What are the 4 weak hadiths in Bukhari?

- When Buhari completed his work, he presented it to hadith scholars such as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Yahya Ibn Main, Ali Ibnul-Madini and others for criticism. They said that all of them except for 4 hadiths were sound in his book. (Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Tahdhibut-Tahdhib, volume III, pp. 509-511)
- What are these 4 hadiths, which are not sound? Were those hadiths proven to be sound?
- My second question: Bukhari and Muslim have ‘Bab’s. What is Bab in the hadiths? What does it mean?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Al-Uqayli (d. 322/934), a scholar of hadith, jarh and ta’dil states the following about Bukhari’s work “al-Jamiu’s-Sahih”:

“When Buhari completed his work, he presented it to hadith scholars such as Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Yahya Ibn Main, Ali Ibnul-Madini and others for criticism. They said that all of them except for 4 hadiths were sound in his book.”

After that statement, they also added the following: “The last word on this issue belongs to Bukhari; they are also sound.”

There are narrations of Bukhari that are criticized but we could not find any information about which narrations the scholars in question considered weak.

As a matter of fact, later on, Daraqutni and some other critics criticized the chains of narrators of 110 hadiths in the work, but the majority of hadith scholars found those criticisms inaccurate; Ibn Hajar defended all the criticized narrations and narrators and said they were sound. (see Hadyus-Sari, pp. 364-488)

The weak hadiths in Bukhari were evaluated in three parts:

1. Inqita’, that is, hadiths that are weak due to the break in the chain of narrators but whose weakness has been eliminated for any reason.

For example: “Tawus said: Muadh b. Jabal said to the people of Yemen that they could give zakah in kind, with silk or wool clothes, instead of barley and corn, that this practice would be easier for them and that it would be more beneficial for Muhammad’s companions in Madinah.”

This narration is munqati’ (interrupted) because Tawus did not hear it from Muadh b. Jabal. Buhari mentioned in as suspended (mu’allaq).

2. The narrations that are not supported by any narration, but that the scholars find suitable for deeds.

The following example is mentioned in this regard: It is reported that the Prophet made the decision that the debts needed to be paid before the execution of the will.

This narration was narrated by other scholars as mawsul, that is, with chain of narrators. Tirmidhi, one of them, narrated the hadith by stating that the narration is suitable for the deeds of the scholars.

3. Narrations that are not reinforced by any narration.

They are very few. Buhari himself explains that they are weak. He points out that the reason for mentioning the narration is its opposition to the sound narration.

In order to draw attention to the weakness of such narrations, Bukhari uses a passive verb.  Example: The narration of Abu Hurayra reported by him as suspended (mu’allaq) and with a passive verb (ruwiya-was narrated, qila-was said) is as follows:

“The imam should not perform nafilah prayers in the same place.”

After all, he himself states after the narration in question that it is not sound. Before this narration, he reports a sound narration regarding the issue. Therefore, its weakness does not harm the health of the book.

As for the expression “Bab” in the Hadith Books:

The subsections that come after the main section (Kitab=Book) in the hadith books are called “bab”. For example, “Kitabus-Salah”, that is, “Prayer Section (Chapter)” is the main section. “How Prayers were Made Fard on the Night of Isra Bab” is the subsection, that is, the bab.

In this sense, it is stated that the number of books in Buhari is 97 and the number of babs is 3889.

Book 97 in Buhari is Kitabul-I’tisam bil-Kitabi was-Sunnah (Observing=Following the Book and the Sunnah). There are 28 babs as subsections. The first two are as follows:

1. The Prophet’s statement “I was sent with jawamiul-kalim” Bab

2. The Bab of Following=Practicing the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah

In these chapters, Bukhari includes sometimes one and sometimes more hadiths that fulfill the conditions.

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