2) Selected 500 Hadith from Sahih Bukhari & Muslim - The Message

Sahih Bukhari & Sahih Muslimrelentless endeavor to visit all the Islamic territories out ofhis love for compiling the Prophetic narrations. Hetraveled to Hijaaz (Saudi Arabia), Levant (Syria, Jordan,Palestine and Lebanon), Egypt, and Khurasaan (a vast areabetween north east Iran, southern Russia, and westernAfghanistan). He visited Basrah and settled for some timein Baghdad which was the capital of the Abbasid state atthat time. He greatly benefited from these journeysseeking knowledge. He had the pleasure of meeting mostthe narrators of Prophetic narrations at that time, sat withthem, listened to the narrations, and memorized whateverknowledge they had.One night, Al-Bukhaari had a strange dream that later hada great impact on his life. He saw himself standing beforethe Prophet holding a palm-leaf fan in his hand with whichhe pushed all evil away from the Prophet. He was soconfused and surprised that he went to his scholars askingthem to interpret his dream. They said happily: "You willclear the lies and false claims away from the Prophet." Al-Bukhaari then remembered his teacher, shaykh Is-HaaqIbn Raahawayh, the prominent scholar of Khurasaan,when he told his students once: "It would be great if youcan compile a concise and brief book containing theauthentic narrations of the Prophet."These words echoed in Al-Bukhaari’s heart and heremembered that dream which was always in his mindsince he started learning the Prophetic narrations.Thereupon, he immediately made an intention to activelyand seriously pursue this mission and started to strive inPage 172