Umdat al-Qari

Umdat al-Qari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, often called Umdat al-Qari, is a classical commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari by the Hanafi scholar Badr al-Din al-Ayni. Along with Fath al-Bari, it is considered one of the main commentaries on Sahih al-Bukhari. Al-Ayni worked on the book for over twenty years, starting in 1418 CE and finishing in 1443 CE.

Background

Al-Ayni began writing the work at the end of Rajab in 820 AH and completed it on the 5th of Jumada al-Awwal in 847 AH, as noted at the end of the book. The original commentary was in twenty-one volumes, but it has been printed in twenty-five volumes. It was published in eleven volumes in Istanbul and in twenty-five volumes in Cairo.
Al-Ayni consulted manuscripts from Kūshmihenī, Shabewī, and Hamewī, students of Firebrī, but did not rely on any single manuscript. He rarely discussed differences between manuscripts and did not mention the Abū Zar or Yūnīnī manuscripts. One of the main sources for his commentary was Fath al-Bari, which he used throughout his work, often with the help of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani’s student Burhān al-Din b. Ḥaẓr, sometimes quoting long passages without naming the source.

Content and Methodology

Al-Ayni began Umdat al-Qari with an introduction highlighting the importance of the Sunnah and the status of Sahih al-Bukhari. He explained why he wrote the commentary and included his chain of transmission from Imam al-Bukhari through two routes: one via al-'Iraqi and the other via Taqi al-Din al-Dajawi. He also mentioned his earlier commentaries on Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar and Sunan Abu Dawud.
In his commentary on the first hadith, al-Ayni studied it from about thirty different angles. For the later hadiths, he gradually reduced this method and eventually limited himself to five or six perspectives. He presents each hadith and explains it using headings that cover topics such as the connection to biographies, the narrators and their reliability, lineages, key points, classification of the hadith, repeated occurrences in Sahih, other narrators, differences in wording, language, grammar, rhetorical features, literary aspects, questions and answers, legal rulings derived from the hadith, and benefits.
When starting a chapter, al-Ayni shows how the chapters and hadiths are related. Under Bayān rijālihi , he introduces the narrators in the chain the first time they appear, giving details about their reliability. Under Bayān al-ta‘āṭīf al-isnādīyah , he explains the characteristics of the chain, the relations between narrators, their origins, and their generation. In Bayān ta‘addudi mawḍi‘ihi wa man akhrajahū ghayruhu , he shows where else the hadith appears in Sahih al-Bukhari, its chain there, and which authors of the Kutub al-Sittah included it.
Under Bayān al-lughāt wa i‘rābihī , he explains the meaning and grammar of each word in the hadith. In Bayān al-istinbāṭ al-aḥkām , he lists the legal rulings from the hadith. At the end of major topics, often under al-As’ila wa’l-Ajwibah , he discusses other important points. By organizing the commentary this way, al-Ayni made it easier for readers to understand the narrators, the meaning of the words, and the literary and legal aspects of the hadith.