The Story of Iman Bukhaaree and his Priceless Knowledge

As Salaamu‘alaykum and peace to all,

For this entry, I brought to you the story of Iman Bukhari ,a well known muslim scholars who authoring the hadith collection named Sahih Bukhari, a collection which Sunnis regard as the most authentic (Arabic: Sahih) of all hadith compilations and it is a most authentic book after the Qur'an.

Here is the story

In Al-Fawaaid Ad-Daraaree, Al-‘Ajloonee related that Imam Bukhaaree (may Allah have mercy on him) once travelled by boat on a journey to seek out knowledge and that he had taken with him one thousand dinars. One of his fellow travelers ingratiated himself with Iman Bukhaaree , outwardly showing him love and admiration. During the sea voyage, the man often made it a point to sit in his company. On the long journeys, friendships develop faster than normal, and during the course of the time they spent together, Imam Bukhaaree informed the man that he had one thousand dirhams with him.

The morning after Imam Bukhaaree spoke about the money, the man woke up and began to cry,scream,rip his clothing apart , and slap his own face ,as I he had just been afflicted with a great loss. His fellow shipmates asked him what was wrong and he refused to answer at first, as if he was still in the state of shock and could not bring himself to speak about his situation.

After they continually insisted that he tell them what the matter was with him, he finally said,

“ I had a bag that contained one thousand dirhams ,and I lost it”.

The crewman who was in charge of the ship began to search for the passengers. One by one everyone was being searched, and upon realizing what was happening, Imam Bukhaaree, making sure that no one was looking, threw his bag of money over the side of the ship. When it was his turn to be searched, nothing was found. When the entire ship and all of its passengers were searched, and when no bag of money was found, those authority on the ship went back to the man who made up the story and chastised him for making a false claim and for putting them through so much trouble. As soon as the ship finally reached shore, the passengers began to disembark.

Meanwhile, Iman Bukhaaree’s old friend went to him and asked him what he had done with the bag of money.

“ I threw it into the sea,” Imam Bukhaaree said.

“ And you are patiently accepting the fact that you have just lost such a huge amount of money ?” the man asked.

“O ignorant one,” Imam Bukhaaree said,

” do you not know that I have spent my entire life gathering the Ahadeeth of messenger (PBUH) and the world now acknowledges my trustworthiness. Would it then have been befitting for me to subject myself to the accusation of theft? And shall I lose the precious pearl (i.e., my knowledge and achievement as a scholar) that I have earned over a lifetime over a limited numbers of dinars?”

A lesson from this story is that, knowledge is not equal with the money or anything else in this world. Knowledge, if we acquired for sake of it can shape our attitudes and akhlaqs like what happen during the time of muslim scholars.

Some of us might wonder how can Iman Bukhari become so great, perhaps this one of the answer;

Orang bertanya kepada Ayah Imam Syafie tentang bagaimana boleh mendapat Imam Syafie yang faqih dan bijak sejak dari zaman mudanya lagi. Apa rahsianya? Jawab Ayah Imam Syafie ” Aku mendidik Syafie sejak aku belum berkahwin lagi (bermula semasa memilih calon Isteri - Ibu kepada Syafie) “


p/s:picture from wikepedia.com
p/s:Extracted from the biography of Imam Bukhaaree, compiled by Salaahud-Deen ibn ‘Alee ibn ‘ Abdul Maoujud, and translated by Faisal Shaafeeq.

::Written by Faisal
::2:55 p.m
::Wednesday,April 08, 2009