# Can Sahih al-Bukhari be proven to be the book Imam al-Bukhari wrote? *Mutawatir as the living tradition, and the BukhariGate case: Farabri and three tests for a report* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/13/ - Date: 2020-04-22 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Shaykh Dr. Shabir Ally | Juxtaposing the Quran, Jumbling Aisha's age & Jinn Possession | MindTrap#16 (1:01:06–1:05:05) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsQKsrXndNw&t=3666s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/ **Topics:** Sahih al-Bukhari (BukhariGate); Mutawatir and certainty; Text criticism, reason and the Quran **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that what is really mutawatir is the living tradition, not any hadith, and that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be proven to be Bukhari's exact book since it rests on one unvouched transmitter, Farabri. Each report should therefore be weighed against reason, the Quran and the principles of Islam like any other hadith. ## Longer summary The segment opens with the guest finishing his point that few hadith are mutawatir in their exact words. Mufti Abu Layth says what the guest describes as mutawatir is what he calls the living tradition of Islam, the mass transmission of things like the number of prayers, and that he is in line with scholars such as Ibn Hibban [?] who said there is no such thing as a mutawatir hadith, while acknowledging that many scholars go the other way. On Bukhari he says he has made a detailed video, BukhariGate, questioning the authenticity of the book through its transmission: not to throw Bukhari away, but because the Sahih cannot be proven to be the exact copy of Imam al-Bukhari, since the earliest manuscripts are centuries later and the whole book rests on one man, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, who was vouched for by no muhaddith in his lifetime despite living in the era of the greatest wave of hadith scholars, and was only vouched for a hundred or more years after his death. He therefore says Bukhari should be treated like any other hadith book and each report weighed, as the Malikis [?] put it, by whether it clashes with reason, goes against the Quran or uproots an Islamic principle. He admits his stance is radical and asks whether the guest has taken such a stance, and the guest begins by saying he has not studied hadith transmission or the manuscripts of Bukhari as Mufti has. ## Sources and names cited - Dr Shabir Ally (guest) - mutawatir - The deen reaches us through continuous living practice - Ibn Hibban [?] - Sahih al-Bukhari - Imam al-Bukhari - Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri - a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam ## Transcript (machine tier, 1:01:06–1:05:05) [1:00:35] are of the motivator category and among the few most of them are motivator not in words but in deeds and and we follow those like for example the fact that we have our door prayer is for our cats and a smuggler prayer as three records this has come down to us through motiroti narrations so we know we have no doubt that this is not this is the number this is the case door for at maverick three records but very few as I said hadith sir of the motiroti category and among them are very few armata watcher in the exact words what has happened in fact is that muslims [1:01:14] have narrated the hadith by way of meaning and they put the thought in their own words and we know how that can change things and then it goes down from one generation to another until eventually the science starts to strengthen and this crews start to be tightened and the scholars now want to make sure that there from here onwards they are narrating in the exact words and they would exclude those people who are making mistakes in narrating in the exact words but by the time to close the gates a lot of water has already flown [1:01:53] under under the bridge I'm just going to say that you know how you describe more to water is what I refer to as the as the living tradition of Islam the kind of tradition that has been passed down of how many solos are they and things like this that Muslims by and large tend to know just like through on mass transmission the actual motor worked at hadith as the hadith indicated to be motivated I all in line with those colors like it nyebern and the others who said there's [1:02:32] no such thing as motivated hadith but I mean that's fair enough I mean I understand that many scholars do go the other way and and with body I have generally I'm not sure maybe some people some viewers I've come across I have actually done a kind of detail study and I've done a video called Wadi Gate where I questioned the authenticity of bihari through its transmission that we have today so I say that we can't you see and I'm not doing it to dismiss Bahari I'm not saying let's throw honey away [1:03:09] but what I'm saying is because we can't prove bihari today to be the exact copy of imam bukhari through the manuscripts that have been found over the centuries not just today so the earliest manuscripts that go back go back to a few centuries after imam bukhari but also because he'll mihari rests on the shoulders of simply one man who transmits it from body in his name is Muhammad Mustafa robbery and Ferrari isn't actually vouched for by any Mahad death in his entire lifetime [1:03:48] so nobody that actually knew him despite him living in the era of the greatest you know the largest wave of maha thene yet none of them ever vouch for him so and so he's only watchful at the least one hundred years after he's he's gone so Oh a few hundred years after him people were from so based on this I said that we should treat Bihari just like any other book of hadith and we look at the sudden we look at the hadith if it doesn't as the magazine of said if it doesn't clash with reason it doesn't go against the Quran and it doesn't approach an Islamic principle that laughs I love you Holly film at all [1:04:25] Willam you know Adele soon and well mu by you know that these three things but they actually mentioned let me buy in a Malayali film on all um naka de lo soon then we will accept it so now I'm just saying that that's but I do it except that other people obviously don't take such a radical stance when it comes to Bihari I've been a bit outspoken and critical on the Bihari thing I'm not sure if you've ever taken such a stance yourself share for or not really evil well I'm not studied as you [1:05:04] are chef and the details of the hadith transmission and so on and especially as you mentioned about the manuscript of ali muhammad wa hari and how the rags actually come down to us but in my own approach to hadith which i I prefer to research was a balanced approach to hadith not accepting them all as they are and at the same time not throwing them out wholesale but taking them one by one and and evaluating them based on these principles which you have so eloquently delineated in mentioning the Arabic terms they should not contradict one of the major principles of our religion because those principles are ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment KsQKsrXndNw/s/13. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ksqksrxndnw/s/13/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.