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Authenticity of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by HadithAnswers.com

Are all the Hadiths in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim really authentic?

I ask this because there are numerous notable and prominent Scholars who believe that there are many weak narrations present in Bukhari and Muslim. They even provided references of several weak Hadith for that.

On the other hand, there are numerous scholars who believe that all narrations in Bukhari and Muslim are authentic, and there is no question on this. However, both of these groups of scholars cannot be right at the same time. I want to ask that are all narration in Bukhari and Muslim really authentic?

Answer

It should be noted that the very vast majority of Muhaddithun have accepted the Hadiths in Bukhari and Muslim to be authentic. All other under-qualified individuals are duty bound to stick to the mainstream view.

The field of Hadith classification is open to difference of opinion. There are countless examples of Hadiths being declared authentic by some Scholars, but weak by others.

Imams Tirmidhi, Mundhiri, Ibn ‘Abdil Hadi (rahimahumullah) and others have all explained this frequent occurrence to be like the difference of opinion that we visualize in aspects of fiqh (jurisprudence).

I have written a detailed article to explain this further. See it here.

Therefore, it is not strange to find a difference of opinion among the very senior Muhaddithun regarding certain Hadiths in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Those Muhaddithun who objected to a few such Hadiths were qualified enough (Mujtahid) to do so. However, we find that the latter day Muhaddithun have endeavored to answer these objections too.

One should bear in mind, that just because a particular Muhaddith didn’t agree with Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) for example, that his disagreement is acceptable…

Hafiz Ibn Hajar (rahimahullah) has mentioned that the Scholars of Ummah in general have accepted the Hadiths in these 2 books as authentic (sahih).

(Sharh Nukhbah)

It makes no sense for the under qualified to oppose the mainstream view.

Unfortunately, even some contemporaries have challenged  certain Hadiths in the Sahihayn (Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) without being qualified enough to do so!

As stated above, the scholars of the past were led to their conclusions based on their academic status. It is incorrect for under-qualified individuals to ‘copy and paste’ these objections without even understanding the basics of the field of Hadith grading!

In short, the answer to your question is: Yes, we ought to believe that all the Hadiths in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are authentic.

And Allah Ta’ala Knows best,

Answered by: Moulana Muhammad Abasoomar

Checked by: Moulana Haroon Abasoomar

This answer was collected from HadithAnswers.com. The answers were either answered or checked by Moulana Haroon Abasoomar (rahimahullah) who was a Shaykhul Hadith in South Africa, or by his son, Moulana Muhammad Abasoomer (hafizahullah), who is a Hadith specialist. 

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