What answer do you give a person who questions the authenticity of Sahih Bukhari?
How can it be one hundred percent authentic because it was only compiled over 200 years after the death of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam)?
Answer
The entire galaxy of Scholars throughout time have accepted the Sahih Bukhari as authentic.
The Hadiths in Sahih Bukhari, were compiled by Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) using a chain of narrators for each narration.
It was not that Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) merely attributed these Hadiths two hundred years after the demise of Nabi (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam)!
Rather every Hadith contained therein is linked with a continuous chain all the way to Rasulullah (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam) with every narrator being reliable.
Example
For example, the first Hadith in the book, Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) (Demise: 256 A.H.) reports it as he heard it from his teacher;
Imam ‘Abdullah ibn Zubair Al-Humaydi (radiyallahu’anhu) (Demise: 219 A.H.) who reports it from his teacher,
Imam Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah (rahimahullah) (Demise: 198 A.H.) who reports if from his teacher,
Imam Yahya ibn Sa’id Al-Ansari (rahimahullah) (Demise: 144 A.H.) who reports if from his teacher,
Imam Muhammad ibn Ibrahim At-Taymi (rahimahullah) (Demise: 120 A.H.) who reports if from his teacher,
Imam ‘Alqamah ibn Waqqas Al-Laythi (rahimahullah) who reports if from his teacher,
Sayyiduna ‘Umar (radiyallahu’anhu) (Demise: 23 A.H)- who reports it from Rasulullah (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam)….
From the above it is clear that Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) does not merely think up Hadiths and then attributes it to Rasulullah (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam)!
Rather, each Hadith is narrated with a continuous, unbroken chain from the author all the way to Nabi (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam). Further, Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) ensures that every narrator in the chain is highly reliable.
Ignorance of the facts
The objection in question is a result of misinformation, or actually a direct result of ignorance of the history of Hadith preservation and bad influence.
It’s like questioning the existence of a particular country, for example. If one in South Africa objects to me referring to Japan as a country by saying: How could you be sure about its existence while it is several thousand miles away?
The simple answer is that although it is very far away (in distance) from me, and I haven’t been there in person, but I’ve met people who have been there…
The same is the case with the objection in question. Yes indeed! Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) lived approximately two hundred years after Nabi (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam). Hence he didn’t hear any Hadith from Nabi (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam) due to this long distance in time between him and the Prophetic era.
However, Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah) has indeed met [and heard Hadith from] reliable people who met others, who met others and so on until it reaches the Shabah (radiyallahu’anhum) who have heard from Nabi (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam).
One should always be wary as to whom one associates with, as -unfortunately- there is no shortage of such evil misconceptions in the world we live in today!
And Allah Ta’ala Knows best,
Answered by: Moulana Muhammad Abasoomar