Nibras Al Sari Fi Riyadh Al Bukhari 7 vols

Muhaddith Shikh Yunus Jonpoori
Ten salient features of the Arabic commentary of Sahih Bukhari by Shaykh Muhammad Yunus Jownpuri
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Ten salient features of the Arabic commentary of Sahih Bukhari by Shaykh Muhammad Yunus Jownpuri
By Islamic Portal3rd May 2017Comments Off on Ten salient features of the Arabic commentary of Sahih Bukhari by Shaykh Muhammad Yunus Jownpuri
Ten salient features of the Arabic commentary Nibrās al-Sārī ilā Riyāḍ al-Bukhārī by Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī
Our respected teacher Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī (b. 1356/1937) has dedicated his entire life to the ḥadīths of the Prophet ﷺ. He has been teaching Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī at Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur in India for fifty years and was appointed to do so by Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Muḥammad Zakariyyā Kāndhelwī (d. 1402/1982) notwithstanding the fact that he was relatively young and there were other senior scholars alive. Mawlānā Muḥammad Zakariyyā Kāndhelwī’s confidence in his student can be further gauged by the the fact that he has quoted his student’s views in his al-Abwāb wa al-Tarājim in at least three places (1: 268, 419; 6: 788) as well as in his footnotes on Lāmiʿ al-Dirārī (10: 319), and he would regularly consult him and refer senior scholars to him particularly for ḥadīth related queries (see al-Yawāqīt al-Ghāliyah vols. 1 and 2).
Over the past fifty years, Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī has taught Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and mastered its sciences in a manner that is unprecedented in the current era. His understanding of Imam Bukhārī and his methodology is second to none. Those who have studied with him or remained in his company attest to this. This should not come as a surprise, for he has spent his entire life in the midst of ḥadīth collections and did not involve himself in other family, social or communal matters. Despite this, his humility is such that he never intended to write a commentary on the Ṣaḥīḥ. A few years ago, at the insistence of some of his students, he agreed to collate his Arabic notes on the Ṣaḥīḥ and publish them. These notes are not mere notes. They are invaluable gems. Thus, after the hard work of some of his students and in particular our beloved Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Ayyūb Sūrtī, the first volume of the Arabic commentary by the name of Nibrās al-Sārī ilā Riyāḍ al-Bukhārī was recently published. I thought it would be useful, particularly for students, to share some salient features of this commentary. By no means is the list comprehensive or exhaustive; nor does it attempt to do justice to this invaluable book; indeed it is inconceivable for the efforts of a ḥadīth master over fifty years to be captured in a few bullet points.
(1) The commentary touches on various aspects related to the Ṣaḥīḥ with a particular and unique insight into the tarājim (chapters) of Imam Bukhārī and the profuse ocean of knowledge they contain. In this regard, this commentary is unique and offers added value; it provides an outline of the views of scholars of the past such as ʿAllāmah Ibn Baṭṭāl (d. 449/1057), ʿAllāmah Kirmānī (d. 786/1384), Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1149), Ḥāfiẓ Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī (d. 855/1451), Shāh Walī Allah Dehlawī (d. 1176/1762) as well scholars of the recent era such as Mawlānā Rashīd Aḥmad Gangohī (d. 1323/1905), Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Muḥammad Zakariyyā Kāndhelwī (d. 1402/1982), Shaykh al-Hind Mawlānā Maḥmūd Ḥasan Deobandī (d. 1339/1920), ʿAllāmah Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī (d. 1352/1933) and others. This is routinely followed by a critical analysis, as the author gives preference to one of the stated positions (for example, p. 329, 538) or formulates his own position, as is the case in several chapters (for example, p. 33, 133, 235, 434, 445, 551). This, as he has mentioned on several occasions, is a result of the grace of Almighty Allah who enabled Shaykh to read the text of the Ṣaḥīḥ through the lenses of Imam Bukhārī (d. 256/870) and not through the lenses of any commentator or a pre-determined jurisprudential position (see p. 475 for an example of this). Having taught Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī for several years, I can affirm that there are many chapters of the Ṣaḥīḥ where the explanation offered by our Shaykh is more often than not the most satisfactory explanation, not found in earlier commentaries. Thus, the author’s rigorous attempts to understand Imam Bukhārī deserve recognition and a particular mention.
(2) Another salient feature of the commentary is that our Shaykh does not solely rely on the famous commentaries of the Ṣaḥīḥ such as Fatḥ al-Bārī, ʿUmdat al-Qārī and others. Most commentaries published nowadays rely on a few commentaries of the Ṣahīḥ and do not go beyond. The author, however, uses a wide range of primary and secondary sources from range of disciplines including ḥadīth commentary, jurisprudence, history, language, tafsīr and others. The commentary is an encyclopedia full of references with the volume and page numbers listed from hundreds of books. I marvel at the breadth of sources used by our Shaykh at a time when there were no computers and books were not readily available. Once I heard our Shaykh say, “I read the entire Musnad ʿĀʾishah in the Musnad of Imam Aḥmad four times in pursuit of one particular word in a ḥadith.” Whilst glancing through this commentary of Shaykh, I came across the names of some books for the first time. As the compiler Shaykh al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Ayyūb Sūrtī once said to me in 2010 whilst assisting him on publishing volume three of al-Yawāqīt al-Ghāliyah, “I have never heard of this book and I do not know where Shaykh got hold of such books from in the 70s and 80s.” What is interesting is that the wide range of books used by Shaykh is not restricted to the books of earlier scholars, nor is it restricted to Arabic works. For example, on page 79, Shaykh cites ʿAllāmah Ḥamīdullāh’s Khuṭubāt Bahāwalpūr in the discussion regarding Nāmūs and Nomos. Other examples of scholars of the recent past cited in this first volume include: Maḥmūd Pāshā Falakī (d. 1302/1885) (p. 92), Mawlāna Shāh Waṣī Allah  (d. 1383/1964) (p. 52), Mawlānā Khalīl Aḥmad Sahāranpūrī (d. 1346/1927) (p. 429), Mawlānā Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwī (d. 1420/1999) (p. 92, 96), Shaykh al-Islām Mawlānā Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madnī (d. 1377/1957) (p. 57) and ʿAllāmah Shabbīr Aḥmad ʿUthmānī (d. 1369/1949) (p. 174, 175).
(3) The author does not rely on secondary sources and always attempts to locate the primary source. Thus, if Imam Nawawī (d. 676/1277), for example, quotes Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544/1149) he attempts to locate the source. Likewise, if a ḥadīth has been attributed to a primary source, he leaves no stone untouched in locating the source. It is in this process that he often locates errors in attribution. For example, on page 63, he highlights an error of the author of Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ in attributing a ḥadīth to Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī. Likewise, on page 67, he critiques Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852/1149) for making an incomplete attribution to ʿAllāmah Ṭībī (d. 743/1342) by directly quoting from the latter’s commentary on Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ. Likewise, on page 153, he critiques Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar for making an incorrect attribution to Imam Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064) by quoting from the latter’s al-Muḥallā. Similarly, on page 470, he critiques Ḥāfiẓ ʿAyni (d. 855/1451) for an attribution to Imam Abū Ḥanīfah regarding the excrements of the Prophet ﷺ; Shaykh suggests he was unable to locate the attribution in any of the published books of Imam Muḥammad (d. 189/805) or the earlier Ḥanafī texts. Similarly, at one point (p. 85) Shaykh critiques a linguistic point made by ʿAllāmah Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī (d. 1352/1933) suggesting that it is not based on research and also explains the cause of the error; books were not readily available in his era. There are many more similar examples (for example, p. 229) which make this commentary extremely beneficial and highly author