Tomb of Imam Bukhari
bution to the deen, which was
an addition to iman and Islam,
was due to their incorporation
of the two parts of deen into
their lives.
But, wait a second, the Sahaba
l incorporated these two aspects
even better, then why is it
that the most of them did not
contribute like Imam Bukhari
and Imam Abu Hanifa?
And, what about us? We too incorporate
these two parts, than
why are we not gestalts of Islam
making contributions and
reserving our place in history?
Here is the issue: these questions
are based on the premise
that if you are a gestalt, you
will hit it big one day and will
make great strides in serving
the deen one day whereas the
principle of gestalt only asserts
that a person will be greater
than the sum, irrespective
of whether a contribution is
made or not.
Secondly, contribution to the deen is not the criterion for
establishing greatness, as the objection suggests. It is the degree
to which iman and Islam are embodied in the life that
demonstrates the level of greatness and status. Therefore,
the Sahaba l incorporated these two to the highest degree
and thus, they became the greatest gestalts of Islam after the
prophets of Allah.
The questions above also engender an inherent secular bias
that is common in modern Muslim society today. But we
will discuss this later, insha’Allah.
How we know our predecessors
As an umma, we recognize and revere our predecessors, but
rarely ever as gestalts. The reason for that is that we study
them through a secular lens which focuses only on worldly
achievement and eminence in the dunya. Let us illustrate
with an example.
What comes to mind when you hear Imam Bukhari’s name?
Here are the choices:
• The great imam of hadith
• The great embodiment of
love for Allah and His blessed
Prophet a
• The great imam of hadith
and embodiment of love for
Allah and His Prophet a
You will surely agree with the
first, no doubt. The second
one, you will ponder over in
a bit of confusion. You may
finally agree, but not without
a slight hiccup. The third one,
you will agree with because it
includes his main credential as
imam of hadith.
The fact is that we are having
a hard time swallowing that
he was a gestalt. We hesitate
to recognize him for who he
was and glorify him only for
what he achieved. It is like celebrating
the memory of your
mother by how she always
kept you happy and gave you
everything you wanted. Its a
nice memory to keep alive
but it is also selfish because we only recall the memory that
served our base desire and forgot about all the sacrifices she
made for us. Similarly, we recognize Imam Buhkari for his
eminence as a muhaddith, but that forms only one chapter
in the narrative of his extraordinary life. In fact, his being a
muhaddith was of greater benefit to us than it was to him.
This secular bias did not exist in previous times. The biographers
of the gestalts of Islam seized on every part of
their life—Islam and iman—because they recognized them
as gestalts. Though iman cannot be observed, it has manifestations,
and the biographers noted those manifestations
(which I have italicized for the benefit of the readers) to indicate
the magnificence of their iman.
Regarding Imam Bukhari, most do not know about his
quartet (and, no, it was not a song). He once gave wise
counsel to an aspiring muhaddith, which revealed Imam
Bukhari’s inner universe: his disgust for personal gain, fame,
and wealth, and his desire to achieve the pleasure of Allah
and Paradise. The muhaddith, he maintains, has only four
objectives in life. They are:
1. pleasure of Allah,
2. living the life according to the will of Allah,
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