The Shaykh’s clarification of Imam al-Bukhari’s condition in al-Sahih, and an explanation of the majority’s position regarding that condition.

The Shaykh : This is exactly like what is well known about Imam al-Bukhari, which I referred to earlier: that it is part of his methodology that he does not suffice with establishing continuity through contemporaneity; rather, establishing the meeting is necessary in this proof.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : This is what Imam al-Bukhari said, and it is well known from him. So what is the position of the hadith masters who came after him? Perhaps you know from the principles of hadith that the majority of hadith scholars, especially the later ones, consider al-Bukhari’s methodology to be the weaker position. And I mean by “weaker” that, in his opinion, he made it the operative cause. They say: this condition is not a binding condition for others. And all scholars who have books called al-Sahih, such as the Sahih of Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Hibban, Ibn al-Jarud, and al-Hakim’s al-Mustadrak, and the like, followed this. In addition to the later scholars who proceeded to authenticate and grade as good the unique narrations in the books of takhrij, such as al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Ibn al-Muqanna, and the like. All of these scholars authenticate while sufficing with contemporaneity. Now, personally, I found something in this scholarly disagreement that I think is very novel and reconciles the two differing viewpoints: that Imam al-Bukhari’s condition of meeting is a condition of perfection, not a condition of validity. My evidence for this is that I found in Sunan al-Tirmidhi—and it is known to students of knowledge that Imam al-Tirmidhi was among the students of Imam al-Bukhari who knew his methodology and opinions—and perhaps you also know that often al-Tirmidhi authenticates hadiths he narrates in his Sunan that his teacher did not narrate in his Sahih, and he attributes the authentication to his Imam. Sometimes he grades the hadith as good and also attributes the grading to Imam al-Bukhari. I found that in some of these hadiths graded as good, al-Tirmidhi attributed the grading to al-Bukhari, and there was no condition of meeting. I mentioned this in some of my works, because in reality it is a very important matter. It is well known and famous that Imam Muslim refuted in the introduction to his Sahih those who condition meeting in addition to contemporaneity, and some researchers hold that he intended by that refutation to respond to Imam al-Bukhari himself. It does not concern me whether he intended to respond to al-Bukhari himself or to those who held his view! The matter is as they say: “All roads lead to the mill,” because the intended target is not the speaker, but rather what is said.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : If what I have argued for and concluded with the evidence I referred to is correct—that Imam al-Bukhari’s condition, that he selected and included in his Sahih, that he selected from such a large number of hadiths, I have forgotten the number now, perhaps two hundred thousand, or a number like this huge amount of authentic hadiths, so he selected the hadiths he included in his Sahih, and their total does not exceed six thousand, selected from two hundred thousand hadiths. So this is a condition of perfection in his Sahih, evidenced by the fact that he grades some hadiths as good—though he may authenticate them, but I have not yet come across that—hadiths whose grading as good is attributed to him by his student al-Tirmidhi, and in which the condition of meeting is not established. This is my answer.