The short answer
Who compiled Sahih al-Bukhari?
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari compiled it. Sunnah.com's note on the collection gives his birth as 194 AH (years of the Islamic calendar, counted from the Hijrah) and his death as 256 AH (870 CE) 5.
Ibn Hajar (died 852 AH) wrote Fath al-Bari, a commentary on the book. In his introduction he reports, on the authority of a narrator named in the text, that al-Bukhari said he went to Syria, Egypt and the Jazirah twice and to Basra four times, and stayed in the Hijaz for six years. Al-Bukhari added that he could not count his visits to Kufa and Baghdad with the hadith scholars 6. Ibn al-Salah (died 643 AH), who wrote the Muqaddimah, an introduction to the hadith sciences, says al-Bukhari was the first to compile a book of sound reports, and that Muslim followed him 4.
Our account of his life stops there. The rest is about the book itself, which you can use without knowing the biography.
How is Sahih al-Bukhari arranged?
Sunnah.com lists the collection in 97 books, each divided into chapters. The first book is Revelation, followed by Belief, Knowledge and the books on purification and prayer. The last is Oneness, Uniqueness of Allah (Tawheed). The report numbers are the ones sunnah.com gives each book 3.
| Book | Title as sunnah.com lists it | Report numbers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revelation | 1 to 7 |
| 2 | Belief | 8 to 58 |
| 3 | Knowledge | 59 to 134 |
| 4 | Ablutions (Wudu') | 135 to 247 |
| 8 | Prayers (Salat) | 349 to 520 |
| 30 | Fasting | 1891 to 2007 |
| 34 | Sales and Trade | 2047 to 2238 |
| 67 | Wedlock, Marriage (Nikaah) | 5063 to 5250 |
| 78 | Good Manners and Form (Al-Adab) | 5970 to 6226 |
| 97 | Oneness, Uniqueness of Allah (Tawheed) | 7371 to 7563 |
Ten of the 97 are shown. The count is as sunnah.com lists it: its About page for the collection says 98 books 5.
Each chapter opens with a heading, called a tarjama. Ibn Hajar says al-Bukhari drew many meanings out of the texts and spread them across the chapters according to their fit. He quotes al-Nawawi that the aim was to derive points from the reports and to argue from them for the chapters al-Bukhari wanted 7. Ibn al-Salah adds that these headings include material al-Bukhari did not narrate with a chain on the condition for a sound report 8. So Ilmwell puts its label on a numbered narration, not on a heading.
How are hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari numbered?
Sunnah.com shows three reference lines under each report we opened 9. Take report 1, narrated by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, on intentions, and report 6224, on what to say after a sneeze:
| Reference | In-book reference | USC-MSA web (English) reference |
|---|---|---|
| Sahih al-Bukhari 1 | Book 1, Hadith 1 | Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 1 |
| Sahih al-Bukhari 6224 | Book 78, Hadith 248 | Vol. 8, Book 73, Hadith 243 |
1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 1
2AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 6224
The first is the collection number, the one in the sunnah.com address (sunnah.com/bukhari:6224). The second gives the book and the report's place in it, counting from 1 in each book. The third is an English-edition scheme that sunnah.com itself marks as deprecated, and its book numbers can differ: Book 73 against Book 78 for report 6224. Ilmwell cites the sunnah.com number and shows the in-book number beside it.
Printed editions have numbering of their own. The Salafiyya edition of Fath al-Bari, for one, had its books, chapters and hadith numbered by Muhammad Fu'ad Abd al-Baqi, according to the Shamela catalogue 10. Sunnah.com says it is moving toward unified numbering schemes tied to well-known scholars and publications, and names the numbering of Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baaqi, spelt that way, as one. It also says its English and Arabic numbering differ because the translator sometimes split or combined reports 11. The Ilmwell team's read of six sunnah.com pages on 27 October 2026 found no line saying which edition's numbering the collection number follows 12, so we do not say whether the two match.
If a number from a book or app does not match, open the book page on sunnah.com and compare the narrator, the chapter heading and the opening words before deciding it is a different report.
How many hadith does it hold?
The answer depends on what is counted, so the sources give different figures.
| Source | Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Sunnah.com, collection page | Over 7,500 | With repetitions, in 97 books 3 |
| Sunnah.com, About page | Roughly 7,563; around 2,600 | With repetitions, in 98 books; and without repetitions 5 |
| Ibn al-Salah, as Ibn Hajar quotes him | 7,275 | With repeated reports. Ibn al-Salah adds that it has been said about 4,000 without repetition, against sunnah.com's 2,600. Ibn Hajar corrects the counting in the same chapter 13 |
| Ibn Hajar's own total | 9,082 | With repetitions, counting 1,341 suspended reports (mu'allaq, with narrators dropped from the start of the chain) and 341 supporting narrations and notes on differing versions; it leaves out reports that stop at the Companions and the Followers 14 |
What does sahih mean for Sahih al-Bukhari?
On Ilmwell a narration from the connected text of this book carries the grade Sahih (in Sahih al-Bukhari), shown as the badge "Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari". The label rests on statements from named scholars, and Ilmwell does not grade a report itself. The terms are explained in What is a hadith? and Sahih hadith, hasan and daif: what grading means.
- Ibn Hajar writes that al-Bukhari committed to including only a sound hadith, and reads this from the title al-Bukhari gave the book, al-Jami' al-Sahih al-Musnad 16.
- Ibn al-Salah says that what al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated with a connected chain is what they judged sound without difficulty 17.
- Ibn al-Salah calls al-Bukhari's book the soundest of the two in its sound reports, and the richer in benefits 4.
What is the meeting condition?
A chain that says only "from" a teacher, without a word for hearing, is called mu'an'an. Ibn al-Salah reports that Muslim, in the introduction to his Sahih, objected to a contemporary who required established meeting between the two narrators, and held it enough that they lived in the same period. Ibn al-Salah adds that it has been said the view Muslim rejected is the one held by Ali ibn al-Madini and al-Bukhari 18. Ibn Hajar describes al-Bukhari's known way as requiring established meeting in such a chain 19, and sunnah.com's note calls it al-Bukhari's extra condition 5. How Sahih Muslim handles the question is for its own guide (Sahih Muslim guide, coming soon).
What does the label not cover?
| Part of the book | What the sources say |
|---|---|
| Suspended reports (mu'allaq: one or more narrators dropped from the start of the chain) | Ibn al-Salah says that of the two Sahih books, most suspended reports fall in al-Bukhari's, and that in some there is something to examine. Where one is worded definitely, he says al-Bukhari has judged it sound from the person he names 20 17. Ibn Hajar counts 1,341, says most are repeats whose texts are given elsewhere in the book, and says only 160 texts are not given in it by any route 14 15. |
| Chapter headings | Ibn al-Salah says they include material not narrated on the sahih condition 8. |
| A few connected narrations | Ibn al-Salah excepts a few places criticised by al-Daraqutni and others. Ibn Hajar counts 110 connected narrations criticised, 78 of them in al-Bukhari alone, and answers them in the same chapter 21. |
| Sound reports left out | Ibn al-Salah says neither author included every sound report, and reports al-Bukhari as saying he left sound reports out to avoid length 22. A report missing from the book is not shown weak by that. |
Where can you read Sahih al-Bukhari?
Sunnah.com carries the collection in Arabic with an English translation by Dr. M. Muhsin Khan 3. Each report has its own address, such as sunnah.com/bukhari:6224, and each book a page, such as sunnah.com/bukhari/78. A report page shows the book, the chapter heading, the narrator, the English and Arabic text and the three reference lines 9. Sunnah.com asks that whole collections are not reproduced on other websites and allows individual hadith for teaching 11, so Ilmwell gives the reference and a short retelling, and links to the report.
Say a cousin forwards a message that ends "narrated in Bukhari", with no number. To check it:
- Find the book for the subject in the list of 97 (Prayers, Fasting, Marriage and so on).
- Read that book's chapter headings for the topic.
- Compare the narrator and the wording with the message.
- Note the collection number and the in-book number, so the next person can find it.
My cousin sent me a hadith on WhatsApp with Bukhari written at the bottom. I went to look it up and could not find that wording anywhere. That was the first time I realised a name at the bottom of a message is not the same as a reference.
Try it: reading the collection
Pick an answer; each one explains itself.
1How many books does sunnah.com's index list for Sahih al-Bukhari?
Answer: 97. The index runs from Book 1, Revelation, to Book 97, Oneness, Uniqueness of Allah (Tawheed). 7,563 is the last report number in that index, not a count of books. The collection's About page says 98, so the count is as sunnah.com lists it. Source 3
2In Sahih al-Bukhari 6224, what is the in-book reference on sunnah.com?
Answer: Book 78, Hadith 248. Book 73, Hadith 243 is the English-edition (USC-MSA) reference, which sunnah.com marks as a deprecated numbering scheme. Source 9
3Why can one Bukhari report have more than one number on sunnah.com?
Answer: The site shows more than one numbering scheme. Sunnah.com shows the collection, in-book and USC-MSA (English) references, and says its English and Arabic numbering differ because the translator sometimes split or combined reports. A print edition such as the Salafiyya Fath al-Bari carries numbering of its own. Source 11
4Does the badge 'Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari' settle every line in the book?
Answer: No: suspended reports and chapter headings are separate cases. Ibn al-Salah treats suspended reports as a separate case and says the chapter headings hold material not narrated on the sahih condition. Source 20
Sources
Every claim above comes from one of these. Sunnah.com pages were read in a browser on 27 October 2026. Ibn al-Salah's Muqaddimah is cited from the electronic text on Arabic Wikisource, and Ibn Hajar's Hady al-Sari from the Shamela electronic text of the Salafiyya edition, with the page numbers shown in its page header. Neither was compared with a print scan. Attributions to al-Nawawi and to al-Bukhari are as Ibn Hajar and Ibn al-Salah relay them.
- 1
'Umar ibn al-Khattab heard the Prophet say that deeds are by intentions and each person has what he intended.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1 Book 1, Hadith 1
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- 2
The Prophet told a person who sneezes to say al-hamdu lillah; the one who hears says yarhamuk Allah, and the sneezer replies yahdikumullahu wa yuslihu balakum.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6224 Book 78, Hadith 248
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- 3
Sunnah.com's Sahih al-Bukhari collection page lists 97 books, from Book 1, Revelation (reports 1 to 7) to Book 97, Oneness, Uniqueness of Allah (Tawheed) (reports 7371 to 7563), says the collection contains over 7500 hadith with repetitions, and names Dr. M. Muhsin Khan as the translator.
Sunnah.com, Sahih al-Bukhari collection page (books and report numbers) Record: scholarly-sunnahcom-bukhari-index.
- 4
Ibn al-Salah, in the Muqaddimah (type 1, third point), says al-Bukhari was the first to compile a book of sound reports and Muslim followed him; that the two men's books are the soundest of books after the Book of Allah; and that al-Bukhari's book is the soundest of the two in its sound reports and the richer in benefits.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 1, third point: the first compiler and the soundest books Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-1-bukhari-first-soundest.
- 5
Sunnah.com's About page for Sahih al-Bukhari names the author as Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, born on 13 Shawwal 194 AH, who died in 256 AH (870 CE); says the collection has roughly 7563 hadith with repetitions in 98 books and around 2,600 without repetitions; and lists four conditions for narrators, the last being that it must be known that consecutive narrators in a chain met, which it calls al-Bukhari's extra condition.
Sunnah.com, About Sahih al-Bukhari Record: scholarly-sunnahcom-bukhari-about.
- 6
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 478), reports on the authority of a narrator named in the text that al-Bukhari said he went to Syria, Egypt and the Jazirah twice, to Basra four times, stayed in the Hijaz six years, and could not count how many times he went to Kufa and Baghdad with the hadith scholars.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 478: al-Bukhari on his journeys Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-travels.
- 7
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 8), writes that al-Bukhari chose not to leave his book free of legal benefits and wise points, drew many meanings out of the texts by his own understanding and distributed them across the book's chapters according to their fit, and quotes al-Nawawi that al-Bukhari's aim was not to confine himself to reporting hadith but to derive points from them and to argue from them for the chapters he wanted.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 8: the chapter headings, with al-Nawawi quoted Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-purpose-headings.
- 8
Ibn al-Salah, in the same passage, says Muslim's book after its introduction holds only sound reports, unmixed with what is in al-Bukhari's chapter headings of things al-Bukhari did not narrate with a chain on the condition described for a sound report.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 1, third point: al-Bukhari's chapter headings Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-1-bukhari-headings.
- 9
Under each report sunnah.com shows three reference lines. For Sahih al-Bukhari 1: Reference, Sahih al-Bukhari 1; In-book reference, Book 1, Hadith 1; USC-MSA web (English) reference, Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 1. For Sahih al-Bukhari 6224: Reference, Sahih al-Bukhari 6224; In-book reference, Book 78, Hadith 248; USC-MSA web (English) reference, Vol. 8, Book 73, Hadith 243. Sunnah.com labels the USC-MSA scheme a deprecated numbering scheme.
Sunnah.com, the reference lines under Sahih al-Bukhari 1 and 6224 Record: scholarly-sunnahcom-bukhari-reference-lines.
- 10
The Shamela catalogue card for Fath al-Bari (Salafiyya edition) says the edition's books, chapters and hadith were numbered by Muhammad Fu'ad Abd al-Baqi (d. 1388 AH), that it was produced and proofread by Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib (d. 1389 AH), and that it has 13 volumes plus the introduction Hady al-Sari in a separate volume.
Shamela, catalogue card for Fath al-Bari (Salafiyya edition): numbering by Muhammad Fu'ad Abd al-Baqi Record: scholarly-shamela-fath-salafiyya-numbering.
- 11
Sunnah.com's About page (section 6) says its English and Arabic numbering differ because the translator sometimes split or combined hadith, and that it is moving slowly toward unified reference numbering schemes corresponding to well-known scholars and publications, naming the numbering of Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baaqi as one; section 8 says it does not permit mass reproduction of entire books or collections on other websites and permits reproducing individual hadith or selections for teaching.
Sunnah.com, About, sections 6 and 8: numbering and reproduction Record: scholarly-sunnahcom-about-numbering.
- 12
On 27 October 2026 the Ilmwell team read six sunnah.com pages (the Sahih al-Bukhari collection page, the collection About page, the report pages bukhari:1 and bukhari:6224, the book page bukhari/78 and the site About page) and looked in each for a statement of which published edition's numbering the collection number follows. We found none. The only edition named for numbering is Muhammad Fuad Abdul Baaqi's, which the site About page says it is moving toward, and the site About page says it checks its numbering against well-known printed editions without naming one.
Ilmwell team search: which edition the sunnah.com collection number follows Record: search-sunnahcom-bukhari-numbering-scheme.
- 13
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 465), quotes Ibn al-Salah that the hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari number 7,275 with the repeated reports, and that it has also been said that without repetition they number four thousand.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 465: the count Ibn al-Salah gave Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-count-ibn-salah.
- 14
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 469), counts 1,341 suspended reports in Sahih al-Bukhari and 341 supporting narrations and notes of differing versions, and gives a total of 9,082 with repetitions, a total that leaves out the reports stopping at the Companions and at the Followers and those after them.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 469: Ibn Hajar's own total Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-count-total.
- 15
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 469), says that most of the 1,341 suspended reports in Sahih al-Bukhari are repeated, with their texts narrated elsewhere in the book, and that only 160 texts in the book are not narrated in it even by another route; he says he gathered those 160 with connected chains in a separate small book.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 469: most suspended reports are repeated, 160 texts are not given elsewhere Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-muallaq-repeated.
- 16
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 8), writes that it is established that al-Bukhari committed to including only a sound hadith in his Jami', that this is the book's basic subject, and that it is understood from the title al-Bukhari gave it, al-Jami' al-Sahih al-Musnad min hadith Rasul Allah wa sunanihi wa ayyamihi.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 8: al-Bukhari's commitment to soundness Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-title-soundness.
- 17
Ibn al-Salah (type 1, sixth point) says what al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated with a connected chain is what they judged sound without difficulty, and advises that a suspended report worded definitely means the author has judged it sound from the person he names it from.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 1, sixth point: connected narrations and definite wording Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-1-connected-definite.
- 18
Ibn al-Salah (type 11, branching points) reports that Muslim, in the introduction to his Sahih, objected to a contemporary who required established meeting between narrators in a chain with the word 'an (from), holding it enough that they lived in the same period; and says it has been said that the view Muslim rejected is the one held by Ali ibn al-Madini and al-Bukhari, among others.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 11: the requirement of established meeting Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-11-liqa.
- 19
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 15), describes al-Bukhari as sometimes giving a version of a report in which the narrator said 'an (from) and then giving it by another route with a clear statement of hearing, 'as is known of his way of requiring established meeting in a mu'an'an chain'.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 15: al-Bukhari's way with a chain worded 'an Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-liqa.
- 20
Ibn al-Salah (type 1, sixth point) defines a suspended (mu'allaq) report as one from whose chain one narrator or more has been dropped from the start, says most of them occur in al-Bukhari's book and very few in Muslim's, and says that in some of them there is something to examine.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 1, sixth point: suspended reports Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-1-muallaq.
- 21
Ibn Hajar, in Hady al-Sari (page 346), quotes Ibn al-Salah's exception of a few places criticised by al-Daraqutni and others, and counts 110 connected narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari criticised by al-Daraqutni and other critics: 32 that Muslim also narrated and 78 that al-Bukhari narrated alone; the chapter sets out each criticism with the answer.
Ibn Hajar, Hady al-Sari, p. 346: narrations criticised by al-Daraqutni and others Record: scholarly-ibnhajar-hady-sari-criticised.
- 22
Ibn al-Salah (type 1, fourth point) says neither al-Bukhari nor Muslim included every sound report in their Sahih books or committed to doing so, and reports that al-Bukhari said he included in his Jami' only what is sound and left out sound reports to avoid length.
Ibn al-Salah, Muqaddimah, type 1, fourth point: not every sound report is included Record: scholarly-ibn-salah-type-1-not-exhaustive.
Next
For your own situation, ask a scholar you trust.
Join the email list
New guides by email, now and then. No spam, and you can leave at any time.
Ilmwell is free and kept going by readers. See how to support it.