# Backdrop to BukhariGate: a widespread debate, his training, and transparency

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/1/
- Date: 2018-08-30 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: BukhariGate Part 1: Sahih Bukhari is NOT so Sahih -Mufti Abu Layth (0:01–6:33)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=1s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/

**Topics:** Sahih al-Bukhari (BukhariGate); The Mufti and the channel

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The criticism of Sahih al-Bukhari is a widespread debate that Mufti Abu Layth joins as a trained scholar who studied the book in full. The religion is not diminished by questioning it, and he refuses requests to keep the discussion private.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that questioning Sahih al-Bukhari does not diminish the religion and that scholars should discuss its problems transparently rather than ask for the discussion to be kept private.

**Evidence, his words at 5:12:** “i feel that we need transparency we need to be honest because we are in an age of information it's you know covering up things isn't going to cut it anymore” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=312s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth opens the BukhariGate discussion by saying it did not begin with him: criticism of Sahih al-Bukhari is widespread in the Arabic-speaking world, on television and online, and he has previously cited Urdu scholars who wrote against it. He distinguishes trained hadith scholars from academics such as Islam al-Buhayri [?] in Egypt, whose view that the whole heritage is garbage he says he does not share, since he is himself part of the tradition. He sets out his own training: he studied Sahih al-Bukhari and the other major hadith books cover to cover in class, was examined on them, holds a connected chain back to Imam Malik, and completed a mufti course. He says scholars have asked him privately to drop the subject, which he calls a culture of censorship, and that the religion is not diminished by Bukhari being questioned. He mentions that even his barber showed him these debates on Kurdish television.

## Sources and names cited

- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Islam al-Buhayri [?]
- Imam Malik

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:01–6:33)

[0:00] right let's move on to bukhari gate bismillah right folks so what's been going on just to give a backdrop we've had a whole um there's been quite a bit of a stir i've began a discussion now let me just highlight that this discussion did not begin with me this discussion is actually very widespread and it's very common in the arabic speaking world and in other languages so people have been having these discussions um people even in urdu have been having these discussions people i mentioned

[0:39] before uh you know a llama [Music] i mentioned other people their books uh critiquing bukhari massively i mean really shockingly critiquing it to you know his i mentioned is the quran which is revelation and bukhari which is an innovation and his his whole thing kind of tears bukhari to pieces but in the arab world as well people have been having many discussions on this there's tv shows chat shows it's all over the internet it's all over youtube

[1:18] this is nothing new that i've come up with but yes people who are not privy to that um they may feel that this is uh like to them wow like mufti of olathe has come up with this matter and i haven't and yes it is true that more so um apart from in india pakistan in those parts of the world the people who have taken this up like i mentioned these other people they are actual scholars great scholars of hadith but uh but in in parts of the arab world many people have taken this up that are not necessarily traditionally trained

[1:57] scholars so they are like academics and from universities and there are some who are scholars as well like from alaska and other places but there there are many people who are just academic so sometimes when they take this up they will say things like just dismiss everything they will just throw everything and they won't be that thorough in their kind of research and stuff because they're not that trained from an islamic perspective like uh islam or haiti or bahrain i think it's bahiri he pronounces it the egyptian kind of who's been having debates on this for i think maybe about two years now um i think he was locked up in egypt as well until cc pardoned him

[2:37] but this whole thing he's been going at bukhari and as many other people but i don't necessarily agree with his approach per se because he unless i've misunderstood him because his approach is that the whole islamic heritage is just garbage like his his words were like the whole thing is god not just these uh you know that they're dubious or suspicious or they've got some rubbish in their midst but that the whole thing is garbage and and obviously you know i don't agree with that i am part of this tradition i myself just to clarify for people have actually studied sahil bukhari from cover to cover

[3:17] i've been taught i've studied the sacred sciences i've graduated as a scholar as an islam of this deen i have a connected chain going back through through muhammad yusuf i have a chain going back to imam malik to abu dhabi to imam unlike a lot of these scholars who got onto this discussion and are not actually trained in this i am actually trained in this i have studied these books cover to cover tafakohan okay so we've actually studied them with understanding and with and things like this and then i went on

[3:55] to do my mufti iftar course after that for you know um to graduate as a musti as well so i'm it's not that i'm not part of this tradition i am part of this tradition and it's not that i'm not trained in these books i am trained in these books and unlike these people i've actually read these books cover to cover and that doesn't mean i necessarily remember everything i'm not going to make such a grand claim but the truth is i have studied these cover to cover every you know the whole all of these major books of hadith so right and that's with i mean in class i don't just mean i studied them as in

[4:33] sat at home and study them but in class and then we were tested three times throughout the year and gain top positions in the entire class in my uh uh hadith in my study of the books of hadith so so i mean just to kind of clarify it's not that i don't speak from a position of ignorance okay because some people might think look he looks modern and you know therefore he's trying to boycott our tradition i'm not trying to boycott our tradition but i feel i am a part of that tradition

[5:12] right so um i mean as much as you guys would like me to i'd like to kick me out of it but quite frankly my dear i outrank most of you okay so the thing is uh but coming back to this thing that it's not you see it's not that i'm trying to get rid of this stuff but i feel that we need transparency we need to be honest because we are in an age of information it's you know covering up things isn't going to cut it anymore

[5:50] because you can cover them up but believe me other people know this discussion is wild in arabic it's it's actually very healthy so uh i was the uh just last week i was with my hairdresser and he's kurdish iraqi kurdish and he was showing me in kurdish all these discussions going on with the t on their tv shows and he was showing me obviously i don't understand kurdish but he was telling me this is what the guys he's become popular and he's debating this these things are very i mean they are prevalent so it's not just me i've been contacted by scholars

[6:29] to keep this kind of private they've asked me you know would you not discuss this so somehow we could kind of reta i'm like look guys stop this hide censorship this culture of censorship be transparent be honest look this deen does not become any diminished by bukhari having some qu have you know being questioned so now i'd like to get to the point is why am i doing this okay first of all there's three things i'd like to

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment X6SfFYRljeY/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/1/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.