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

Sahih Bukhari & Sahih MuslimImam Tirmidhi's native land Khurasan was also consideredas an intellectual capital. It was known as Madina al-Rijal -"The City of Men", referring to the large number oftraditionists who resided there.Imam Tirmidhi was a man of strong memory. JamesRobson mentions an interesting story which illustrates hispower of committing traditions to memory. Once on theway to Makka, Imam Tirmidhi met a traditionist fromwhose traditions he had previously copied out two parts.Thinking he had these notes with him, he questioned thetraditionist about the traditions, which he had noted, butdiscovered that instead of his notes, he had brought someblank sheets of paper. Nonetheless he continued hisquestions with these sheets in his hand, and after a whilethe traditionist noticed that they were blank and rebukedhim, whereupon Imam Tirmidhi assured him that he knewthe traditions by heart. The traditionist was not convincedof his genuineness, even though Imam Tirmidhi recited thetraditions to him, so Imam Tirmidhi asked him to recitesome other traditions. The traditionist recited fortytraditions which Imam Tirmidhi repeated without making asingle error, thus showing his remarkable power ofcommitting traditions to memory.Moulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (d.1323 A.H.), acommentator on the Jami' said that Imam Tirmidhi wasborn blind. This opinion is erroneous since al-Dhahabi(d.748 A.9) and the majority of the scholars agree that hisblindness occurred during the latter portion of his life andPage 188