WAEC Islamic Religious Studies (IRS) 2023 Theory — Question 6

Model answer

Imām Bukhārī (Muḥammad b. Ismā'īl Abū 'Abdullāh b. Ibrāhīm) was born in 194/810 CE at Bukhāra. His contributions: (i) He travelled far and wide in search of Ḥadith for 16 years. (ii) He returned to Bukhāra to sift the numerous Ḥadith he had collected. (iii) He collected about 600,000 traditions. (iv) He applied critical standards in sorting out the Ḥadith. (v) He selected over 7,000 traditions. (vi) His collection came down to about 4,000 when repetitions were accounted for. (vii) His book contained 3,450 chapters (abwāb). (viii) The selected traditions were arranged into 97 books. (ix) His Ḥadith are of the Musannaf type. (x) He often included notes in the chapter headings.