may be spot on, he says, but there is a huge question mark over how we know. He sets out his principle: Islam has already been conveyed through the living tradition, and this is not a denial of the Sunnah, since Imam Malik said hadith is not Sunnah, that one-from-one transmission would snatch the deen away, and that the living tradition is a thousand from a thousand; Malik brings hadith in the Muwatta and says it is not acted upon. He says he accepts hadith by the standards the muhaddithin themselves set: a report must not go against reason, against the Quran and transmitted sources, or against an Islamic principle; it is not certain to be from the Prophet but is workable. He then says Sahih al-Bukhari is transmitted with a connected chain of hearing through one man only, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, whom nobody vouched for as reliable in his lifetime, those who vouched for him coming two to four hundred years later, and says he has challenged those calling him out to come and discuss it, though most do not understand the topic.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedBukhariGate: what do you say?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot reliably be traced to al-Bukhari because it reaches us through al-Farabri alone, whom nobody vouched for in his lifetime, that the deen is conveyed by the living tradition which Imam Malik distinguished from hadith, and that he accepts hadith only by the muhaddithin's own standards: a report must not contradict reason, the Quran and transmitted sources, or an Islamic principle.
“nobody that knew thoroughly in his lifetime ever vouched for him as a reliable person in hadith so we are taking all of this from one guy who nobody vouched for”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine0:00 to 5:10 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
let's go to party gate what do you say so buddy gate is me part of this whole expose on showing that Sahil Bihari is actually not so sorry and it's not actually very reliable in its authenticity of being traced back to Amman Bihari so the most likely seems to have had a lot of hands which have doctored it along the way and they've added to it and they manipulated it and then then through like you know you know the game you have like Chinese whispers I know that's in a racist way but we
used to call it Chinese whispers I think it's called telephone as well things like that they play a role in there you have things like how memory Bartlet's study of memory how memory is actually an active agent and reconstructs it's not a passive agent so if you read the study of Bartlett's and other psychologists memory people used to think is just a passive activity like I'm just recalling they realize that memory is actually a creative element you're actually creating as you're going along so these kind of things all added and the truth is it may have a lot of things in there that are spot-on but
there's a huge question mark on how do we know so what we can do is we have the principal first of all Islam has already been conveyed through the living tradition which is fair secondly right so and this is not a denial of Sunnah we embrace the Sunnah Imam Malik said the hadith is not sooner so nice from the Prophet a hadith is a one-on-one transmission in my Malik's famous statement elephant an elf a thousand from a thousand the living tradition is you Dean he said this one on one will
snatch the Dean from in front of you the words of Imam Malik he said he said why he don't and why it's a yahoo dude he said say Youngjae or demon Benedict he will snatch the Dean from in front of you hence Imam Malik in his water brings a teeth and says we don't act according so right so I'm not moon kill hadith I'm accepting hadith first of all I'm accept I'm embracing Sunnah and even hadith I'm accepting them but by their standards of the Maha Devine so the Maha theen have generally said in theory three standards that it cannot let me by in Al Markkula can not go
against reason lamu hardly filmin Allah cannot go against the Quran and transmitted sources like the Quran authentic so now Wellum you not that Allah cannot approach an Islamic principle so as long as these things it's fine we can accept it is it certain that it's from the Prophet it's not certain but it's it's workable we can work with it that's fine so if you find a hadith on giving charity on helping people on being kind these things fit in with the greater parameter of Islam that's fine you can use these things you know you find something interesting it fits in hamdulillah you find something odd
clashing with these things it's on this one big problem my friend so so on that note and bihari seems to solely be transmitted really with because our taking of hadith has to be Biss Simha it has to be motto sanam miss sama has to be connected through teaching that only comes through one man Muhammad in the use of al saraburi [Music] remember that name people al farabi no February robbery this one dubious
character robbery robbery that's where I think the problems began nobody that knew thoroughly in his lifetime ever vouched for him as a reliable person in hadith so we are taking all of this from one guy who nobody vouched for and the people who vouched for him came like like several generations after him that between like almost 200 years after him and that - did they even vouch for him this doubt furry that's doubtful what's definitely clear people who came three four hundred years after him vouched for him what the hell
is that about how can I vouch I oh yeah that guy used to be really nice to have a good memory do you know him no no no do you no no no no oh he was from 300 years ago oh nice so so let's take a look at some of these things in Bihari people now people say I mentioned some of these previously because what is this book that way defending so I want to mention a few others today just to kind of let this body get settling I have challenged people come discuss the scholars or people are calling out on this
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-09-01-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iijbmtxueow/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, September 1). What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable? [Video, segment 2018-09-01-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iijbmtxueow/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable?" Video, segment 2018-09-01-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 1, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iijbmtxueow/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-09-01-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable?}}, year = {2018}, month = {9}, date = {2018-09-01}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iijbmtxueow/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/iijbmtxueow/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-09-01-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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