So al-Bukhārī withdrew to a village called Khartank, two farsakhs from Samarqand. He lodged with some relatives there and began beseeching Allah to take him to Himself when he saw the tribulations, in accordance with the prophetic supplication:

“When You intend to try a people with a tribulation, then take us to You untempted.” (1)

Soon afterward he fell ill, and he died on the night of Eid al-Fiṭr, the eve of Saturday, at the time of the ʿIshāʾ prayer. The funeral prayer over him was held on the feast day after noon in the year 256 AH. He was shrouded in three white sheets, with neither shirt nor turban, exactly as he had stipulated. When he was buried, a fragrance of exquisite perfume sweeter than musk wafted from his grave (2) and lingered for several days, after which white columns of light were seen above it. He was, may Allah have mercy on him, sixty-two years old when he died.

He left behind—may Allah have mercy on him—knowledge that benefits all Muslims, so his work has not been cut off; rather, it remains joined to the righteous deeds he performed in life. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When the son of Adam dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: [one is] knowledge from which people benefit…”—the ḥadīth; related by Muslim. (3)

The criterion he set for authenticity in this Ṣaḥīḥ of his is rarer and stricter than that of any other book compiled on sound reports; none can equal it—neither Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim nor any other. How excellent are the words of one of the eloquent poets (4):

If justice were done to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,
It would be inscribed in nothing but liquid gold.
It is the line between guidance and blindness,
The bulwark between youth and destruction.
Its chains of transmission are like the stars of the sky,
While its texts blaze before them like shooting meteors. (5)
By it the balance of the Messenger’s religion was set aright;
By it the non-Arabs embraced the faith after the Arabs.
It is a barrier against the Fire, beyond all doubt,
Distinguishing between divine pleasure and wrath.