Trials of Imam Bukhari

In his later years, Imam Al-Bukhari was decided to move to Nishapur because of animosity of some people of the ruling elite of Bukhara against him. Nishapur was a learning place with some great Muhadditheen including Imam Muslim.

When people of Nishapur heard that Imam Bukhari was coming, they came out to welcome him in huge numbers. It is said he was welcomed by 4000 horse-riders, along with a huge number of people on camels, donkeys and on foot. Even the kings would envy such a welcome.

Some even setup tents outside Nishapur to be able to greet and welcome Imam Al-Bukhari, one of those including al-Dhuhli, who encouraged his students and everyone to give him a good welcome.

Imam Al-Bukhari was well received and started giving lectures on hadith which were attended by a large number of people. Which reduced the popularity of al-Dhuhli and other scholars. And things soon started to change.

So they soon started conspiring against al-Bukhari by claiming that he believed that a “person’s wording of the Qur’an is created.

They sent people to confront him, he declined to answer but when the people insisted, al-Bukhari answered by saying, “The Qur’an is the speech of

Allah and is not created. But the actions of the slaves are created. And to test someone is an innovation”

This gave people the opportunity to misinterpret Imam Al-Bukhari’s words. Al-Dhuhli, who was the most influential scholar in Nishapur, declared Imam Al-Bukhari to be an innovator, a person of defective aqidah and said that no one should sit with him or listen to him.

And soon, everyone turned their backs on Imam Al-Bukhari and abandoned him. Only two people stood by him, who attended his lectures and sat with him, Imam Muslim and Ahmad ibn Salama.

Imam Muslim even took a step further and sent back all of Al-Dhuhli’s books that he had, and stopped recording any hadiths that he had heard from him, effectively suggesting that he was not a reliable narrator of hadith.

But Imam Al-Bukhari advised both scholars to not cut ties and alienate their peers within their own city. He suggested that since he was an outsider and people of the city no longer feel that he can benefit them, the more appropriate thing for him would be to leave the city.

Thus, the great Muhadith, who was welcomed by thousands of people on his arrival left alone and at night.

He had decided to go back to Bukhara and spend the rest of his days there but his trials hadn’t yet ended. On his return to Bukhara, the governor, Khalid ibn Ahmad al-Dhuhli sent a messenger and invited him to come to his palace and privately tutor his children.

Imam Bukhari replied that he wanted to benefit maximum number of people with his knowledge and cannot limit his knowledge and himself to a selective few, so it’d be more appropriate if the children of governor come to Masjid or his house and study with the rest of the people.

The governor was deeply offended by his response and took it upon himself to expel Al-Bukhari from the city, a task in which he soon succeeded. After being expelled from Bukhara, Al-Bukhari decided to go to Samarkand.

However, when the scholars of Samarkand heard of his imminent arrival, they sent him a message imploring him not to come and that they feared the situation of the city will get bad if he comes.

Upon hearing this, Imam Al-Bukhari prayed to Allah to take his soul as the world has become restricted for him despite all its expansion.

Allah accepted his dua and he spent his last days in the village of his aunt, by the town of Khartank, near Samarkand. He passed away on the last Friday of Ramadan, after Friday prayers.

These were the last days of the greatest scholar of hadith, compiler of the most correct book after Quran. Allah preserved his legacy and honoured him by making his work one of the foundational documents of Ahle-Sunnah’s corpus of knowledge.

People turned their back on him and abandoned him. They didn’t even award him the courtesy of being able to explain himself which would have cleared the misunderstanding in a few short sentences but he endured and passed that test and Allah honoured him.

That’s what I have learned from life too. People will abandon you and turn their backs on you in an instance. Often those claiming to love you and promising to stand by you wouldn’t even grant you the courtesy of asking an explanation or respect of listening to one.

Which is why in Allah alone we should place our trust and on Allah alone we should rely upon.

Muslims By Name, Disbelievers By Actions

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah(رحمه الله):

Most Muslims are born to two Muslim parents, essentially becoming Muslims by name, without there being any actual faith on their part. Then, when they reach puberty, from them are those that are blessed with actual faith, performing their obligations. Likewise, from them are those who perform these acts out of ingrained habit, and just to go along with his relatives, the people of the land in which he lives, etc.

For example, he gives Zakah simply because it is a habitual tradition that the ruler collects tax, and not because he realizes either the generality or specifics of the obligation to pay it. So, in his eyes, there is no difference between the innovated tax and the legislated Zakah. Such is the case with the inhabitant of Makkah who goes out to ‘Arafat every year simply because this is the way it is done, without realizing the generality or specifics of this being an act of worship of Allah.

So, the acts of worship performed by such people is invalid, without a doubt. In fact, the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah, as well as the consensus of the Ummah, are clear in the ruling that these actions do not fulfill the obligation placed upon their doer…

So, the Islam of most people is by name, only. Rather, it (faith) only enters into their hearts during the course of the matter (i.e., later in their lives), if it enters at all. So, were this intention not to be obligatory upon them, they would not at all attempt to have it, and their hearts would be empty of it, and they would essentially be hypocrites, carrying out their actions out of habit and imitation, as is the case with many people.

[‘Majmu’ al-Fatawa’; 26/32]

The deceptions of iblees upon the scholars.

Ibn al-Jawziyy said in Talbees Iblees (pp. 121-122) that:

“And from the deceptions of Iblees upon the scholars is their mixing with the rulers and the kings, their flattering them and failure to correct them when they are able to do so. May be they make allowances for them where there is no allowance for them, in order to attain some worldly benefit. So this produces corruption from three angles.

🔸Firstly, the ruler is corrupted by that. He says, “If I were not upon what is correct, the scholar would correct me. And how can I not be correct when he is eating from my wealth!”

🔸Secondly, the common person because he says, “There is no harm in this ruler, nor in his wealth, nor in his actions, because such and such scholar, does not criticize him.”

🔸Thirdly, the scholar (himself) is corrupted by that. Because he corrupts his religion through this practice, and Iblees has deceived them into entering upon the rulers by saying to them, “You will just enter to intercede for the benefit of a Muslim.”