Thousands flocked to Ashton-under-Lyne to hear world leading hadith expert Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi in his recital of the Sahih al-Bukhari.

It was the finale of his ten-day recital of Sahih al-Bukhari -Islam’s most sacred hadith corpus at Ashton Central Mosque.

The event was organised by mother of three, Noshin Gul, a scholar and trustee of Manchester based community initiative Guidance Hub.

She said, “We aimed to share the teachings of mainstream Sunni Islam and assimilate the rich tradition of hadith recital into the British Muslim identity.

"Although there were many challenges in organising such a complex project, I was greatly supported by Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, the mosque’s Imam, and the local community.”

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An expert of both Arabic palaeography and the Islamic tradition, Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi spent 10 hours a day, across 10 days, reading through all nine volumes of Sahih al-Bukhari while commenting on linguistic variations and typographical details of the hadith traditions.

An attendee said, “This book contains 9082 hadith. Classes began at 8am and finished as late as 10pm, with two short breaks for lunch and prayers." 

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The event culminated with thousands of attendees and faith leaders from across the country and 30 countries listening as Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi recited and explained the final hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith 9082.

The Shaykh, who has previously held four similar readings, released a critical collector’s edition of Sahih al-Bukhari at the event.

Published by Signatora, this edition is a facsimile of the most reliable manuscript of Sahih al-Bukhari which was originally published by Ottoman Sultan and philanthropist Abdul Hamid II.

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Abdul, one of the regular attendees, said, “We came to listen to the Prophet’s words from Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi who is the Prophet’s direct descendent and his living example.”

Shaykh al-Yaqoubi also highlighted the involvement of women in hadith transmission across the centuries, beginning with the earliest period of Islam.

As an example, he noted that that more than twenty per cent of the narrators in this book are women; a sharp contrast with the number of women who are noted in other cultures or traditions from the same period.