Sahih Al-Bukhari - Authenticity

Authenticity

Ibn al-Salah said: "The first to author a Sahih was Bukhari, Abu ‘Abdillah Muhammad ibn Ismaa’eel al-Ju’fee, followed by Aboo al-Husain Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naisaabooree al-Qushairee, who was his student, sharing many of the same teachers. These two books are the most authentic books after the Quran. As for the statement of Al-Shafi‘i, who said "I do not know of a book containing knowledge more correct than Malik’s book," – others mentioned it with a different wording – he said this before the books of Bukhari and Muslim. The book of Bukhari is the more authentic of the two and more useful."

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani quoted Aboo Ja’far al-‘Uqailee as saying, "After Bukhari had written the Sahih, he read it to Ali ibn al-Madini, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma'in as well as others. They considered it a good effort and testified to its authenticity with the exception of four hadith. Al-‘Uqailee then said that Bukhari was actually correct regarding those four hadith." Ibn Hajar then concluded, "And they are, in fact, authentic."

Ibn al-Salah said in his Muqaddimah ibn al-Ṣalāḥ fī `Ulūm al-Ḥadīth: "It has been narrated to us that Bukhari has said, 'I have not included in the book al-Jami’ other than what is authentic and I did not include other authentic hadith for the sake of brevity.'" In addition, al-Dhahabi said, "Bukhari was heard saying, 'I have memorized one hundred thousand authentic hadith and two hundred thousand which are less than authentic.'"