It is Not an Article of Faith to Accept Every Narration from ash-Shaykhayn

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

It is not universal in Sunni Islam that we all accept every hadits from Swahih al-Bukhari.  For example, Imam Abu Manswur Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maturidi (r.a.) rejected any ahadits which claims that the Prophet (s.a.w.) was affected by black magic since it is inconceivable that he could be touched by Satan and the jinn.  Various Maliki and Hanafi scholars have also rejected, amongst others, the ahadits on drinking camel urine, of Sayyidatina ‘Aishah bint Abu Bakr (r.a.) being six years old when she was married, the saliva of dogs being najis al-mughalazhah, the missing verses on rajm and so forth.  All of these are found in Swahih al-Bukhari; some of them are even muttafaq ‘alayh. 

It is not an article of faith we must accept something simply because it is from the Shaykhayn.  Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari (r.a.) was a great scholar who had differences of opinions with the teachings of Imam Abu Hanifah Nu’man ibn Tsabit (r.a.), who came before his time, and was critical of the rationalist positions of the Hanafi madzhab.  The Shafi’i madzhab emphasised the corpus of ahadits over ra’yy. 

This strained relationship between the Shafi’i madzhab and the Hanafi madzhab, which began when Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i (r.a.) differed with his teacher, the great Hanafi scholar, Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybani (r.a.) and others, continued down to the rivalry between Imam al-Maturidi (r.a.) and Imam al-Bukhari (r.a.).  They all sniped at each other in their various books, and some even indulged in outright takfir.  Yes, our scholars fought.  That being said, Imam ash-Shafi’i (r.a.) himself, who was born on the day Imam Abu Hanifah (r.a.) passed away, had great affection for Imam al-A’azham and would go to his maqam for tawaswswul.  This is also found in his Manaqib. 

In every single position where Imam al-Maturidi (r.a.) differed with Imam al-Bukhari (r.a.) on ahadits, Imam al-Maturidi (r.a.) had the stronger argument, being the more accomplished scholar.  His saying that any hadits that contradicts our ‘aqidah and established facts can be rejected without the need to examine the matn and the sanad is the more correct position as opposed to slavishly accepting every narration no matter how outlandish.