Was Imam al-Bukhari the first to record the Prophetic Sunnah? And was the codification of Hadith delayed for two centuries?

Certain skeptics raise a question that betrays an utter ignorance of the history of codification in Islam, claiming that Imam al-Bukhari was the first to record the Sunnah, or that it was not codified until two centuries later. Had one of them posed such a question in the assembly of Imam al-Bukhari—which was crowded with twenty thousand masters of knowledge—his statement would have become one of the anecdotes of the foolish and the oblivious passed down through generations.

The established historical reality is that the Prophetic Sunnah was written since the era of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and al-Bukhari was merely a compiler of what had already been codified and transmitted through mass-narration. Among the most prominent evidence of early codification are:

• The Book of 'Amr ibn Hazm: A treatise on charities, blood money, inheritance, and Sunan, written in the presence of the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he sent him to the people of Yemen.

• Al-Sahifah al-Sadiqah of 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As: A collection of hadiths written during the era of Prophethood, numbering approximately one thousand hadiths.

• The Sahifah of Anas ibn Malik: Which was written during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

• The Sahifah of Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah, and the Sahifah of Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib.

• What was written for Abu Shah al-Yamani: Where the Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered that it be written for him in the year of the Conquest of Mecca.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wrote to the people of Yemen a book containing the inheritance laws, the Sunan, and blood money, and he sent it with 'Amr ibn Hazm.

Source: Al-Talkhis al-Habir, Volume 4, p. 58.