My hands trembled as I blew the dust off the old scrap of parchment. I was just a boy in the city of Medina, the home of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. You won’t find my name in any book, but I was one of the young ones eager to hear the stories—the hadith—the words and actions of our beloved Prophet ﷺ passed down by those who knew him best.
When the Prophet ﷺ had passed away, people feared his teachings might be forgotten. So the companions—his closest friends and followers—worked tirelessly to remember his sayings. I had seen men like Abu Hurairah and Ibn Umar sitting in the mosque, surrounded by students. Abu Hurairah was famous for memorizing more sayings of the Prophet ﷺ than anyone else. Even as an old man, his voice was steady when he spoke, like the wind carrying truth from one heart to another.
But the story that changed my life was the arrival of a man named Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari. He came to our town when I was about thirteen. He had gentle eyes and a scroll tucked into his satchel. People whispered that he was collecting the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ from as many trustworthy sources as he could find.
One day, I followed him quietly to a small gathering. He sat before a group of scholars, asking questions, checking every chain of narration—the names of the people who passed the hadith from one to the next. If even one of the people had a weak memory or questionable character, he would not include the saying. "The words of the Prophet ﷺ," he said, “must be protected like rare jewels.”
I was amazed. This wasn’t just about remembering. This was about guarding the truth.
Later, I heard of another like him—Imam Tirmidhi—known for organizing the hadith by topic: prayer, fasting, kindness, truth. These efforts, my elder told me, were part of what kept our religion clear, preserved, and beloved by people long after the Prophet ﷺ had left this world.
That night, I wept quietly. Not because I was sad, but because I realized something: the words of the Prophet ﷺ were still alive. Because of the efforts of these men—may Allah reward them—it was as if the Prophet ﷺ was still teaching us. His words reached all the way to me, a simple boy in a dusty street in Medina.
Now, as I pass stories down to my own grandchildren, I tell them what I learned: That Allah, in His mercy, made sure the truth would never fade. And that the ones who preserved the Sunnah—the way of the Prophet ﷺ—did so with fear of Allah in their hearts.
Inspired by the efforts of the scholars of hadith, including Imam Bukhari and Imam Tirmidhi, as recorded in the Islamic tradition.
My hands trembled as I blew the dust off the old scrap of parchment. I was just a boy in the city of Medina, the home of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. You won’t find my name in any book, but I was one of the young ones eager to hear the stories—the hadith—the words and actions of our beloved Prophet ﷺ passed down by those who knew him best.
When the Prophet ﷺ had passed away, people feared his teachings might be forgotten. So the companions—his closest friends and followers—worked tirelessly to remember his sayings. I had seen men like Abu Hurairah and Ibn Umar sitting in the mosque, surrounded by students. Abu Hurairah was famous for memorizing more sayings of the Prophet ﷺ than anyone else. Even as an old man, his voice was steady when he spoke, like the wind carrying truth from one heart to another.
But the story that changed my life was the arrival of a man named Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari. He came to our town when I was about thirteen. He had gentle eyes and a scroll tucked into his satchel. People whispered that he was collecting the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ from as many trustworthy sources as he could find.
One day, I followed him quietly to a small gathering. He sat before a group of scholars, asking questions, checking every chain of narration—the names of the people who passed the hadith from one to the next. If even one of the people had a weak memory or questionable character, he would not include the saying. "The words of the Prophet ﷺ," he said, “must be protected like rare jewels.”
I was amazed. This wasn’t just about remembering. This was about guarding the truth.
Later, I heard of another like him—Imam Tirmidhi—known for organizing the hadith by topic: prayer, fasting, kindness, truth. These efforts, my elder told me, were part of what kept our religion clear, preserved, and beloved by people long after the Prophet ﷺ had left this world.
That night, I wept quietly. Not because I was sad, but because I realized something: the words of the Prophet ﷺ were still alive. Because of the efforts of these men—may Allah reward them—it was as if the Prophet ﷺ was still teaching us. His words reached all the way to me, a simple boy in a dusty street in Medina.
Now, as I pass stories down to my own grandchildren, I tell them what I learned: That Allah, in His mercy, made sure the truth would never fade. And that the ones who preserved the Sunnah—the way of the Prophet ﷺ—did so with fear of Allah in their hearts.
Inspired by the efforts of the scholars of hadith, including Imam Bukhari and Imam Tirmidhi, as recorded in the Islamic tradition.
