Film 'The life of Imam El Bukhari' in standard Arabic version. This film has been validated by Al-Azhar University.

It was unanimously agreed that the work of Imam Al-Boukhâri is the most authentic of all other works in the field of Hadith literature. All Muslim exegetes were unanimous in asserting that the most authentic work after the Book of Allah (the Koran) is Sahîh Al-Boukhârî '.

Imam Al-Boukhârî was born on the 13th day of the month of Chawwâl in the year 194H in Boukhârâ, the territory of Khourâsân (West Turkistân). His full name is Mohammed ibn Ismâil ibn Al-Moughîran Al-Boukhârî.

His father died when he was a young child and it was his mother who raised him. At the age of ten, he began to acquire the knowledge of Hadîth. He traveled to Makka at the age of sixteen accompanied by his mother and older brother. It seems that Imam Al-Boukhârî loved Makkah and his exegetes, because he chose to stay in Makka and offer what he had to his mother and his brother. He spent two years in Makka, then he went to Al-Madîna. After staying six years in Al-Hijâz (Makkah and Al-Madîna), he left for Al-Basrah, Al Koufa and Baghdad and visited many other territories including Egypt and Syria. He visited Baghdad several times and met many scholars there including Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal.

By virtue of his honesty and kindness and the fact that he was trustworthy, he was aloof from princes and sovereigns lest he be made to twist the truth to please them.

The accounts of Imam Al-Boukhârî's perseverance in gathering the Hadîths are numerous. He never stopped traveling to one or the other of the Islamic territories to collect the precious words of the noble Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). It is said that Imam Al-Boukhârî had gathered more than 300,000 Hadîths memorizing 200,000 of which some were unreliable. It was born at the time when the Hadîth was falsified to please rulers and kings or to corrupt the religion of Islam. It is also said that Imam Al-Boukhârî (before gathering Sahih Al-Boukhârî) had seen in a dream, as if he was standing in front of the Prophet Muhammad (peace of Allah be upon him) carrying a hand flies chaser which he used to chase away flies around the Prophet (peace be upon him). Imam Al-Bukhârî asked those who interpreted the dreams, and they interpreted his dream that he would drive away the lies attributed to the Prophet (peace be upon him). Thus, he had the great task of sifting the falsified Hadiths from the genuine ones. He worked day and night, and despite memorizing a large number, and chose only about 7,275 Hadîths only with repetition and about 2,230 without repetition which there was no doubt about their authenticity.

Whenever he recorded a Hadîth, he performed ablution, performed a two-Rakaah prayer and begged his Lord (Allah). Many Muslim scholars had tried to find a loophole in this large and remarkable collection - Sahîh Al-Boukhârî, but without success. It is for this reason that it is established without a doubt that the most authentic book after the Book of Allah is Sahîh Al-Boukhârî. Imam Al-Boukhârî died on the first day of the month of Chawwâl in the year 256 H., and was buried in Khartank, a village near Samarkand. May Allah grant him mercy.

(Biography by Dr Mohammed Mohsin Khân - Al-Madîna Al-Mounawwara Islamic University - Saudi Arabia.)