One of the most telling stories about Imam Bukharee’s (May Allah have Mercy on him) intelligence and powerful memory was related by Ahmad ibn’ Adee al-Hafiz. Ahmad was present when a number of Baghdad’s most eminent scholars were discussing the arrival of Muhammad ibn Ismael al-Bukharee in their native city. The scholars of Hadeeth were particularly excited by his arrival, and they decided to put his knowledge and memory to the test. The plan they agreed upon was as follows: They would choose one hundred Hadeeth narrations and mix up the text s of those narrations with their chains of narrators; in the end each text would be matched with an incorrect chain. And they appointed ten people to conduct the test; each of those ten people was to present ten incorrect Hadeeth narrations to Imam Bukharee.
When Imam Bukharee (May Allah have Mercy on him) attended a gathering, the above mentioned scholars put their plan into action, and the ten chosen examiners sat in the front of the gathering so they could easily execute their plan; however only some people in the gathering, and not everyone , knew in advance about the planned test.
At the outset of the gathering, one of the ten men began by mentioning one of his incorrect Hadeeth, (and by incorrect, I mean that the text of the Hadeeth narration did not correctly correspond to its chain of narrators). Imam Bukharee responded “I do not know this Hadeeth” Those who did not know about a plan were surprised that Imam Bukharee , who was renowned for his knowledge of Hadeeth, did not know about a Hadeeth narration; meanwhile , those who knew about the plan were well pleased with his answer. The first examiner continued to mention one narration after another until he reached his tenth and final narration; and in response to each narration, Imam Bukharee said, “I don’t not know this Hadeeth”. The scholars who knew about the plan began to give knowing looks to one another, as if to say: Yes, he understands very well what we are doing. Meanwhile everyone else was beginning to have doubts about Imam bukharee’s knowledge. Perhaps they thought his reputation as a scholar and memorizer of Hadeeth narrations had been blown way out of proportion. Such doubts grew in intensity when the next examiner presented ten Hadeeth narrations, and when in response to each of those narrations, Imam Bukharee said, “I do not know this Hadeeth narration”. This pattern continued until the tenth and final examiner mentioned his tenth and final narration. Every time one of the ten examiners mentioned a Hadeeth narration, Imam Bukharee said, “I do not know this Hadeeth narration.”
After the tenth examiner mentioned his final narration there was complete silence in the gathering, and Imam Bukharee realized that they were all finished and that it was his turn to speak. He turned to the first examiner and said, “As for the first Hadeeth you mentioned, you said such and such, but its correct version is such and such. As for the second Hadeeth you mentioned, you said such and such , but its correct version is such and such. And he continued in this manner until he corrected all ten narrations, matching each narration to its correct chain of narrators. Then he went on to do the same with the other nine examiners. When he was done, everyone that was present acknowledged his superior knowledge and memory.
Commenting on this story Al Hafiz ibn Hajar (May Allah have Mercy on him) wrote: It is not something to wonder at that he was able to correct the mistakes (that was presented to him) for that was to be expected from him since he was a prolific memorizer of Hadeeth narrations. What was so amazing was that, having heard the examiners presentations only once, he was to able to memorize, in order all of the mistakes that they presented to him.
Source: The biography of Imam Bukharee by Salahudden ibn Alee ibn Abdul Maujood.
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