The Amazing Minds of al-Bukhari, Ahmad bin Hambal, Abu
Dawud, and Sulayman al-'Alwan
http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vbe/showthread.php?t=236
1 - Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani narrated that Abu Ahmad bin
'Udayy said:
"I heard a number of the scholars of Baghdad say that
when Muhammad bin Isma'il al-Bukhari arrived in
Baghdad, the scholars of Hadith heard of this, and
gathered together to test his memorization. So, they
gathered a hundred ahadith and scrambled their texts
and chains, putting the text of this hadith with the
chain of a different one, and the text of that hadith
with the chain of a different one, etc. They then
divided these hundred ahadith between ten individuals,
so that each man had ten ahadith. These men were then
told to narrate these scrambled ahadith to al-Bukhari
when they arrived at the scheduled gathering.
So, they attended the gathering, as did a group of
strangers from Khurasan and Baghdad. When the guests
were comfortable, one of the ten men turned to
al-Bukhari and asked him about one of the ahadith that
were with him. So, al-Bukhari said: "I do not
recognize it." The man continued narrating each
hadith, one after the other, until he had narrated all
ten, with al-Bukhari saying to each one: "I do not
recognize it." The scholars who were present at the
gathering began turning to each other in surprise, and
whoever did not follow the incident to the end would
judge al-Bukhari to be deficient, inept, and of bad
memory.
The second of the ten men then turned to al-Bukhari to
ask him about another of these scrambled ahadith, to
which al-Bukhari said: "I don't recognize it." He was
asked about another, to which he said: "I don't
recognize it." The man continued narrating each
hadith, one after the other, until he had narrated all
ten, with al-Bukhari saying to each one: "I do not
recognize it." The third of the men then turned to
al-Bukhari, followed by the fourth man, until all ten
men had asked about these hundred scrambled ahadith,
with al-Bukhari responding to each of them with
nothing more than: "I don't recognize it."
When he saw that they had narrated all that they had,
al-Bukhari turned to the first man, saying: "As for
your first hadith, you narrated such-and-such, while
what is correct is actually such-and-such. As for your
second hadith, you said this, while the correct
narration is actually that," doing the same for the
third, fourth, and all the way until he finished with
the last man, returning each text to its proper chain,
and each chain to its proper text, with all hundred
ahadith."
"And what Hashid bin Isma'il described regarding their
days of studying in Basrah together has already been
mentioned, in which al-Bukhari would memorize
everything that he heard, and never had to write
anything down."
['Hadi as-Sari' (the introduction to 'Fath al-Bari');
p. 510-511]
2 - Ibn Hajar also narrated that Abu al-Azhar said:
"There were around 400 scholars of Hadith in
Samarqand, and they all gathered together to try to
cause Muhammad bin Isma'il al-Bukhari to make a
mistake. So, in order to test him, they mixed the
chains of Sham with the chains of Iraq, and the chains
of Iraq with the chains of Sham, and the chains of the
Haram with the chains of Yemen.
With all of this, they were unable to cause him to
make a single mistake."
['Hadi as-Sari'; p. 511]
3 - Abu Ja'far al-Warraq narrated:
"I asked Abu 'Abdillah Muhammad bin Isma'il
al-Bukhari: "How old were you when you began seeking
knowledge of Hadith?"
He replied: "I was inspired to study Hadith while I
was still memorizing the Qur'an."
I asked him: "And how old were you at the time?"
He replied: "Ten years or younger. I finished
memorizing it at ten. Then, I went to ad-Dakhili and
others to study Hadith. One day, he said, when he was
teaching to the people: "Sufyan narrated to us on the
authority of Abu az-Zubayr, who narrated to us on the
authority of Ibrahim..." So, I said: "O Abu Fulan! Abu
az-Zubayr did not narrate on the authority of
Ibrahim!" So, he looked at me annoyingly, and I said
to him: "Go back to your books and verify this for
yourself, if you have them." So, he went and looked,
then he came out and said: "So, what is the correct
chain, boy?" I said: "Rather, it is az-Zubayr bin
'Udayy who narrated from Ibrahim." So, he took a pen,
corrected his notes, and told me: "You are correct."
Some of those listening to this story asked
al-Bukhari: "How old were you when you corrected him
like this?"
He answered: "Eleven. When I reached the age of 16, I
had memorized all of the books of Ibn al-Mubarak and
Waki'. Afterwards, I went out with my mother and
brother to Makkah. When I performed the Hajj, my
brother returned, and I stayed with my mother studying
Hadith. When I was 18, I began to write a book of the
narrations of the Sahabah and Tabi'in (now known as
'at-Tarikh').""
['Sifat as-Safwah'; 2/345]
4 - Sulayman bin Shu'bah said:
"The students of Abu Dawud wrote over 40,000 ahadith
from him, and he did not refer to a book to narrate
any of them."
[''Uluww al-Himmah'; p. 183]
5 - Abu Zur'ah said:
"Ahmad bin Hambal had memorized one million ahadith."
[''Uluww al-Himmah'; p. 183]
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