Fath al-Bari

Fath ul-Bari fi Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari or Fathul Bari or "Grant of the Creator" is the most valued Sunni commentary of Sahih Bukhari, written by Ibn Hajr Asqalani in 18 volumes. It is reported that it took Asqalani 25 years to finish his work.

Praise of

'Abd al-Hayy ibn 'Abd al-Kabir al-Kattani said: "When the author of al-Hittah quoted Ibn Khaldun as saying that the explanation of Sahih al-Bukhari is a debt upon the Muslim nation, he said, 'This debt has been fulfilled by the explanation of al-Hafith Ibn Hajar.' For that reason, when it was suggested to Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Shawkani, that he write an explanation of al-Jami' al-Sahih by al-Bukhari just as others have, he responded, 'There is no migration after al-Fath,' referring to Fath al-Bari."^[1]

Abdal Hakim Murad said of Fath al-Bari in the introduction to the translation of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's commentary on selected hadith (published as a booklet by the Muslim Academic Trust): "The importance of this literature may be gauged by the fact that at least seventy full commentaries have been written on Imam al-Bukhari's great Sahih... the most celebrated [of which]] is without question the magnificent Fath al-Bari ('Victory of the Creator') by Imam Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, a work which was the crown both of its genre and of the Imam's academic career. It is appreciated by the ulema for the doctrinal soundness of its author, for its complete coverage of Bukhari's material, its mastery of the relevant Arabic sciences, the wisdom it shows in drawing lessons (fawa'id) from the hadiths it expounds, and its skill in resolving complex disputes over variant readings."

Editions

Editions include one from the Egyptian Press of Mustafa Al-Babi Al-Halabi, 1959 (1378 A.H.).

References

1. ^ Fahras al-Faharis, vol. 1, pg. 322-3, slightly abridged. 'There is no migration after al-Fath' is a reference to a well-known hadith.

External links

Arabic Wikisource has original text related to this article: Fath al-Bari

Online edition (Arabic).