Page 97 - The Importance of the Ahl Al-Sunnah

GREAT ISLAMIC SCHOLARS
AND SOME OF THEIR VIEWS

Heading the list of references on the Ahl al-Sunnah are the
Islamic scholars who authored the six great hadith books col-
lected together and known as the al-Kutub as-Sitta (Six Books).

Imam al-Bukhari
Born in Bukhara in 194 AH he was raised by his mother fol-
lowing the death of his father Ismail ibn Ibrahim; he too had
been a great religious scholar of the time. He began studying
the hadiths at the age of seven and at ten years of age, he had
memorized a staggering 70,000 hadiths. He received instruc-
tion from well-known scholars in Makkah, Madinah, Nishapur
and Basra; it is for this reason that his name began to become
known beyond his hometown. Many famous Islamic scholars,
including Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Sa‘id, have
regarded his works as an absolutely trustworthy reference
and made use of his ideas in their own studies and their own
writings. He has been regarded by all as the greatest expert on
hadiths who has ever lived.
Imam al-Bukhari studied over 600,000 traditions; only 7,275

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