Being Dutiful to Parents

Imam Muḥammad Ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī

Birr al-Wālidayn is a short treatise on the subject of being dutiful to parents which was published recently for the first time. This treatise is significant because Imam Bukhārī appears to be the first person to pen a treatise specifically on this subject. It comprises 75 hadiths which are transmitted under various chapter headings focusing on two broad themes: being dutiful to parents and maintaining family ties. This English translation is accompanied by succinct and insightful commentary from Mufti Yusuf Shabbir, in addition to appendices featuring the narrations transmitted by Imam Bukhārī on the same topic in his Ṣaḥīḥ and Al-Adab al-Mufrad, chains of transmission and biographies of the narrators.

‘When our respected teacher Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī received a copy of Birr al-Wālidayn, he began to kiss it out of happiness and joy.’ Mufti Shabbir Ahmad, UK

Imam Bukhārī (d. 256/870) is one of the most distinguished scholars in Islamic history. His Ṣaḥīḥ is the most authentic book after the Qurʾan and has an unprecedented level of acceptance. His credentials have been attested to by his teachers, contemporaries, students and scholars of later generations. Such is his status that the Hadith Master of his Era (Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr) Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī (d. 1438/2017) suggests that Imam Bukhārī is a miracle of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, a unique miracle that manifested itself two centuries after the Prophet’s passing ﷺ. Along with his Ṣaḥīḥ, Imam Bukhārī authored more than twenty books, many of which are published.