The Poisonous Mission of 'Correcting' the Book of Al-Bokhary

Published in July 1, 2010

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- The Truth is clear and deep-rooted, whereas lies and falsehoods always need supporting 'proofs' and power/might to impose them on people.

2- What exemplifies imposed falsehoods is the so-called Sunna hadiths books, especially the hadiths in Al-Bokhary book; such are books of the Sunnite religion which has been invented by the Muhammadans to justify their rejection of the Quran (the only source of Islam). The Sunna hadiths contradict the Quranic Sunna (i.e., Sunna means method, sharia, or way) or Quranic sharia to which Quranists adhere. The term (Sunna) in the Quran means 1) God's sharia legislations, and 2) God's way of punishing and dealing with polytheists/disbelievers     

3- In order to differentiate between the real Sunna in the Quran and the false man-made Sunna of the Sunnites written during the Abbasid Era, we call the latter the Bokharist Sunna, because the book of Al-Bokhary is the holiest of all books made holy by the silly masses and imams of the Sunnites, who never actually read Al-Bokhary book partially or wholly. They revere the other Sunnite 'holy' books without reading them or even reading anything written about them! They blindly follow the footsteps of their forefathers; this is their typical response to Quranists: (How come we deviate from the old, traditional ways and accuse our ancestors and ancient imams of being ignorant and misguided?!). This is the same response and pretext of all polytheists from the people of Noah till the Qorayish tribe, as per what God tells us in the Quran.      

Firstly: falsehoods are never firmly settled or rooted:

1/1:  The Bokharist Sunna of lies cannot stand firmly by itself; its followers defend it by intimidation, terrorism, violence, force, and might so that they impose their falsehoods on people and persecute those who criticize and questions such falsehoods. Indeed, in the Middle-Ages Abbasid Era, the Bokharists invented the apostasy penalty (i.e., putting the 'culprits' to death) to defend Al-Bokhary myths against any sort of criticism. Of course, the Egyptian Law contain no such a thing as the apostasy penalty; instead, they have the law against showing 'contempt' toward religion, so that critics of the so-called hadiths and 'companions' (and also Sunnite books and their authors) are prosecuted and incarcerated. Thus, Sunnites believe that the book of Al-Bokhary, who died in 256 A.H., is the basis of their religion and NOT the Quran! Hence, undermining Al-Bokhary book means for them showing contempt regarding their Sunnite religion. Thus, Al-Bokhary is their supreme sanctified god/deity to which they adhere and in which they believe, though this author/inventor of hadiths was a mortal human being. The Bokharists desire that all people must revere and sanctify their supreme god, as those who criticize him would be severely punished.         

1/2: When Quranists quote Quranic verses to refute Al-Bokhary book hadiths, the Bokharists never listen; they have rejected and abandoned the Quran. To the Bokharists, the Quran is vague and convoluted; it should never be understood unless in light of Al-Bokhary hadiths! When Al-Bokhary hadiths about the so-called intercession contradict 150 Quranic verses that refute this myth, the Bokharists adhere to their hadiths and reject Quranic verses! Yet, they call themselves as 'Muslims'!

1/3: To the Bokharists, quoting Quranic verses to refute Al-Bokhary is a horrible crime; they assume that Al-Shafei, the Sunnite imam who founded a doctrine in his name, was 'right' in his myth that Sunnite hadiths replace and supplant Quranic verses that contradict these hadiths! The Bokharists assume that everyone must believe in Azharite myth that the Quran 'needs' the Al-Bokhary Sunna and Al-Bokhary book does not need the Quran, God's Word! This is very insulting to God; as if God were in need of Al-Bokhary book to 'explain' the Quranic 'mysterious logarithms'! Hence, the Bokharists in their sanctification of Al-Bokhary, their supreme deity, reject the Quranic verses that assert that the Quran is a Clear Book made easy to remember, and which has clear verses. Ironically, most of the Bokharists, in their bovine stupidity, never read the whole book of Al-Bokhary and never studied its hadiths. How silly and ignorant they are! They are defying God, rejecting His Quran, and defending a book they never read even partially!     

2- In addition to terrorizing and intimidating critics of Al-Bokhary book, many Sunnite authors/imams/scholars kept busy writing apologetic books in defense of the so-called 'Sunna' and 'hadiths' by trying to 'refute' criticisms of hadiths. This indicates clearly that even during the Middle-Ages Abbasid Era and beyond it, the Sunnite religion has been always accused of being mere fabrications and lies that are discussed, undermined, and debunked by so many authors, with Sunnite authors responding to them within many eras.   

3- On the other hand, because Sunnite lies and myths cannot stand discussions, their fabricators have invented series of narrators to ascribe hadiths to Muhammad as if he uttered such nonsensical narratives. Such series of narrators included men and women who died long ago; they could not defend themselves or deny they narrated anything of the sort. This applies to all Sunnite books of al-Bokhary, Ibn Hanbal, Al-Shafei, Malik, etc. This means that the invention of the notion of series of narrators was a lame pretext to defend mythical narratives from being criticized as if so as not to 'insult' Muhammad and showing him as a liar! The real defense of Muhammad is done by Quranists to clear his name from all of the so-called hadiths. We have refuted the notion of attributing such hadiths to Muhammad in one of our booklets (in English) found on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=13198     

Besides, so many Sunnite imams rejected hadiths partially like the imam/author Moslem in the introduction of his book of hadiths. Another imam named Al-Dhahaby, who died in 718 A.H. mentioned in his encyclopedic book titled "Mizan Al-E'tidal" that no Sunnite scholars ever agree unanimously on verifying hadiths and series of narrators; this is shown in the history book titled "Al-Muntazim" by Ibn Al-Jawzy who refutes Shiite hadiths and mentions how Sunnite scholars differ in their views regarding the veracity of many hadiths and their series of narrators, though Ibn Al-Jawzy was an adherent of the extremist Ibn Hanbal doctrine who believed staunchly in hadiths. Ironically, Ibn Hanbal himself in his book of hadiths refutes three types of hadiths/narratives as groundless: about interpretations of the Quran, about battles and wars, and about feats and miracles.    

4- Thus, the notion of the series of narrators has been refuted and argued about until now without unanimous agreement within anything at all, and the same applies to the texts of hadiths, as they are contradicting one another; Sunnites never agree on the veracity of all of these texts. Many Sunnite scholars wrote apologetic books in defense of such hadiths, like Ibn Qotayba in his books titled "The Problematic Narration of Hadiths" and "Interpreting Differences in Hadiths". Ibn Qotayba tried, without success, to reconcile contradictory hadiths narrated orally and in books during his era. Such endeavors are fruitless and futile for the following reasons.  

4/1: The first reason is as follows: most contradictions in hadiths are irreconcilable however hard one tries to make them appear as 'complementing' one another. For instance, in the Malik book titled (Al-Mowata') written/collected by Al-Shaybany (one of the disciples of Malik), there are hadiths that assert that when a man touches his penis, this spoils the ablution; yet, there are other hadiths that specifically assert otherwise: that touching one's genitals does not spoil one's ablution. Thus, even within one book, there are contradictory hadiths ascribed to Muhammad. Examples of such contradictions are countless in all hadiths written/authored in the 3^rd century A.H.    

4/2: The second reason is as follows: since the 3^rd century A.H., hadiths have increased exponentially; the 1008 oral hadiths by Malik were the first ones to be written down, in different versions, by his disciples. Malik died in 179 A.H., whereas Al-Shafei who died in 204 A.H. in his fiqh encyclopedic book titled (Al-Um) authored thousands of hadiths, and the number increased beyond that in the book by Ibn Hanbal who died in 241 A.H. This is why Ibn Qotayba who died in 278 A.H. attempted to reconcile differences in hadiths of his era that were less than 10 thousand hadiths; fabricators of hadiths at the time were not so many men as in later eras: now, millions of hadiths are there and fill countless books! No one could imitate Ibn Qotayba in his futile endeavor, as hadiths increased like cancerous cells within later centuries; no two Sunnite imams would agree on the exact number of hadiths!       

4/3: The third reason is as follows: the Ibn Hanbal doctrine imams at one point controlled the streets of the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, by terrorizing people to impose their own doctrine on them; the historian Al-Tabari (who died in 310 A.H.) was persecuted at the time by these scholars, who made the masses siege his house for years and then to eventually demolish it over his head, and he died as a result; the Ibn Hanbal doctrine imams forbade people to bury Al-Tabari! All such severe persecution was because of one thing: Al-Tabari disagreed with them within the notion of God's Throne and he never deified and sanctified the imam Ibn Hanbal like them. Thus, they used terror and persecution to stop authors from ijtihad (i.e., innovative thinking and pondering of the Quran). Later on, Ijtihad was banned as 'sinful' act in Sunnite sharia when the Sufi-Sunnite  author Al-Ghazaly (who died in 505 A.H.) wrote his famous phrase about fiqh: (there never could be anything better or more creative than what is written in the past). Thus, hadiths continued to increase while innovative thinking in fiqh was stopped. Soon enough, it was prohibited in the pain of death to criticize and discuss 'grand' imams of doctrines and hadiths; they became infallible deities, especially during the Mameluke Era (648 – 921 A.H.), who must be overpraised and glorified and never questioned.         

Secondly: Al-Bokhary in our modern era is the point of contention between Quranists and Wahabis:

1- Egypt entered the tunnel of intellectual stagnation, obscurantism, and backwardness within the Ottoman Era, until Egyptians woke up because of the French Expedition by Napoleon who conquered Egypt. Later on, the king Muhammad Ali Pacha introduced a renaissance within many fields, especially as he formed the very first Egyptian army, helped by France, to serve his political ambitions. The cultural renaissance in Egypt was influenced by Europe; soon enough, this was followed by a religious thinking of ijtihad by the head of Al-Azhar M. Abdou (1849 – 1905 A.D.). the intellectual project of M. Abdou was aborted by the Wahabis of the third current KSA that planted its Wahabi agents to convert Egyptians slowly but steadily to Wahabism. The Wahabi agent Rasheed Reda was the disciple of M. Abdou who betrayed his tutor and served Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, the founder of the third current KSA. Rasheed Reda is the real culprit who spread Wahabism in Egypt and helped create the MB terrorist organization, while letting his disciple, Hassan Al-Banna, be its guide and head in 1928. Saudi kings used oil revenues to spend $ billions to spread Wahabism worldwide, especially in the Arab world, as though it were Islam. In fact, regional, international, and local conditions helped the KSA to spread Wahabism (it is a religion based on reviving the extremist Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine) introduced by Wahabi agents as 'Islam'. Within such conditions, Al-Bokhary has been deified again in the 20^th century in the same way as he was deified during the Mameluke and Ottoman eras.          

2- Because Egypt is the source of enlightenment and innovative, free thinkers, even during the Middle Ages, from imam Al-Leith Ibn Saad to the imam M. Abdou, Egypt brought forth to the world the Quranist trend in 1977, introduced by us, Dr. A. S. Mansour, as a reaction to seek real Islam (Quranism) and to refute Wahabism and its Bokharist Sunna. Within the margin of Quranist intellectual peaceful jihad of building new thinking trends and demolishing all myths, Quranists have discovered that Al-Bokhary is the arch-enemy of Islam/the Quran and that the Sunnite religion is against the Quran in everything and every topic. In Egypt, Sunnites have persecuted Quranists using violence, incarceration, declaring them as 'infidels', and fatwas to incite murder of Quranists. The Sunnites attempted to defend their traditions using the same ancient apologetic books authored by their ancestors, but they never convinced anyone and their battle was lost from the very beginning.  

Thirdly: Quranists and reformulating the Muslims mind:

1- Before the emergence of Quranists, there were some lame attempts to undermine and refute few hadiths of Al-Bokhary (e.g., the hadith about the Jewish sorcerer harming Muhammad), and such critics were stifled and had their voice drowned by Azharite scholars so that their deity Al-Bokhary remains in the sky above away from being questioned and undermined!  

2- After the emergence of Quranists, so many people in 1980s onwards have become bold and outspoken enough in their criticism of all hadiths, especially of Al-Bokhary, within facts introduced for the first time by Quranists in the cultural and religious life in Egypt. These facts include the following. 

2/1: Quranists cast doubt on Al-Bokhary book as a whole, and then on the whole of the Sunnite books and the Sunnite religion itself whose pillars and grounds are shaken violently by Quranists. Quranists have irrefutably proved that the Sunnite religion contradicts the Quran itself in so many respects; the same applies to the Sufi and Shiite religions. The three earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans have nothing to do with Quranic principles, sharia, faith tenets. Quranists have proved that authors of Sunnite books are arch-enemies of the Quran as they wrote nothing but myths, trash, and balderdash and became deities such as the pagan idols of the pagan of Abraham, smashed once their supreme god, Al-Bokhary, was smashed by Quranists.  

2/2: Debates and arguments are no longer confined to Azharite scholars; there is no such a thing as ''scholars'' in Al-Azhar at all, as all of them are ignoramuses who know very little of the contents of the Sunnite books. In fact, all Azharite men are mere employees who serve the State and many of them serve the KSA in return for money. Most of them never read Al-Bokhary book wholly or partially; they depend on oral narratives sanctified by the masses. When some media outlets recorded the torture and persecution of incarcerated Quranists in Egypt, many Azharites attempted to refute Quranism and ideas of Quranists in many newspapers, but their attempted led to the fact that the number of Quranists in Egypt increased more than ever in the 1980s and 1990s, but in secret as they feared to declare their faith so as not to be persecuted and/or incarcerated. People got tedious of the same Sunnite narratives that are never related to modern facts of life; this is why Quranism aroused the curiosity of the cultural elite members in Egypt. Newspapers who supported the cause of Quranists (as an issue related to human rights) thus helped expose the Sunnite religion as unfit for the 20^th century and for modern-age life, whereas Qurnaism is the religion that fits the age of human rights, democracy, secularism, and higher human values shared by all people, while providing Islamic solutions to problems that emerged within new items and habits of the 21^st century. 

2/3: Quranists' influence on Egyptian thinkers varied; some have become Quranists, some have stood within in-between, medial position (i.e., denying hadiths partially, not wholly), and some have returned to the school of thought introduced by M. Abdou, exceeded now by hundreds of light years by Quranists. Many Egyptian reformist thinkers in religion assume wrongly that a plastic surgery is needed to the Sunna hadiths; as if one can reject some hadiths and adhere to some others. This is utter nonsense, of course. All hadiths and all Sunnite books must be rejected once and for all.

3- Thus, three trends have emerged now as follows.

3/1: Quranists: those who reject all hadiths ascribed to Muhammad, as the Quran is the only complete source of Islam (see 5:3), and no part of religion was ever left for Al-Bokhary and his likes to 'complete' and 'convey' it during the Abbasid Era, as there is no divine revelation after Muhammad's death. Thus, ascribing falsehood to God's prophet and God's religion is a grave injustice; all hadiths are easily refuted and debunked by the Quranic verses.

3/2: Those who adopted a medial, in-between position by trying in vain to retain some hadiths and discard more than 50% of them by 'correcting' Al-Bokhary book and other books and sifting through them so that they maintain the vague, deified, and sanctified entity called (Sunna); those 'thinkers' are vociferous regarding refuting hadiths that contradict Quranic verses. Quranists surpassed that stage 25 years ago; Quranists maintain that all hadiths are false as the Quran does NOT need another book to 'explain' it. 

3/3: Those Azharite ignoramuses of misguidance and falsehoods who till worship Al-Bokhary and other gods/deities who authored other ancient books; they cannot refute Qurnaism and Quranists and cannot correct and sift through Al-Bokhary book; they hide their ignorance by cursing and slandering Quranists in Egyptian media every now and then to intimidate and terrorize people. 

Fourthly: scientifically, it is futile and useless to attempt to sift and correct Al-Bokhary book at all by Azharite men or other thinkers. We explain the reasons below.

1- Correcting and editing means to exert efforts similar to the one preparing thesis of MA or PhD; there are so many manuscripts never published in paper before within the fields of research and study related to Al-Azhar University; and other manuscripts are printed that can be corrected and edited by comparing their text, margins, conditions of the author(s) and their eras, etc. to the original manuscripts. This cannot occur in the case of Al-Bokhary book.   

2- Al-Bokhary book has no really original manuscript since the grand library of Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols, and it was rewritten many times later on during the Mameluke Era in Cairo, Egypt, and in other major cities from Samarkand, Mecca, to Cordova. Thus, there is no one really original manuscript of Al-Bokhary book that all people agree on it. It is funny that Azharite sheikhs used to recite Al-Bokhary book aloud in every Ramadan within the presence of the Mameluke sultans, as if Al-Bokhary book were a Quran to be recited in public! Many copies of Al-Bokhary book were partially quoted by so many people, apart from scholars of the Middle-Ages eras who provided exegeses to Al-Bokhary book, and no one can possible compile and reconcile the whole manuscripts of Al-Bokhary book worldwide to compare them to one another, as they vary a great deal in their contents of hadiths, as scribes typically committed many errors at the time. Yet, the current copy of the three-volume Al-Bokhary book we have is the same as taught by Al-Azhar and the KSA; we tend to think it is the same copy as the one used in the Mameluke and Ottoman eras in Egypt.

3- Quranists shed light on how Al-Bokhary undermines and insults God and Muhammad. We have shown this in our YouTube videos of our show titled "Exposing Salafism" (all it episodes are subtitled now into English: https://www.youtube.com/user/ahlalquran1/featured) Within the internet, many people imitate Quranists now by quoting Al-Bokhary hadiths to ridicule and debunk them. Many enemies and haters of Islam quote Al-Bokhary hadiths now within the cyberspace to undermine Islam itself. Hot debates ensued, and Azharite sheikhs could not stand any discussions of their deity Al-Bokhary, but they in vain tried to defend the 'veracity' of Al-Bokhary book so that they retain their positions and high ranks; this led them to persecute Quranists in Egypt.      

Fifthly: the reasons why correcting and sifting through Al-Bokhary book is futile and useless endeavor:

1- The result of such endeavor, if ever done, would not be Al-Bokhary book; but rather a different book carrying the name of the sifter/researcher who chooses hadiths (some to retain and some to reject) at random and haphazardly.

2- There are no scientific sold basis or rules to follow in this process of sifting through Al-Bokhary book: would researcher(s) adopt criteria of exclusion and retaining based on texts of hadiths or their series of narrators? Or their content and meanings? Or their utility? Or based on the fact that they contradict the Quran or not? How come that they would choose criteria to assume that some hadiths 'agree' with Quranic verses? Quranists have proven that not even a single Al-Bokhary hadith agree with the Quran; this applies to all other books of hadiths. Besides, what about hadiths that contradict science, reason, and logic? What about the ones filled with mythology? How come researchers would possible agree on any criteria?!       

3- Adopting any criteria for sifting will inevitably follow whims of researchers and will be away from the required scientific methodology and objectivity. If they follow the Quran and the scientific methodology, they will reach the conclusion to reject all hadiths of Al-Bokhary and his likes, and to become Quranists like us. 

4- Lastly, such corrections of Al-Bokhary is deemed by Quranists as an endeavor to deceive people who are undeceived by Quranists. Thus, such correction efforts of Al-Bokhary are done by enemies of God and the Quran.

Sixthly: all attempt to defend Sunna and hadiths to refute Quranists will backfire at Sunnites:

1- Within 1985-1987, in the first wave arrest and persecution of Quranists in Egypt, the MB newspaper (Al-Lowaa Al-Eslami) published a headline about the KSA donating the sum of LE 5 million to establish the Sunna Center to defend Sunna in Cairo, Egypt, to refute Quranism and Quranists, and the Azharite Dr. Al-Tayyib Al-Najjar supervised such center. Few years later, the dogs stopped barking, and people forgot all about such a center and no one asked about the donation sum that ended up into the bottomless pockets of Azharite sheikhs! This project has been a still born (or DOA), and it issued no books nor any statements. This stirred a hushed debate that led to the increase of the number of Egyptian Quranists in the 1990s. 

2- It is funny that Al-Azhar attempted in the 2000s to revive this project of Dr. Al-Tayyib Al-Najjar to defend Al-Bokhary book by compiling and gathering all its manuscripts from major cities worldwide; they would not do it for the sake of Islam, as per Al-Azhar Law that stipulates that Islamic facts are to be elucidated by Azharite clergy. The only aim of such brouhaha is to gain some money from the KSA that desires to stifle Quranist intellectual endeavors that expose Al-Bokhary as the real enemy of God and Muhammad who insults and undermines Islam in his book.  

3- This will end up that way: the Azharites will get some money from the KSA and people in Egypt (whose memories are assumed to be fickle) will forget all about the endeavors to defend Al-Bokhary in an imaginary center. Another possibility is that correction process of sifting through the three-volume Al-Bokhary book will begin and this will create many dilemmas for Azharite clergy; Quranists have exposed and debunked famous hadiths of Al-Bokhary, and when such hadiths are defended by Azharite men, people will realize the fact that the Azharite clergy are arch-enemies and haters of the Quran. If Azharite clergy defended some hadiths and rejected some others, the general public will begin to pose questions like: where was the role of Al-Azhar in the past centuries?! Why our ancestors committed the fatal mistake of sanctifying Al-Bokhary book?! If Al-Azhar would issue a statement that the whole of Al-Bokhary book is correct and infallible, writings of Quranists which expose Al-Bokhary book will continue to cast doubts on it and on the whole entity called Sunna hadiths and this will lead people to reject Azharite clergy as inveterate liars who never applied Al-Azhar Law that stipulates that their mission is to clarify Islamic tenets and facts; people will ask about the reason for the persecution of Quranists. The Quranic Truth will prevail eventually; one day, all Arab people will feel indebted to Quranists and will thank them and apologize for previous persecution in the 1980s and the 1990s.       

Lastly

1- If a medicine was found to be containing poison, would people reject it and close down the pharmaceutical company that produced it or to work out a way to remove poison from a doubted medicine?! The former solution is more logical, of course; likewise, Al-Bokhary book and all Sunnite books must be rejected altogether once and for all.

2- When the Muhammadans buy food items or medicine, or in fact any commodity, they thoroughly verify and check everything related to it so as not to waste their money or lose their health. In contrast, when it comes to religion (an aspect linked to one's eternal life either in Hell or in Paradise), people never reconsider or think twice; they accept all lies and falsehoods of tricksters and inveterate liars who sell their corrupt, polytheistic goods of intercession on the Hereafter by deities/saints. Thus, the Muhammadans risk their Afterlife by never checking or verifying anything related to Sunnite myths accepted by them readily and wholeheartedly without thinking! Shame on them all!