Islamic scholars explain court ruling to ban "Sahih al-Bukhari"*

The inclusion of the collection of Prophet Muhammad's sayings entitled "Sahih al-Bukhari"* into the list of extremist materials means that a certain edition of the book is banned, and a certain translation thereof, while other editions and the original text of the collection of hadiths are allowed, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have stated in their comments on Ramzan Kadyrov's demand to cancel the court decision.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 31, Ramzan Kadyrov demanded to revise the decision to include the "Sahih al-Bukhari"*, a collection of Prophet Muhammad's sayings, into the list of extremist materials. In his opinion, the court "turned to incompetent expertise", while the "Sahih al-Bukhari"* is "a reliable source of Prophet Muhammad's biography, which Muslim scholars treat as the second in importance after the Holy Quran." The Mufti of Chechnya supported Ramzan Kadyrov's demand, while users of the "VKontakte" social network called on the Dagestani Muftiate to also voice out its position.

Leonid Syukiyainen, an expert in the Islamic law, has emphasized that the "Sahih al-Bukhari"* collection of Prophet Muhammad's sayings is a significant source of the Islamic religion, which can be treated as sacred texts.

According to his version, the current ban applies to a specific edition, released in a specific year by a specific publishing house. It doesn't refer to the translations of the hadiths made by Abdulla Nirsha, because the hadiths in his translation were published by many other publishing houses, Mr Syukiyainen has explained.

The court decision specifies exact details of the banned book: the title, publisher, year, number of pages and authors, said the lawyer, Marat Ashimov, who took part in processes of lifting bans on Islamic literature. Any other versions of the "Sahih al-Bukhari"* released by other publishers or in other years are not banned," he has stressed.

*The collection was recognized as extremist and included into the federal list of materials prohibited for distribution.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 2, 2022 at 01:47 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.