# The third problem: can Bukhari be traced to its author? The bullet points

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/3/
- Date: 2018-08-30 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: BukhariGate Part 1: Sahih Bukhari is NOT so Sahih -Mufti Abu Layth (11:50–18:23)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=710s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/

**Topics:** Sahih al-Bukhari (BukhariGate); Hadith collections and their history

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be traced to its author beyond reasonable doubt. It rests on one unvouched transmitter, his students admit an incomplete and altered copy, their copies disagree, and later editions needed correction.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the transmission of Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be established back to its author beyond reasonable doubt, because it rests on one unvouched transmitter whose students admit the copy was incomplete and altered, and whose copies disagree with one another.

**Evidence, his words at 11:50:** “can we establish bukhari back to the imam with with confidence beyond reasonable doubt and the answer is we can't beyond reasonable doubt there is way too much conflict” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6SfFYRljeY&t=710s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth states his third and central point: Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be established back to its author beyond reasonable doubt. He says several prominent imams, including Jonathan Brown, refuted him publicly after he raised this, but nobody has answered his question of how the transmission is authenticated. He lists the factors he will later elaborate: the book rests on one man, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, whom nobody in his time vouched for; Farabri's students admit his copy was incomplete and that they altered it; the students, though copying one script, disagree among themselves in chapter headings, chains, names and hundreds of hadith; al-Yunini's makeover project in the seventh to eighth century chose one transmission, patched it and corrected the Arabic with the grammarian Ibn Malik; Yunini's own copy is lost and survives through copyists such as al-Nuwayri [?], who sold copies for a thousand dinars; and the Sultaniyya edition commissioned by Sultan Abdul Hamid had at least a hundred mistakes found by an al-Azhar board on its first revision. He stresses that he is not calling the book weak because of its problematic hadith, though he breaks down weak chains in Bukhari every week, but because its transmission is questionable, and he suspends that argument to first show what is in the book.

## Sources and names cited

- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Jonathan Brown
- Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri
- Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini
- Ibn Malik (the grammarian)
- al-Nuwayri [?]

## Transcript (machine tier, 11:50–18:23)

[11:24] bukhari does have problematic hadith in the which are massively problematic that are blasphemous that are insulting that are irrational that make this deen look stupid that embarrass islam all of these things it does have and it has many which are which are which complement islam it does have many hadith which are just normal complement islam give charity do this do that it'll be fair it has but it has but they're not the problem the problem are these yes and then this third uh layer that can we establish bukhari back to the imam

[12:03] with with confidence beyond reasonable doubt and the answer is we can't beyond reasonable doubt there is way too much conflict now what i'm going to do is because people have become so offended when i began this discussion every single imam that was of some kind of like heavyweight almost not every single but several heavyweight imams that have a huge following decided to refute me

[12:35] uh made a post people questioning blah blah blah blah blah why don't they just make their own sect and become deviant you know like in their own ways they claim to have is just talking about me dr jonathan brown making a post that uh directly he actually called me out very specifically multiple now basically i don't know what i'm talking about every i mean it's become the topic it's become the talk of talk of the town sahil bukhari everybody speaking about it oh he doesn't know he doesn't know yet nobody's answering my questions

[13:14] i asked a set of questions that look how do you how do you authenticate its transmission because this whole sahil bukhari rests on one person now what i'm going to do is go over some of these key factors i'm going to highlight some bullet points then i'm going to suspend this show us what is the book we're dealing with and then come back to these points and elaborate okay so some of these factors to bullet point them are how this whole book rests on just one man his name was muhammad yusuf and i'm going to come to the discussion that some people try to say oh there's one two others

[13:52] but that's really if we're just being honest let's have integrity it's really just one man muhammad useful for every who's unvouched for in his time nobody seems to recognize him and i'll come back to this secondly alfred students themselves admit to his copy being incomplete thirdly his students admit to all making alterations to their to his book this is what they admit to fourthly all of the students are copying from one script

[14:30] yet all of them disagree amongst themselves five all these disagreements are not just in chapter headings they are in chapter headings but not just chapter headings are not a problem they are in chains the names in the chains are different they are hadith missing between themselves they have errors they there's all sorts going on right there's hundreds of hadith missing between themselves okay then number six that this all these different manuscripts that kind of tertiary manuscripts and fourth layer manuscripts that were out there uh they are then met with this great

[15:09] makeover project by uh by sharafuddin okay he comes around the seventh to eighth century hijri he's commissioned to do a project and what he does is he gets whatever narrations he could find now he bases it on one he chooses one particular isolate generation and then he starts to patch up things now he states that he makes amendments he actually makes grammatical amendments and arabic amendments by help of the grammarian ibn malik now what on earth was going on there because if all those great legends

[15:48] of manuscripts were so and and their scholars were so awesome in the preservation why are the arabic errors that need amendments so this is a a problem then the next problem is that even yunini's copy that he makes is missing and it's just people who have copied from him so you could say yeah well you know they saw his copy so they should be reliable fine except one of them who nuedy used to do it for commercial purposes i mean he was a great scholar but he himself admits i used to make copies and sell them for a thousand dinars which was like an

[16:28] annual salary of a like a military commander and uh of the time that's one copy he would sell it for now you know so that's some vested interest but even if we take his motive to be sincere why could he not make mistakes when all these great scholars before him wrote manuscripts out with their hands and they made mistakes because obviously yunini corrected the mistakes grammatical mistakes and then you have the final sultania which is sultan abdul hamid and they base it on certain things and they produce a copy and even that is then amended in its

[17:08] first amendment they find a hundred mistakes at least that's the al-azhari board that did that so look these are my issues now people before they flip i would like to first of all i am not causing these problems i want to make this clear i'm not saying that bukhari is dubious because i find some hadith problematic yes it does help that cause as well but that's not why i do in all my monday nights with mufti go through several hadith inside bukhari and i break down their chains and i show the chains are unreliable and i will continue to do that i have no

[17:47] problem in doing that i'm not saying that because of that i want to say the whole book is weak the whole book i'm saying is on is questionable because it is questionable now i'm not making i'm not saying that yes it does complement the first part that there are problematic hadith in bukhari but it's not because of that so now this this whole thing about the authenticity of bukhari i want to just suspend that for a moment i want you to hold your horses on that i'm going to come back to that i would like to first of all show what is this book we're actually dealing with okay now and why i don't think people should

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment X6SfFYRljeY/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/x6sffyrljey/s/3/

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