Safi al-Din al-Bukhari
- Died
- 1200 AH
- Born in
- -
Safi al-Din al-Bukhari (approx. 1160–1200 AH / 1747–1786 CE) was a Hanafi hadith scholar, jurist, and historian based in Nablus .
Early life and travels
His full name was Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad Afdal Safi al-Din Abu al-Fadl al-Husayni, widely known as al-Bukhari . He was born around 1160 AH and studied under scholars of his time, mastering both the rational and transmitted disciplines .
In 1173 AH, he traveled to Yemen as a pilgrim, where in al-Mukha he studied jurisprudence and hadith with Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad Ba'Udayr . He then went to Zabid and received narrations from hadith scholars including Muhammad ibn Ala al-Din al-Mizjaji and Sulayman ibn Yahya . After completing the Hajj and visiting Medina, where he met Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Samman, he resided for a time in Yanbu' . In 1183 AH, he entered Egypt and held scholarly sessions with Murtada al-Zabidi, who praised his attentive demeanor and command of hadith . Due to unsettled circumstances in Cairo, he moved to Upper Egypt and remained around Jirja for a period, teaching select students .
Scholarly standing and students
Al-Bukhari was recognized as an accomplished hadith scholar and biographer . He authored al-Qawl al-Jali fi Tarjamat al-Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya al-Hanbali ("The Clear Discourse on the Biography of Sheikh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya al-Hanbali"), in which he compiled the praise of prominent jurists and hadith masters and defended Ibn Taymiyya against various criticisms . He also compiled a hadith treatise on the transmission paths of the Hadith of Mercy, titled al-Arus al-Mujalliya fi Asanid al-Hadith al-Musalsal bil-Awwaliyya ("The Adorned Bride on the Chains of the Primary Interconnected Hadith"), whose transmission routes were later analyzed and extracted by his companion Murtada al-Zabidi .
Among those who transmitted his works was the Shafi'i mufti Muhammad Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi, who transcribed a copy of al-Arus al-Mujalliya in 1193 AH during al-Bukhari's lifetime and received a signed authorization (ijaza) from him on the manuscript . Al-Bukhari also maintained a biographical dictionary of his own teachers (Mu'jam Shuyukhihi) .
Death
Al-Bukhari settled in Nablus, where he died in 1200 AH (1786 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-ʿArūs al-Mujalliya fī Asānīd al-Ḥadīth al-Musalsal bi-l-Awwaliyya is a short hadith treatise that documents the transmission routes of the celebrated Hadith of Mercy ("The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful; be merciful to those on earth, and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you"). The work gathers and extracts transmission paths of this tradition, conventionally transmitted as the first hadith imparted to a student upon starting formal study, through primary chains connecting to the Prophet Muhammad.