The scholars’ praise of him and their unanimous acceptance of his work—and of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim as well:

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar writes at the very outset of the introduction to Fatḥ al-Bārī: “I have observed that Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī, in his Ṣaḥīḥ, set himself the task of drawing on the radiant lights of the two sources—the Book and the Sunnah—through exposition and deduction. He drank deeply from their refreshing springs, extracting and gathering their treasures, and because of his sincere intention he was blessed with success in what he compiled. Consequently, friend and foe alike submitted to his authority, and his words in the Ṣaḥīḥ were received with full acquiescence by those near and far…”—to the end of his remarks.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr says in al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah: “The scholars are unanimous in accepting it—meaning Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī—and in affirming the soundness of what it contains, and so too are all the Muslims …”.

Ibn al-Subkī states in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah al-Kubrā: “His collection al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ is the most exalted book of Islam after the Book of Allah …”.

Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ writes in ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, after noting that the first to compile a work consisting solely of sound reports were al-Bukhārī and then Muslim: “Their two books are the most authentic works after the Mighty Book of Allah.” He then adds: “Moreover, al-Bukhārī’s book is the sounder of the two and the richer in benefits.”

Al-Nawawī says in the introduction to his commentary on Muslim: “The scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—have agreed that the most authentic books after the Noble Book are the two Ṣaḥīḥs, those of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and the ummah has received them with acceptance. Al-Bukhārī’s book is the sounder of the two and the more abundant in benefits and in both obvious and subtle insights. It is authentically reported that Muslim used to benefit from al-Bukhārī and acknowledged that he had no equal in the science of ḥadīth.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī says in his work al-Kamāl—as cited by Ibn al-ʿImād in Shadharāt al-Dhahab—: “Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Juʿfī, their client, al-Bukhārī, the author of the Ṣaḥīḥ, is the imām of this discipline, the one to be emulated therein, and the book upon which the people of Islam rely.”

Imām al-Shawkānī, at the beginning of his work Qaṭr al-Walī on the ḥadīth of the walī—the saying, “Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war on him”—